In September 2021, my team created the overarching Advertising calendar for 2022. This plan kept our primary goal, mission statement, brand and objective in mind while revamping the "vibe" of Harrah's Northern California.

With a changing and saturated market, differentiating, and leveraging our loyalty program, became the most important factor. 

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I would love to discuss more in person, as the campaign is currently live and surprises are in store. No spoilers. 

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See examples of the current campaign: Here

My team was tasked with creating an innovative and safe way for our guests to break open literal piggy banks.

 

Because this posed a safety hazard, what with the shattered porcelain, we proposed a solution: wax pigs. The process of creating the pigs was done from scratch. Each hand-made pig met it's untimely end to the delight of 15 lucky winners at Harrah's Northern California. 

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The 2021 promotion proved to be successful. Guests were thrilled to interact with a physical element and hadn't had a similar experience at other properties. Due to high demand, we created more piggies for another Break the Bank event in January 2022. 

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Check out the finale video: Here

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Our third Break the Bank promotion will be taking place this Summer with a new interactive "Summer Edition." Stay tuned.

Much like the rest of the world, COVID taught us how to pivot. After less than 2 years of operation, Harrah's Northern California closed for 76 days. My team spent our time creating interactive social material for our guests as well as planning for a reopening date that timelines eluded.

 

We had access to property one week prior to reopening. In that time, we needed to create collateral to close two of the three entrances, direct guests to temperature check, create signage for closed games, label standing spots, create mask enforcement collateral, and somehow make sanitizer, masks and other safety initiatives as fun and friendly as possible.

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Our goal was to create a safe atmosphere for a limited number of guests to enjoy. External advertising initiatives were completely changed as we adapted to the unknown market. Once again, we were starting from scratch. This time, however, we were smarter and ready to make changes on a moments notice. 

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I now keep the sketches for reopening collateral pinned to my wall as a reminder of how quickly change can happen, to always be ready to pivot, and (honestly) to keep me humble.

Harrah's Northern California opened on April 29, 2019. I started the social media channels from Pheonix in October of 2018 and arrived in Northern California in March 2019. To paint a picture, the building was not ready to enter. We worked off property and were only able to access our offices with hard hats and approved shoe-ware. PPE was a known term long before 2020.

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Armed with a pre-opening budget and a dream, I was tasked with proposing, securing and implementing all advertising initiatives for the upcoming year. This included meeting with vendors, analyzing the market, making decisions pertaining to targeting, managing the budget and at the time, creating all collateral.

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Additionally, community relations was a massive part of opening. I initiated communications with the community, attending mixers and, 6 months post-opening, joining the Amador County Chamber Board of Directors.

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Since then, we've been fortunate to establish several philanthropic initiatives at the property level to continue to support the community. Our advertising objectives are aligned and projected a year in advance, along with the budget. My expense tracking excel sheet? **chef's kiss**