Harrah’s N.I.F.T.Y Mobile CRM Initiative

Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. is one of the largest casino operators in the world, running about 50 casinos in 5 countries-including casinos or resorts in 12 states in the US.

Harrah's has casinos in 12 states

I didn’t really know much about Harrah’s until a retail consulting company I was working for about 10 years ago, was scheduled to do a project for Harrah’s and I needed to learn more.  Harrah’s again came to my attention when I was taking an information systems course in grad school at Xavier. One of our cases was on Harrah’s CRM program called Total Rewards.  This program is a great example of customer relationship management and put into action what many are currently working toward–closed loop marketing–knowing your customer so well you can anticipate their needs, at any time, at every point of contact.  Harrah’s closed-loop CRM is at the core of its business strategy.  Case in point see the slide from a February 3, 2009 corporate presentation.

Recently, Harrah’s launched a mobile arm to its Total Rewards strategy.  While Harrah’s CRM effort makes a great case study in N.I.F.T. Y marketing with or without the integration of the mobile component, the program is even stronger by incorporating it.  Additionally, it demonstrates what an agile marketer Harrah’s truly is.

Capturing the right data

When most marketers think of CLM, their minds immediately gravitate toward data capture.  While it is true that data capture is a big component of CLM, I think what most marketers tend to underestimate is making sure that you’re the right data.  In other words, we try and capture everything under the sun about the customer in our haste to implement a program. We rush past the need to identify how we’ll use the data, in so doing fail to identify the key data points that are required to deliver on the program’s objectives.  Ideally, we should be efficient in our data capture obtaining enough information to be able to meet the goal, but not so much that we can’t do it efficiently.

Harrah’s CLM program is a great example of company doing it right.  This program has evolved beyond just the recording of information and now capable of predicting which games a guest is most likely to play, the types of rooms they stay in, and which promotional offers will be the most motivating to the specific target.  As a result, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. became so efficient and deliberate in its data capture, organization, analysis and execution that it grew its share of Total Rewards customers’ discretionary gaming entertainment grow by 20% (Stanley, T., High Stakes Analytics, Optimize, February 2006).

Their new mobile initiative is fairly straightforward. Total Rewards guests staying at a Harrah’s property are invited to opt-in through on site promotional collateral.  Once opted into the program, Harrah’s can begin texting offers to the customer.  The offers come via SMS bypassing all the hassles associated with handset compatibility. The offers vary, but according to an article by Mobile Marketer Daily include free parking offers to entertainment tickets. Once the user receives an offer he can redeem the offer via an on-site self service SMS scanner from bCode–that authenticates the text message and provides the reward. 

bCode Plane Scanner

You can learn more about the specifics of the marketing program from Harrah’s at mediamarketerdaily.com and about the bCode redemption kiosks at bCode.com.

Here’s why I think it’s N.I.F.T.Y.

Novel: Harrah’s mobile approach is novel in that it isn’t using the channel to push a marketing message or special at a target but simply rewarding its most loyal members.  One of the examples used to describe the program, was an initiative  to get rid of unsold seats for a show. When excess seats are available, a text message is sent to Total Rewards customers.  The offers are based on location (meaning the customer is currently staying in the vicinity of the resort and time, therefore the customer is reached when and where it is relevant-when the member is at a casino property.  The participant is already fully engaged in the brand experience (visiting a Harrah’s property) so, by adding a mobile Harrah’s is able to add a “real-time” reward dimension to their existing rewards platform.

Intelligent:  What makes the mobile CRM program novel is also what makes it intelligent–not forcing the customer to open themselves up to a barrage of marketing messages, but instead preventing unused inventory from going to waste by giving something of value to its most important customers.   Second, because the effort is happening in a sort of controlled environment, there’s immediate gratification–signing up, receiving the offer and redemption all happen within the same environment–the casino property.  Most marketers utilizing mobile are at a significant disadvantage not knowing when the customer is in the right place and time to push an offer.  Harrah’s structured its effort to utilize mobile  while the member is at (or within a short distance) to the property, which also plays into the Targeted aspects of N.I.F.T.Y.

Multi-Faceted: Because the mobile campaign is an extension of the Total Rewards program, there are myriad of ways a customer can interact with the program and track their point balance, see and book  offers.  Because the program is so well positioned and clearly occupies a distinct purpose to the overall CRM initiative and because the program is so easy to participate in and redeem, I anticipate solid participation levels (Yes).