2007 IRI Summit in Las Vegas

At the 2007 IRI Conference in Las Vegas , speaker after speaker told us it is becoming more and more difficult to reach consumers via single medium strategies. What’s a marketer to do to reach the ever-illusive consumer? Surround him/her with your messages in a number of different ways, under different circumstances, at different times. I like to call this Immersion Marketing—a concept I unveiled at the IRI Conference.

Clearly, the marketers in Las Vegas understand this concept. You can’t walk anywhere without seeing an advertising message. The casinos have mobile trucks driving around advertising their wares and taxis have “take one” discount coupons and information in their back seats. There are huge Times Square jumbotrons on every major hotel facade. Every wall has an ad for something, when you are on hold there’s telephone marketing messages and even the urinals have deodorizers with messages on them. Each hotel has signs, billboards, and other advertising messages to beckon you into their establishments. When you walk down the street, you here music, ads, and live hawkers---you are completely immersed in the commerce that is Las Vegas.

The second you walk off the plane, there’s not a blank wall in sight and you hear the signature tinkling of slot machines as you walk down the jet way from your plane. When you are in Las Vegas, you are surrounded by the message---spend, enjoy, forget, endulge. After all, what happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas, or so the ads say (about l0 people quoted this line to me while I was there, so clearly, people believe the phrase some talented copywriter penned for Sin City).

I am sure when I step off the plane tonight, Boston is going to feel really quiet.  And for that I am eternally grateful.

(Just for the record, all those messages lured me to a show –O at Bellagio, forced me to have a massage, directed me to an extraordinary restaurant at the Wynn (Barletto’s) and directed me to the Fashion Show Mall to buy sneakers for my aching feet.)

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[Caitlin]

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