Best Mobile Execution
Winner – Marketing Results
Entry – Little Creek Casino Mobile App
Marketing Results developed the Little Creek Casino Resort Mobile App as a complete communication solution to enable casino players to view account information and manage all aspects of their relationship with the property.
The Little Creek Mobile App provides players with a single resource for information they would normally have obtain from multiple sources. The mobile app consolidates information from the players club, direct marketing, promotional kiosks and hosts in one convenient location.
Best Use of Social Media
Winner – Freemont Street Experience
Entry – Freemont Street Experience on FB
Downtown Las Vegas has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years, as has the social media strategy and reach of Fremont Street Experience. Our social media growth has been explosive, to say the least. FSE’s shift in social media strategy is driven by content marketing, and has positioned the destination as the focal point of downtown. Our social media strategy focuses heavily on original and curated content, including a blog which has resulted in FSE “owning” not only its brand terms, but long-tail search terms driving significant traffic.
We’re proud of our innovative use of social media, and believe our breakthrough results show what’s possible when a company takes part in a larger conversation, provides value and entertainment, and engages its audience in a way that’s surprising and utterly unique.
Best Use of Big Data
Winner – Zappos
Entry – Zappos x Hannover Suprise & Delight Campaign
https://youtu.be/bgBmlXjtWvA
A hackathon project by a Zappos employee surfaced small towns with unusually high-order volumes. The awareness team agreed that our annual holiday PR stunt would be to takeover one of these small-towns and surprise and delight them, true Zappos style, as a means to reward our loyal friends. In working with the analytics team, we identified Hanover, New Hampshire (home to Dartmouth college) as the city we would take over. Our internal team worked in tandem with our ad-agency of record during this time, Mullen, to create 1,900 Zappos boxes filled with cold-weather gear, sunglasses, headphones and backpacks, that were hand-delivered to every doorstep in Hanover before dawn.
This stunt was executed during a key seasonal timeframe, the holidays, to bring more awareness to Zappos.com. We wanted to show that we are a company dedicated to customer service, who is always looking for new and exciting ways to thank our friends. We wanted to make this surprise of large proportions and create meaningful relationships with our customers.
Best Video Program
Winner – R&R Partners
Entry – LVCVA Vegas Video
As clients lean more toward content marketing, R&R, on behalf of the LVCVA, couldn’t be better poised to succeed. With a city as dynamic as Las Vegas, the variety of content and story angles is endless. In the LVCVA’ fiscal year 2015/2016, R&R embarked on a content-forward approach. Through a combination of videos produced in-house as well as through collaborations with key influencers and publishers, the LVCVA’s wealth of content grew exponentially. Not only was it traditional video assets, but 360-video, also used for VR purposes. R&R has put the LVCVA on the cutting edge of 360 and VR technology, releasing to-date more than 20 videos for viewing on YouTube as well as on Facebook. User engagement with these videos has been tremendous and engagers are more likely to continue viewing other videos – further increasing consideration to the destination. Through influencer and publisher seeding paired with paid social and YouTube, the LVCVA’s branded videos drove more than seventy-nine million views last fiscal year!
Best Email Program
Winner – MassMedia
Entry – Support Las Vegas Dome
MassMedia was tasked by the Las Vegas Sands to develop an engaging and compelling email strategy that would encourage participation from its current Support Las Vegas Dome (SLVD) audience demonstrating sufficient public support throughout the state of Nevada for the construction of an NFL-caliber stadium. This email campaign helped mobilize public opinion and support. Several thousand pro-stadium letters were sent to legislators as they deliberated the proposal. 61 of 63 legislators received letters on the stadium proposal, in part due to this very successful email campaign.
Best Blog
Winner – Words by a Pro
Entry – http://wordsbyapro.com/blog/
Words by a Pro publishes a weekly blog, with posts authored by everyone from company partners, to employees, to some of the business’ most frequently worked with contractors. Topics – written in a fun and easily digestible manner – tackle numerous written communication subjects business owners want and need to know about, including: search engine optimization, timing social media posts, frequently confused words or terms, content writing best practices, and more.
Why I believe this blog should win: Because Words by a Pro’s blogs are written by those who make their living writing for online readership, they utilize all the online writing best practices, providing content in a way business professionals want to digest it: easy-to-read formatting (i.e. scannable text, subheads throughout, bullet points), engaging content, industry expertise, timely and targeted subject matter, no jargon.
Best Creative Storytelling
Winner – Higher Ground Advertising
Entry – Who is Vinny Spotleson?
https://youtu.be/AxSzNV6AUg8
In the year of a presidential race where opponents in the primaries run negative ads against each other or produce cookie cutter promo videos, we worked closely with this local politician on getting the word out on social to folks who might not ever vote in primaries. The video is a throwback to the PSA videos of the bygone days and follows Spotleson throughout Southern Nevada as he tackles the issues.
