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\tHoward Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal <\/p>\n
\tOther than the shell of the building, not much remains from the Rat Pack-era Sahara following the property\u2019s $415 million transformation into the SLS Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\tBut operators of 1,600-room Strip hotel-casino, which opens Aug. 23, aren\u2019t letting memories of the Sahara fade away.<\/p>\n
\tThe Sahara\u2019s relevance on the Strip in 1960s Las Vegas is a primary feature of the recently launched $5.2 million marketing campaign to promote the unveiling of the SLS Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\tUnder the title, \u201cBe Legendary,\u201d images from the 1960s Sahara are brought together with similar photos from today. The idea is for characters from the bygone era of the Sahara to connect with their counterparts 50 years later at the SLS.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s a way to target the customer market of today that wants to be part of a purely lifestyle property, while honoring the heritage of the Sahara,\u201d said Veronica Smiley, chief marketing officer for Los Angeles-based SBE Entertainment, which owns the SLS with San Francisco-based private equity firm Stockbridge Real Estate.<\/p>\n
\tThe campaign uses photos shot by British photographer Terry O\u2019Neill, who captured the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones and Sean Connery on film during the 1960s and 1970s. Fashion and lifestyle photographer Anna Wolf, whose work has appeared in Glamour and The New York Times Style magazine, provided the accompanying modern-day photos.<\/p>\n
\tOne ad features O\u2019Neill\u2019s image of Sammy Davis Jr. performing at the Sahara side-by-side with an photo of entertainers inside The Sayers Club, the SLS Las Vegas centerpiece nightclub attraction.<\/p>\n
\tThe advertising campaign targets key Las Vegas feeder markets \u2014 such as Southern California, Chicago and the Southwest \u2014 through print, digital and social media placements.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe budget may seem supertiny compared to our competitors, but we\u2019re thinking smart and using a platform nobody else has,\u201d Smiley said. \u201cThe goal is to create a massive buzz and awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tOther ads depict gambling in two different eras and women in the 1960s getting ready for a night out on the town next to a similar photo of their 21st century counterparts. One ad shows four men from the 1960s walking near the Sahara entrance while they appear to admire a group entering the SLS Las Vegas in 2014.<\/p>\n
\tDISTINGUISHING A NEW CASINO<\/p>\n
\tSmiley acknowledges unveiling a Strip casino can be tricky business.<\/p>\n
\tThe Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, for example, won national advertising awards and drew attention for its edgy, \u201cThe Right Amount of Wrong,\u201d marketing campaign when the resort opened in late 2010.<\/p>\n
\tBut the stylish ads never translated into profits.<\/p>\n
\tSLS Las Vegas officials know they need to stand out as the Strip\u2019s newest resort. But it won\u2019t matter if customers don\u2019t spend money in the casino or the nearly two-dozen restaurants, nightlife locations and retail outlets.<\/p>\n
\tThe SLS Las Vegas will carry O\u2019Neill\u2019s images associated with the advertising campaign inside the property. Prints of photos will be displayed in the hotel\u2019s rooms and suites. Carpeting along the property\u2019s public areas will include vintage Sahara branding characteristics.<\/p>\n
\tSmiley hopes SBE Las Vegas will engage customers through social media.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe have a thriving social media community of millions who engages with us daily, and the campaign activations are a way of offering them an opportunity to make it their own and tell us what \u2018Be Legendary\u2019 means to them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\tSBE is not relying on finding all-new customers for SLS Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\tEarlier this year, SBE said the SLS Las Vegas would become part of the Preferred Hotels &Resorts guest loyalty program, which includes 450 independently owned hotels and resorts.<\/p>\n
\tIn June, SLS Las Vegas became affiliated with a new independent hotel collection through Hilton Worldwide, allowing the property to tap into the Hilton HHonors customer loyalty program, which has 40 million members<\/p>\n
\tSBE CEO Sam Nazarian called the deal with Hilton \u201can important relationship\u201d for SLS Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\tThe new advertising campaign targets SBE customers of the company\u2019s booming nightlife and restaurant business, which has a loyalty program with more than 5 million names in its database. Southern California, a key target for SLS Las Vegas, is home to 60 SBE-operated restaurants and nightclubs.<\/p>\n
\tAlso, SBE operates two SLS hotels in Beverley Hills, Calif., and Miami\u2019s South Beach. The SLS New York is scheduled to open in 2015. Other SLS hotels are planned for Philadelphia, Seattle, the Miami neighborhood of Brickell, and China.<\/p>\n
\tIn June, the $3.5 billion Baha Mar development in the Bahamas announced SBE will build a 300-room SLS hotel as part of the multifaceted project. The SLS will also include 107 residential units.<\/p>\n
\tCOMBINING POPULAR NAMES<\/p>\n
\tSmiley said the SLS Las Vegas is considered \u201can SBE playground.\u201d The hotel-casino marks the first time much of the company\u2019s popular businesses are situated under one roof.<\/p>\n
\tBesides the hotel, SBE will offer restaurants, such as Bazaar Meat by Jose Andres, Katsuya by Starck, Umami Burger, The Sayers Club, 800 Degrees, Cleo, Ku Noodle and The Griddle Cafe.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThere might some restaurants our guests haven\u2019t tried,\u201d Smiley said. \u201cSLS Las Vegas allows them to sample the entire SBE platform.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSLS Las Vegas includes a reconfigured 60,000-square-foot casino with 80 table games, 800 slot machines and a William Hill-managed race and sports book.<\/p>\n
\tIn 2012, SBE announced an agreement with Los Angeles retailer Fred Segal to place seven outlets at the property.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Howard Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal Other than the shell of the building, not much remains from the Rat Pack-era Sahara following the property\u2019s $415 million transformation into the SLS Las Vegas. But operators of 1,600-room Strip hotel-casino, which opens Aug….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}