Vegas rethinks marketing message in post-recession era
By Richard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Sun
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is revamping its marketing and advertising strategy to focus on attracting the likeliest visitors in a post-recession economy.
Board members heard a report from a team of marketing experts Tuesday that said the destination should focus its attention on a core base of steady Las Vegas customers and another group that will need some persuasion to choose Las Vegas over another resort destination.
New technologies and social media should enable the LVCVA to zero in on those different market segments, they said.
The plan is a departure from previous strategies that gave more consideration to the demographics of potential visitors and where they come from.
The new strategy was generated following research into how consumers have changed since the Great Recession.
The market segmentation study, developed by LVCVA executives, Las Vegas-based advertising consultant R&R Partners and Heart+Mind Strategies of Washington, is based on research that determined 38 percent of the market are core customers who love Las Vegas, 41 percent are in the “persuade and convince” group and 21 percent are uninvolved or disinterested.
The new strategy will be to appeal to the “core” and “persuade” customers and devote no resources to others.
While much of the LVCVA’s past marketing efforts have targeted specific demographic groups in particular regions of the United States, the “core” and “persuade” targets are all across the country but can be reached with target marketing enabled by new technologies.
