What Are the Logistics of putting together LVA's Member Rewards?

With all the coupon anxiety being expressed right now, questions come to my mind. When does the life of a coupon begin? January for the next year's MRB? Or later in the year? Who calls whom to solicit coupons for inclusion in the MRB? Is there a singular contact/department with a budget and decision authority to grant coupons? Or must someone call separate departments, e.g. gaming, food & beverage, entertainment? How is the coupon value arrived at? Who determines and/or creates each coupon design, i.e. logo, wording, conditions for use? How is this transmitted to LVA? What artistic genius compiles it all into a book of such perfect size, with coupons so nicely arranged and serrated for our convenience? I think I recall a QoD about this years ago, the many calls, waiting for call-backs, who will or will not participate, before the drop-dead deadline to be included? Could it be time for another QoD, so folks are aware of what it takes to accomplish this wonderful feature of membership?

Epic question! But we're sure that enough people are curious about the process of acquiring coupons for the Member Rewards Book that we'll endeavor to answer them all to the best of our ability.

We're on the lookout for coupons year-round. We monitor the newspapers, weekly alts, monthly magazines, and freebie mags regularly for new coupons that appear. Our "spies" in the field alert us to coupons in casino mailers and at players club booths. And coupon hustlers of our acquaintance send us details on special funbooks issued by casinos.

It's all grist for the mill in terms of what casinos we approach, how we approach them, and what coupons we propose they consider. That process starts in September, with emails to all the casinos and venues that are participating in the current MRB. We generally try to contact the same people in the same departments we've worked with previously and if everyone is in the same place they were the year before, it's easier to get an answer -- even if it's "Sorry, not this time."

Unfortunately, that's the exception proving the rule that the casino marketing and promotion departments are staffed by a continually revolving door of comings and goings. That presents any number of hurdles that have to be jumped over. As hard as it might be to believe, some new people we have to work through to get to decision makers have never heard of the Las Vegas Advisor. That's always good for a sinking feeling. Worse, for whatever reason, some don't like the Advisor and seem to take pleasure in stalling, deflecting, or just saying no, even if they might not have the true authority to deny our requests. At this point we can, and have, gone over people's heads.

Mostly, we contact marketing departments, but sometimes we're referred to the casino, food and beverage, entertainment, or sales departments, depending on the type of things we're after.

Having been doing the coupon can-can for decades, Anthony Curtis generally knows how to calculate the value of offers in order to present them to the casinos. Most aren't difficult: Twofer buffets and shows are simply the retail prices; rooms get a little more involved, depending on availability; sometimes gambling coupons or combo deals can get a little more complicated. Most casinos don't want to give away too much, so value is an important consideration and must be presented in the best possible light. And yes, it takes endless follow-up emails, calls, and (at least in the past) often face-to-face meetings to close these deals.

As they're approved, our production department creates the coupons, sometimes needing to get permission to use the logos or requesting that the camera-ready logos be supplied. This process continues, getting more and more hectic as the print deadline, generally mid-December, approaches. At this time, many deals are still still being negotiated, yet, without fail, we get accused of already "knowing" what's in the book and withholding that information for some nefarious reason (sheesh!).

The coupon book itself -- size, binding, perforation, etc. -- has been perfected over many years of production, so that's become a somewhat automatic process with the printer. But we do appreciate the "artistic genius" reference in your question. We agree that our graphics department does a superb job on producing the MRB.

Much of this process will be altered or added to as we build our Member Rewards Online (MRO) program, which, ideally, will completely replace the MRB. You'll see evidence of that and the benefits MROs can bring to everyone involved throughout this year.

Thanks for asking. It's always nice to know that our hard work, especially behind the scenes, is appreciated.

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Comments

Jackie Feb-21-2021

Ahh Value!

In other words, what do we get out of the coupon deal.

Well with all of the Covid-19 restrictions and reluctance of visitors to expose themselves you get to attract more people to give you their last cent.

Send me my commission on the sales.

(LOL)

Luis Feb-21-2021

hard work but worth it!

Yes, hotel-casinos want your har earned money, like every other busines, but the diference is what you get for your money, and the Members reward book does acheive that. I know all the work involved, I used to run a bowling league, and as part of my job, I allways tried to get all the atendees ( finnals held in Las Vegas allways)some freebes or discount cupons, The Orleans was the one place where the marketing department made an actual effort to give us some value. When Mr Gaugan left the boyd Gaming-Coast Casinos merger, and took over the South Coast (South point now), a good part of the staff (marketing, bowling, etc)whent with them, and I had to make a lot of new relations, and it's not allways a very friendly new staff, did that for a few years, but suddenly got an e-mail from south point marketing department and they where the friendly staff I knew from The Orleans ( mostly), so I made new and old friends. That was just a little fraction of all the work you put in your book,thanks

Bobby White Feb-21-2021

Members Rewards Book

Good info, it pays for itself, Thanks

Kathy Feb-21-2021

Thanks

Thanks for all the work that makes up the Advisor. I can't believe most folks go into a casino, use their members reward  blackjack coupon and leave without spending anything else!

O2bnVegas Feb-21-2021

cringing

"Some don't like the Advisor?" So many reader responses to blogs are really negative about Las Vegas.  "Casinos are greedy; machines unplayable; sure to catch the virus and die" and more 'stay away' hateful verbiage.  Yikes!

Could this be ?  I cringe to think that the marathon hateful mantras about this or that casino or Vegas in general might have that effect, or at least make LVA readers as a whole look like cheapskates, not worth bothering about.  

Anyway, many thanks to all at LVA who work so hard to produce the terrific MRB.  And let us all post more about our positive experiences, and be LESS repetitive with the same ol' complaints about what doesn't float our boats.  Cheers!

Candy

Jackie Feb-21-2021

@ Candy

Your are correct Candy a lot of negativity aimed at Las Vegas.  But wait, not at Las Vegas, at greedy corporate strip casinos.  I've seen nothing but good things said about casinos all over the world except for the strip.  Therefore LVA will have a harder time putting together strip coupons because the corporations see no value to their bottom line to give away anything while they are losing millions. But out of state visitors only want to go to the strip not realizing that there are many non strip casinos in the state that are not greedy.  I live in a town close to Vegas with three major casinos and three mom and pop ones and it is business as usual.  So don't hold your breath waiting to see strip coupons in the MRB.

Adam Cohen Feb-21-2021

Hotels

I asked this a few days ago in another thread. But what happened to the room deals. Do not get me wrong I will be buying it again. But I remember a lot of them a few years back and noticed they are now all gone. When did that happen and was their a reason

Anthony Curtis Feb-21-2021

Room deals

They're coming by way of the new Member Rewards Online program. It's been revamped, so we're running into some delays, but we'll have some deals on rooms soon. There'll be some explanation in the March LVA.

[email protected] Feb-21-2021

But what about the independents

What i don't get is that the independents and not mega owners, think Sahara, Circus Circus/Treasure Island/Slots A Fun, South Point, the locals not corporate mega-owned would have a big advantage to market and offer promotional values. It is funny but why aren't they more like the old-timers.  Instead of worrying about the cost of the promotions, worry about the increase to the bottom line at the end of the day

Roy Furukawa Feb-21-2021

Downtown

I can’t imagine any downtown casino not wanting to be in the MRB. Doing the downtown MRB crawl from casino to casino is fun. LVA should hire someone to hawk subscribers on Fremont St., the buyers would realize the full value of the subscription  without even leaving the canopy.

Adam Cohen Feb-22-2021

Thank you

Anthony thank you for taking the time to respond. I am excited to get back to Vegas I hope by the end of summer

Question of the Day - 21 February 2021

Comments