Inside Asian Gaming

23 22 n my first column, I pointed out the dominance of Greek My- thology’s ads on Macau’s public buses. Since then, other casino op- erators have enthusiastically adopted this media channel. One won- ders whether the bus companies’ advertising revenues now don’t rival their takings from fares – a mere 2.5 patacas (US$0.3) on wind- ing routes around the peninsula, and 3.3 patacas (US$0.4) on routes crossing the bridge to Taipa island. It’s not clear how effective GM’s bus ads have been, since the bulk of its patrons appear to be shuttled in from across the border on tour- ist buses. Still, the other operators seem to believe the bus ads work. Imitation is the best form of flattery, and that’s what happens in a highly competitive market.The minute a good/creative idea appears, the novelty and advantage of being the first mover is quickly lost as Bus Wars Macau’s “dragon head” gaming industry is devouring the city’s scarce resources, and other businesses are bemoaning rapidly rising rents and the worsening labour crunch. As casino marketing guru Octo Chang points out, however, the casino boom is proving a bonanza for the two public bus companies at least the others jump on the bandwagon. I have since seen Grand Emperor, Sands Macau and even Macau Diamond on these buses. I have seen Pharaohs’ on taxis, but cannot recall seeing them on the buses. We even have a plethora of free shuttle buses plying the routes from the Macau-China border as well as the Ferry Terminal back to the respective casinos. I heard that Wynn Macau is planning something like a fleet of about twenty-something shuttles for their operations. But more is on the way. I’ll wager that Venetian will have an even big- ger fleet to try and fill that humongous place in Cotai when it opens. If you think a shortage of dealers is a big problem, wait till you try to find qualified bus drivers. More mayhem on Macau’s motorways. Back to the effectiveness of the bus ads – we marketing people call them“feel good”marketing tools. It’s a tool for making the bosses feel good, because it helps them feel like they are presiding over a large high-profile company. As one advertiser said (somewhere in the annals of marketing lore),“I know that 90% of my money is wasted in advertising. Problem is I don’t know which 90%”. Advertising has always been a tool for communicating with the masses. It’s always good for exposure and branding, getting informa- tion to the public about their product, etc. The critical element there, however, has always been the message. Take Sands’ new public bus ad. They are pushing the angular poses of the Cappuccino ballroom dancers (what’s with it with them and their ballroom dancers?), so I ask myself: what’s the objective of that ad, the target audience, and the message it is trying to communicate. My analysis is as follows: Sands has awkward looking western people in funny poses and strange Sound of Music-style costumes, and those funny people do a show for coffee aficionados. Pharaohs’ ad probably needs a good revision as well, because the only thing I ever noticed on those taxi ads are the gold feathered wings or something resembling that. Greek Mythology’s bus ads? Well, they promise a strange looking god-like idol as well as lots of girls in feathers – in essence,Vegas-style entertainment, and to an extent, they arguably do offer it, though the shows are getting a little tired for want of new variety. Customers are not stupid. If you promise something, eventually you will have to deliver or your brand will suffer. Grand Emperor promises a golden cabby and Russian Beefeaters with fake guns, and indeed that’s what it has parked outside its ca- sino. It also offers Russian girls dressed in French maid outfits offer- ings shoe shines for 20 patacas (US$2.5). Similarly, Macau Diamond at Holiday Inn features that windmill (will it spin around like a paper propeller in a typhoon?), which I heard almost spun away when one of the cogs failed. What we are seeing folks are two different types of adverts. Sands and GM are trying to sell a product or service offering that they be- lieve is unique to their properties, whilst the latter two are relying on external feature attractions that they hope will become tourist icons. Incidentally, I hear the Galaxy Group is getting worried about its properties. My observations suggest the two newest additions to their group, Rio and President, are garnering the city’s lowest casino patronage and main hall gaming results. And the boys can’t figure it out… get rid of the garish neon lights for starters. It’s more of the same. Looks like the same exterior designer for all their new prop- erties. Do they have shares in a neon light factory? I remember our editor’s summary of their group results in the last issue of Inside Asian Gaming – the building materials division made more money than the gaming side. Ah ha! Grand Waldo just had its soft opening as did Grandeur in Taipa. Galaxy StarWorld will start running in a couple of months, with Wynn Macau snapping at its heels.As the quality of the table staff gets dilut- ed to a common denominator (already, I see the quality of the Sands and Galaxy staff has declined since the properties first opened), the battle will thenmove to a new front:more sophisticated forms of mar- keting, which is tailored, focused and based on in-depth research into the behaviour and preferences of the mainland Chinese customers. I wonder if anybody has even conducted a focus group here yet, or is that concept alien? (Any amusing anecdotes or observations of themarketing variety,please feel free to forward to ka.chng@gmail.com ) I