HARRAH'S RESORT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Funner, CA
Harrah’s Resort Southern California is situated 50 miles northeast of San Diego, CA on the Rincon tribal land. With Southern California's crowded gaming market, Harrah's, in partnership with the agency, found a way to break out of the noise. In 2017, they officially changed the land's name to Funner, CA. With road signs and the location on Google Maps, they established a new place to reflect the mission. And like with every town, they needed a mayor.
David Hasselhoff kicked off as the inaugural Mayor of Funner. He then passed his Mayoral responsibilities on to Rob Riggle in 2018.
I stepped into leading this AOR account as it was preparing for how to expand Harrah's Resort SoCal and make its mark in regional Super Bowl spots.
Knowing the property's staff believes whole-heartedly in the idea of Funner, even some claiming to have weened off antidepressants living the positive, fun vibe of Funner, we needed to transform the brand from being much more than a place, but a state of mind.
This idea became the creative concept, "More Than A Place". Leading the team, we then challenged the client team to take it one step further and step off their property for the filming. This was a first. Being a resort, they have always filmed on-property highlighting the amenities and casino floor. But this concept called for a transcendence to a dreamy state of mind.
With true partnership and collaboration, I led the client and internal teams through:
Creative concepting
Pre-production, film production, post-production
Media planning
Messaging mix strategy
Asset creation
Development of landing page
Deployment
Through an integrated advertising campaign of TV, digital, web, and social, the campaign has continued its trajectory to exceed goals, even proving a case for expanding into new markets through test market performance.
Results for Funner include:
6% YOY increase in resort revenue
Doubled the goal for room occupancy rate
1778% increase engagement rate on social media content
