Show<\/em> followed shortly afterwards, deemed “too festive” in the aftermath of the tragedy.<\/p>\n\u00a0\u201cIt would be completely insensitive to go out with a sort of carefree, have fun, let loose kind of message,\u201d R&R Partners CEO Billy Vassiliadis told the Las Vegas Review Journal<\/em> about the LVCVA campaign.<\/strong><\/p>\nMore likely, the “holy sh*t” business suddenly took on a dark meaning that was never intended,\u00a0 but that would forever be echoed after the Mandalay Bay shootout that took the lives on 58 and injured more than 500.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, not only was Vegas under the spotlight, it was under it in both newly horrible and glorious ways. The city’s first responders’ speedy and selfless commitment to getting victims to care was broadcast everywhere, and a softer, more human face became indelibly etched on the Las Vegas Strip’s previously daunting facade.<\/p>\n
But how do you market a city so famous for being brash and glitzy and fun as it faces the most somber moment in its history? That was the conundrum now faced by Sin City’s marketing gurus.<\/p>\n
#VegasStrong<\/strong><\/h2>\nFor most, the answer was, you don\u2019t. You can\u2019t market “adult fun” reverentially. Instead, it was a time to pause and reflect, before this resilient city and its people decided to get the party started again.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, #VegasStrong was trending organically on Twitter, as people from all over the world who loved the city offered support.<\/p>\n
But it took MGM just two weeks to cobble together its own #VegasStrong TV ad spot, narrated by Andre Agassi. “Together we are one, together we rise, together we shine,” was the message superimposed over an image of the Strip, before the spot cut away to the MGM logo.<\/p>\n
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Reactions were mixed, although many accused the company of attempting to commodify a major tragedy. Somehow, MGM had managed to replace an already tacky ad with something profoundly more distasteful, making the gaming conglomerate winner for “Worst All-Around Casino Marketing” in 2017 in our own informal poll.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A concurrent LVCVA\u00a0Visit Las Vegas<\/em> campaign looked like a compilation of Facebook images put to one of that social media’s low-tech algorithm pseudo-videos. With nearly funereal music and a tone so boring and somber, it mostly put us to sleep, we can only hope that 2018 sees a renewed commitment to market Las Vegas for what it truly is about: gambling, drinking, dining, shopping, and getting no sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a changing year in 2017, as Dr. Phil would say, for Las Vegas and the city’s tried-and-true iconic marketing strategies. Hoping to lure more millennials and ultimately to bounce back from one of the worst tragedies since the MGM fire in 1981 that killed 85 people, Sin City finished out the year still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":65730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,3313,10,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Las Vegas Switches Gears for 2017 Marketing Strategies<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n