MGM Twitter Campaign Asks People To Tweet Sins

MGM-Your Sins

MGM Grand wants to take the guilt out of sinning. Tweet a sin on Twitter, along with #mgmsin, and enter to win a free room night at MGM Grand. The hotel will choose one winner at random each day for 30 days. MGM Grand will announce the winners on its Web site and on Twitter.

The campaign kicked off on Twitter, but out-of-home wall projection systems in Los Angeles will shine the confessions from dusk until 2 a.m. on the side of buildings, such as Staples Center, Nokia Theatre and LA Live complex in Downtown LA, and Hollywood and Highland.

Donna Goff, advertising manager at MGM Grand, hopes to create buzz on Twitter that takes the campaign from online into the physical world. "We want to create a viral campaign, so when people go to a party and talk about places to visit they think about the MGM in Las Vegas," she says. "It's the feel good buzz that piques people's interest."

Cramer-Krasselt/Phoenix developed MGM Grand's Twitter promotion, "Get Rewarded for Your Sins." Next up, a YouTube campaign -- followed by Facebook promotion, according to Ian Barry, SVP and executive creative director at the agency. The promotions will last about 30 days. There are plans for a mobile campaign and email marketing, too.

Understanding that the client is all about the online space became the first step in developing the three-phase strategy Barry calls "Maximum Vegas."

The biggest challenge in launching a free-for-all Twitter campaign, where people tweet their sins, became filtering derogatory statements that could appear on the company's campaign landing pages. "There are a lot of crazy people out there, and we must be responsible," Barry says.

No one can control what a Twitter subscriber tweets, but the agency built technology that can filter Tweeted sins that appear on the promotion landing page. Cramer-Krasselt's interactive department developed a .net application that provides a two-tiered approval filter process that allows certain tweeted sins to also appear on the site.

On MGM's campaign landing page at mgmgrandsins.com under the "current sins" tab, people can vote on whether they think the sin is forgivable or unforgivable. It gives people a chance to get involved even if they don't want to submit a sin.

Suzy Sandberg, president of PM Digital, NY, says it's no secret that building contests by giving away high-perceived-value items gets people to interact with the brand. "Twitter campaigns won't be nearly as successful if they just inform," she says. "People are suspicious about tweeting to all their followers because basically they are being asked to spam their friends. The campaign needs to have a hook."

With average daily room rates dropping 25.4% this year compared with the prior year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, competition to get people through the hotel doors and plunk down the cash has become fierce. Many hotel and entertainment properties have been turning to social media to attract new customers by promoting specials.

Hotels have begun to set up Facebook and Twitter pages where they can offer special rates and deals, along with monitoring customer service and suggestions for improving business. Examples include Twitter page for @Wynn and Facebook pages for Caesers Palace and Luxor.

Next story loading loading..