Best DR Program
Winner – Caesars Entertainment
Entry – Instagram Brings ROI Into The Picture
Casino and resort giant Caesars Entertainment partnered with CitizenNet to launch a highly targeted campaign that used tailored carousel ads to encourage people to book a vacation online, resulting in a double-digit return on ad spend.
Best Omni Channel Program
Winner – Eileen Fisher
Entry – What is your Eco Style?
To celebrate Earth Month, EILEEN FISHER, a luxury women’s fashion retailer who is focused on sustainability, launched a quiz – “What’s Your Eco Style?”. While the campaign initiated on social media, we told the story across multiple channels including in-store video, website, influencer marketing and an Earth Day pop-up experience at Columbus Circle in NYC.
Up and Coming Shining Star
Winner – Thomas Adkins of R&R Partners
Thomas Atkins, Senior Digital Media Planner and Buyer at R&R Partners is a perfect candidate for this award. He has been an integral team member to not only the LVCVA account, but the entire Media department and agency. His positive outlook is infectious and his laugh is easily recognizable across the agency. Thomas is one of the most generous, kind, and respectful people I’ve worked with at R&R. He never hesitates to help anyone in need, and people need his assistance on projects nearly every day.
Media Technology Partner Shining Star
Winner – LIQWID
Entry – LIQWID ad.Inject
Today publishers are being forced to limit their advertising inventory to locations at the top of the webpage, considered as “above the fold”, because they arguably have a better opportunity to be viewable. Different from Google’s DFP, LIQWID ad.Inject engine programmatically injects display, skins and video ads into the viewport of the viewers’ browser on the fly, without the use of traditional ad slots manually predefined in the code of the webpages, subject to the “fold” and “verification”. The fold is no more.
With LIQWID ad.Inject, only 100% viewable ads can be delivered, with no limitations on the location of ads respective to content, enabling publishers for unlimited creativity and entirely incremental revenue stream. With LIQWID ad.Inject, all impressions are created equal, so any part of the content has equal monetization value.
Salesperson Shining Star
Winner – Jessica Hird of Vegas.com
Jessica works with agencies as well as direct with production shows all over Las Vegas. She sells digital advertising on Vegas.com to help build awareness for shows in the tourist segment and ultimately to increase the ticket sales for entertainment products. She listens to her client’s needs and creates campaigns that target the demographics they need to reach at the budget that works best. She recommends creative and budget changes based on the success indicated in reporting and through testing. Jessica’s campaigns have supplemented and multiplied the success of many show campaigns and have been instrumental in the launch of new shows all over town.
Account Manager Shining Star
Winner – Hope Lowdermilk of Centro
Hope Lowdermilk from Centro is the type of Account Manager that anticipates your needs before you even know what they are. From Day 1, she has you and your campaign in her best interests, constantly working to not only optimize the campaign, but also share feedback on what she’s working on as well as recommendations on how to make the campaign better. Her recommendations don’t only span ideas within her working sphere, but also cover off on creative banner ideas, landing page optimization tips and more.
LVIMA Volunteer Shining Star
Winner – William Crozier of Wide Awake
This award was presented in appreciation of an exceptional LVIMA volunteer. William has been an active and consistent contributor to LVIMA’s content marketing efforts. His contributions are greatly appreciated.
William has a long history of working in Nevada tourism that was founded in earning his Hotel & Casino degree at UNLV. After an early career working with “celebrity chefs,” he developed a marketing company focused on emerging marketing channels. As social media grew in importance for his clients, so did William’s focus to building and engaging with online communities. William brings experience in leading strategic consulting, training, and implementation of social media campaigns for clients such as Station Casinos, Stratosphere Hotel Casino & Tower, Hard Rock, Palms Hotel & Casino, Riviera, El Cortez, Silver Legacy Resort Casino and Wynn. Notable clients beyond gaming include the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego, Meineke Car Care and Nordictrack.
Agency Shining Star
Winner – Higher Ground Creative Agency
Driven to passionately represent our clients’ brand, Higher Ground Creative Agency is guided by one basic principle: We All Matter.
Higher Ground is a creative agency located with hubs in Nevada, California, Oregon, and Oklahoma. With an award-winning founding team built on 40 years of industry experience, Higher Ground has expertise in the fields of advertising, marketing, film, creatives, photography, visual brand development, and project management. Every team member shares a passion for producing captivating, high quality advertising campaigns with socially conscious messaging.