After an intense round of presentations, the Las Vegas Interactive Marketing Association declared the interactive agency Questus the winner of the 2006 LVIMA Creative Heavyweight Championship.
The two competing agencies, Questus and AKQA, went head to head at the annual LVIMA competition in late February, a month after receiving an RFP for The Spanish Riviera Casino and Resort, a fictional Vegas casino.
The objective was for the agencies to develop a campaign to raise awareness for the opening of the Casino in July 2006, to drive visitors to the new Casino, to sell tickets to the Casino's feature show, "Ricky Martin on Ice," and to book advanced reservations for the Casino's feature restaurant, Salsa-X. The RFP included a $1.5 million interactive marketing budget, planning parameters, and details defining the brand, its image and its target market.
In the RFP, the Spanish Riviera Casino and Resort was described as an upscale Latin-themed destination, targeting a younger audience of "up-and-comers," defined as 25 to 45 years of age with a higher-than-average income, looking to visit Las Vegas and find a release from their typical weekends.
The two agencies were asked to develop marketing concepts for traditional online platforms, such as banners and partnerships, as well as emerging media such as mobile, podcasting, blogs and community sites to help raise awareness and to drive reservation bookings.
Questus' Winning Campaign
With "immersion" as the underlying theme, Questus proposed a three-phase campaign that incorporated web development, advertising and research and that focused on immersing guests in an entirely interactive experience before, during, and after their stay.
Questus proposed a home page with a great deal of flowing movement, a "South Beach" look and feel, and live feeds from the Spanish Riviera and all over the world.
"Considering Vegas' reputation as an ultimate getaway, we viewed the resort as an emotional product," said Questus founder and Chief Creative Officer Jordan Berg. "We wanted to immerse guests in the flavor and the experience of the resort, appealing to them on an emotional level in order to drive interest and build brand loyalty."
In order to develop interest in the resort as well as Ricky Martin's "slippery stage" show, Questus recommended partnering with VH1 to offer webisodes with behind-the-scenes footage of Ricky Martin's preparation and progress on the ice. Teasers of the webisodes and launch of the resort would be displayed in expandable banner ads and sequenced roadblocks on sites such as Wallpaper.com, GQ.com and eonline.com. The ads would also have links to Ricky Martin's personal blog, which would serve as an e-journal of his ice training experience.
Stemming from the popularity of MySpace.com, Questus recommended that users should generate the majority of the resort website's content. Site visitors would have the ability to create their own profiles, groups, and blogs and to upload and share picture and footage from their visits to the resort. Guests would be able to develop online personas and interact with other guests with overlapping booking dates and even arrange "virtual hookups" to catch up and meet during their stays.
Questus also developed the concept of a digital concierge that organized an electronic itinerary of scheduled events, available tickets and invitations to exclusive shows and restaurants.
During a guest's stay, Questus recommended rentals of Motorola's new PEBL phone for guests to share pictures and videos with their friends and fellow guests. Guest rooms could also be equipped with an in-room camera that would be broadcast live on the resort's website, giving guests the opportunity of experiencing reality TV first-hand. MotoPEBL users could also participate in the resort's "Spanish Fly Game," which would send players on a virtual scavenger hunt to find people, objects, places and messages based on image clues appearing on their phone. Every Saturday, winners of the Spanish Fly Game would win trips to exotic destinations such as Rio de Janeiro.
After a guest's stay, Questus recommended a re-contact strategy that incorporated blogs to share resort experiences, banner ads on popular guest sites that feature airfare specials and links to the resort's book page, and personalized emails that remind guests of the activities of their last visit.
Questus and AKQA each delivered 20-minute onstage presentations, and Questus was declared the winner by the event attendees, which included over 200 Las Vegas marketing and publishing professionals. LVIMA founders Cory Treffiletti and AJ Vernet awarded Questus the championship title and presented the championship belt for "Best Las Vegas Campaign" to Questus founder Jordan Berg.
"We are extremely honored to receive the championship title from LVIMA and to be recognized by the marketing professionals who attended the competition," said Berg.
The 2006 Championship took place on the evening of February 23 at the Westin Las Vegas. The event was sponsored by Atlas, Drive PM, Google, IAC, Klipmart, Travelzoo, WPNI, PointRoll, AskJeeves and Fastclick.
Rebecca Weeks is content director for iMedia Summits.
