Barbie Takes Over Vegas: Designing Activations Around Cultural Moments - Brooke Sanchez, Circa Resort & Casino

Josiah: 0:00

Today we're doing something a little different, looking at how a resort in Las Vegas is taking advantage of the Barbie movie opening today to offer something unique for its guests. Whether or not you plan to see this movie this weekend, stick around if you want to learn how to take advantage of cultural moments like this to create memorable experiences for your guests. Today we're learning from Brooke Sanchez, Director of marketing and PR at Circa Resort in Casino in Las Vegas. In this episode, you'll hear the story behind this activation, what it includes, the impact so far, and the opportunity for all hospitality providers to take advantage of moments like these. Maybe just to kick us off. Tell us a little bit about this activation. How did it all come to be?

Brooke: 1:04

Yeah, so we are a very unique company. We have a very involved owner and we sat in a marketing meeting one day and our owner was like I want to be part of the Barbie and Ken craze. I don't know, I don't care what we have to do to get it, but I want to be part of it. I think for us, for being a female director, I was like, oh wow, this is an opportunity for us to talk to a female demographic of people who have loved this character their entire lives, me being one of them, where then it became a passion project for me. So it's an interesting take on this as well. So Circa is actually like it's a sports-orientated property. So the fact that we're really owning the Barbie conversation in Las Vegas was a huge moment for us because I think on our end, where it was really an over-the-top marketing package, we kind of thought of these creative ways of well, how can we get involved in this Barbie but really make a statement in the market? Because anybody can throw a Barbie cocktail on their cocktail menu, anybody could throw a Barbie signage out wherever you're going to be, but how many people can really turn their entire building pink and really make a statement and really make it so it's this Barbie dream hotel, and so, for us, we saw this as an opportunity to really own the conversation, but also to really do something so out of the box that people would never expect us to do.

Josiah: 2:26

So walk us through the process. The resort owner says I want to get involved. What happens next?

Brooke: 2:32

So what happens next is we did some research to see who else was doing something that was associated with Barbie in the market and to my surprise, there wasn't anything. I looked at different restaurants to see if there were a few things that were kind of Barbie related, but not official. So then we were kind of thinking, okay, well, they're not doing anything in this market. It feels like a missed opportunity. Las Vegas is a huge market whenever it comes to a big rollout. So on our end, we thought, okay, well, how can we stand out? Because we didn't want to approach and go to them and ask for something. So we were like, okay, well, what can we offer that's so out of the box that it would be hard to say no to? So then we kind of put our heads together and we were thinking about all the assets on property. We've got Stadium Swim. It's this beautiful pool that has a 143 foot screen. So what better place to play a Barbie commercial every hour on the hour? What better place to turn all the lighting into pink and really make it so? It's this over-the-top like dream pool. But also, too, what other hotel in Las Vegas would turn their entire building pink go completely out of the outside of their brand standards really to be part of this activation and we were like, well, why not us? So then we kind of curated this over-the-top marketing package which, hoping that they wouldn't say no, and we just shot our shot and it worked.

Josiah: 3:50

Amazing. So you're thinking about all the things that you could do with this. And then you went to Warner Brothers, was it? 

Brooke: 3:56

So our agency had found someone with Warner Brothers and they were able to find the right person who was the decision-maker. You know, they did their due diligence on the back and really identifying who this person was, and they were able we were able to work together to curate a pretty impactful pitch and you know I mean you know where it ended.

Josiah: 4:14

That's great. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit more about some of the other components of this activation. You touched on a few of them, but what else was included?

