After 13+ years in the gaming industry, most recently with Wynn Las Vegas, Nehme Abouzeid in November made the move over to sports, joining the expansion Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) as Senior VP & CMO. Abouzeid said of the difference between the gaming and sports, “It’s not all that different. It’s growing a marketing organization from brand marketing to content marketing to analytical marketing.” As the franchise moves closer to its first NHL season, it has seen its social and digital presence evolve from being for an interest group to being that of a major North American pro sports franchise. Abouzeid said the evolution came “almost overnight.” Abouzeid: “They didn’t have months of lead time where they knew it was a done deal, and then we had this big target on our back that the season is next October.”
Developing and implementing a digital and social strategy: Right now, we’re focusing on storytelling. But our goal is balance there. We don’t want to be too much of any one thing, because we’re cultivating many different fanbases here. My goal with social and digital is to balance our storytelling. We'll have news about on-the-ice, team-specific, players, coaches and personnel moves, but a percentage of the social voice needs to go to the firsts of the organization, like the name, logo and first merchandise sold in the store. We’re also balancing that with our community initiatives.
Team execs on social: Sure. We are going to define our social media policy and strategies, but in terms of team executives, we are going to make sure there are consistent voices out there. They should take advantage of the landscape of Las Vegas and the vibrancy of the media market and the spotlight that Vegas is going to offer.
Modeling social media approach: We’re benchmarking the best organizations. The NHL has done a really good thing in hiring (CMO & Exec VP) Heidi Browning, who came from Pandora and the Silicon Valley space, so that was really a feather in the cap for digital marketing and social media. We like what Tampa Bay is doing, what San Jose is doing, what the Kings are doing. We are looking at them and also how a club like the Bruins -- a 90-plus-year-old organization -- might have a different dialogue on social with fans than the Lightning might have with its fans. We’re kind of in between. We are a mature city, a mature love of pro sports, but we are a non-traditional market because of where we are and the weather. We’re not in any one category.
Enlisting local celebs: That’s in our strategy. I think that’s one of the reasons (Owner) Bill Foley hired me. I came from The Strip, I marketed entertainment on The Strip for a long time and cut deals with entertainers and their management in Hollywood. We have those relationships and we’re going to build those relationships. So whether it’s Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion or a DJ, we want them to be front-and-center at our games. We want them to be wearing our merchandise, we want them to be celebrating their adopted team. We recently had great support from our hometown baseball star, Bryce Harper.
Off-ice concerns with players and casinos: The integrated resort industry today gets more revenue from non-gaming activities than it does from gaming. You’re talking about a diversification of the entertainment experience in Vegas. We will be mindful of it, and obviously be mindful of the optics. We’ll follow every rule that’s required. But a dinner in a casino at a restaurant is not the same as someone inside the casino placing bets. There’s some education that has to happen there, and we plan on doing that.
Offering something flashier for sponsors: That’s what national sponsors are going to be looking for -- those big brands to hit the tourist space. The local companies are already here. They know the visibility of Vegas. They want to have that connection to locals 41 times a year and also want to top it off with nice exposure to a national tourist base. Local companies also know the best activations from an experiential marketing perspective, and we offer something the casino segment doesn’t.
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