WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS...

…should stay in Vegas. Or shouldn’t it?

In Cannes I sat in on a seminar by Ash Bendelow (MD atBrave) on how Sin City can inspire brands. Imagine the following, the casinos in Vegas all have the exact same gamble-toolbox – with the only difference that some look a bit nicer than others. So how do they attract consumers, make them spend (lose) money and keep them happy? It’s all about data! (Shall we just call ‘big data’ data again?) The casinos are actuality pioneers in combining data with real-time, mobile and social marketing. They have for instance managed to work out a person’s loss tolerance – the point at which a good experience turns into a bad experience. And because they know this, they can react to it. Give someone a tap on the shoulder and offer a distraction from the craps table.

Ash Bendelow: We can actually learn something from Las Vegas’ casinos.

Casinos know everything about their customers, they understand, interact and react to the behavior of their guests. They know where they are and what they are doing. Now, combine this knowledge with the Vegas mantra ‘Service is Everything.’ In Vegas, for example, casinos reward their employees for positive interaction with the guests.

So, how can we be a bit more Vegas?

To sum up Ash Bendelow’s talk: 1. React to customers behavior in real-time and it can have a real impact on your business. 2. Be more empathetic, remove the hassle from the consumer-experience and by doing so enrich it. Personal context and adaptive behavior is key for success. 3. Nudge the consumer’s behavior by converging social, mobile and local; if you know what someone is doing, and where they are doing it, you can propose what they might be doing next.

However, one important final lesson; keep in mind that if you make assumptions based on a bucket of data and create rules from it, you ironically lose the richness of these data. You lose the individual you need to react to.

This blog first appeared on Amsterdam Ad Blog.