Brooke: 4:22

Yeah, so it included the building lighting. So we're actually turning the entire building. We have our parking garage and then the entire lighting at Stadium Swim, which is our outdoor pool venue. We're turning the building pink for an entire week. So from Monday to Sunday for the week of their premiere, we're turning everything pink. We have an entire digital network in-house so we're playing the Barbie commercial and hosting the flyer on every digital screen inside circuit in our rotation. We are turning Stadium Swim into the dream pool. So you know, we've got the big Barbie box activation for people to take photos with. We've got an over-the-top bottle presentation, what we call a Zamboni, but now it's going to be the Barbie convertible for the week. It is a sea of pink out there. So you know, you've got the pink pillows, you've got the pink cabana decor, you've got pink floaties. It really just feels like a pink pool party for the entire week. We've got special activations from one of our beverage sponsors, pink Whitney. They're going to be out sampling. They're Barbie-esque sampling attire. And then we've also got Barbie-themed cocktails on property. We've got a signature cocktail at our venue legacy club. We've got another signature cocktail at Vegas Vickies. We also have a pink slush drink and then also pink dream shots. For anybody who comes in with Barbie movie tickets. They're going to get a free shot at any of the bars all week long. And the beautiful thing is it's working. You know, I was up at Stadium Swim last night just observing, just watching to see how many people tune in for the commercial. And it's so funny because, as I mentioned, we are a sports-orientated brand, so Stadium Swim is this sportsbook at the pool and the minute that Barbie turns on, heads turn everybody. All eyes on the screen and everybody's just so engaged. The lines to take photos in this Barbie box it's been unreal. But then also too I mean the Barbie cocktails they've been an absolute hit. I was talking to our beverage director and people are ordering them. People are there to take the photos of the Barbie logo next to the drink and we went as far as buying little Barbie shoes to put in the drink as just little garnishes and pink glitter everywhere. And it's just so funny because I think people this is such a big brand and I think it's playing to so many different factors. It's nostalgic, for some it's an introduction to this big pink Barbie. But the movie is so different because the meaning behind the movie is there. It's a story for so much more than just the doll and it's really like people embracing what the Barbie concept is and kind of where the movie is going. And I think the interesting part about the movie is it's a real thought starter. I haven't seen the movie just yet, but from everything that I've read up until this point, you're capturing so many different audiences within the female demographic, but I mean, it's not just the female demographic, it's everyone. The Barbie craze is real.

Josiah: 7:09

That's great and there are so many pieces of this activation. It's really cool to hear that response coming out of this, as you think broadly about creating experiences for your guests. What have you learned through going through this process? You know for our listeners there's different hospitality providers. I'm curious how you would encourage them to think about engaging in these cultural moments.

Brooke: 7:29

I think one thing that we've learned is to really understand what people are doing in the market. I think everybody wants to be a part of something you know, and not every trend is going to hit, but I think being able to stay on top of, like what's topical and also do your research and the trends in the market, I think it's going to be able to allow you to provide something different for your customers. And I think that's how I keep saying, like because we're a sports-oriented property, this was our opportunity to get in front of an entirely new audience, and I think that there's so many different topics or cultural topics that that can happen for, and for us it's just the complete. It worked out so well because you know you've got we're the home for football, but we're now also Barbie's Dream Hotel, you know. So it's just it's so funny the way that that works out. But I think for us it's just being able to understand, like, where your strengths are and then what opportunities you may have to create a new promotion, to kind of gain new market share for customers that you wouldn't have had otherwise.

Josiah: 8:27

That's cool and I guess, just to underscore this point, maybe in sports, maybe in another area, is there a similar activation you've done in the past to help people understand some of the power of this in reaching different types of guests?

Brooke: 8:41

You know it's funny because I think I would say yes and no. I think for us, we are still in the infancy of our brand. So Circa opened in October 2020. So we're still trying to figure out who our key customer is. I mean, we've really leaned into the sporting element, knowing that we've got the World's Archive Sportsbook, you've got Stadium Swim, but we're also still trying to understand who is our key demographic like, who is our key customer? And I think fun promotions like this early on are really teaching us about who we need to target. So I think on our end right now, it's hard because we're still so new that a lot of these are just trial and error.

Josiah: 9:21

Yeah, you don't learn until you try things right, and I find you learn so much from conversations, whether it's individually with people or looking at all the chatter that emerges from a program like this. You sort of get a sense of what people like and what they don't like. So I'm really excited to see what you'll do, not only with the rest of this activation, but in the future with other ones. So, Brooke, thanks so much for taking some time to chat.