When I started my adventures on the vendor side of the casino marketing equation, I often found myself trying to describe a typical day to other business owners trying to get in the door.
Contemporary fine art photographs featuring minimalist seascapes, landscapes and abstract architecture. Casino is a 1995 American epic crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Barbara De Fina and distributed by Universal Pictures.The film is based on the nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese. But the most celebrated artist by far at the Palms Casino is British artist Damien Hurst, his controversial 1999 sculpture, The Unknown, which is basically an arrangement of three giant water tanks each with a section of a dissected shark is proudly mounted above the main bar inside the casino.
The truth is, there's nothing standard about a day in casino marketing. Our days are influenced by fellow department members, bosses, little old ladies out for a day of value and fun and high-touch VIPs—sometimes all at once. We work crazy hours, and sometimes those hours may find us in a costume.
But I wouldn't trade my time in this industry for anything in the world.
I decided someone should mirror the 'Casino Gaming Executive Satisfaction' study, by Bristol Associates Inc. and Spectrum Gaming Group, but with a specific focus on casino marketers. I kept this on my wish list, and then mentioned it to Mary Loftness of Profitable Customers and Michael Meczka of MMRC, Inc.—both experts in the industry.
Along with our ongoing businesses, all of us are deeply involved in training and educating the casino marketers of today and the future. We pooled our contacts, dug for a few more and sent an extensive survey to a wide swath of casino executives to create a baseline for future studies and deeper cross-tabulation.
The result is the Casino Marketing Monitor, born of a desire to examine the casino marketing environment across all gambling enterprises in the United States. At this point, we can only guess at the impact the Covid-19 pandemic will make on Year 2 responses.
Life as a Casino Marketer
Casino marketing is a team sport. A majority of respondents (58 percent) informed us they have six or more direct reports, with another 34 percent having one to five. Marketing executives balance responsibility for the development of their teams while working closely with the highest decision-makers to grow revenue.
And, like the vast majority of full-time employees in the U.S, they look for ways to find a seemingly elusive work-life balance.
As a casino marketer, I always thrived on the fun we had working together and hitting our goals. Our baseline responses showed I was never alone. A whopping 83 percent of those surveyed pointed to their contribution to the property's success as the No. 1 driver of job satisfaction, with the fun environment coming in second (60 percent) and salary a distant third.
As referenced previously, the Casino Gaming Executive Satisfaction report has become a benchmark for the U.S. gaming industry. Genting casino edinburgh restaurant. It's interesting to note that, of the eight choices given to respondents in that study, opportunity and growth were prioritized. Compensation placed second, with culture third. However, while Monitor respondents place salary and growth as lower factors in satisfaction, they still play a significant role in dissatisfaction.
Eighty percent of respondents reported being somewhat to extremely satisfied with their work, despite working many hours. Twenty percent reported working 44 hours or less a week; the extended work week comes as no surprise, as respondents report some level of participation in nearly all aspects of marketing.
Unsurprisingly, when asked to provide the single most significant challenge, respondents said growing revenue, followed at a distant second by developing their teams.
Areas of Responsibility
As of this writing, nearly half of U.S. casinos have reopened. The casino marketers associated with these openings have already started to experience shifts in their reliance on specific tools. What follows is a mix of what was learned from the study and what we're seeing as the future of the casino marketing toolbox, in order of the currently unfolding priority.
Database Marketing
It's often said that the battle for the casino customer is fought and won or lost in the mailbox. Nowhere is this key battleground more important than in regional markets, where only a very few continue to benefit from monopolies.
Although optional market share answers were only provided by about half of respondents, we clearly see that 85 percent are competing in the mailbox for that precious local business. Sixty-nine percent of respondents see more than half of the casino's revenue from locals. Only a small minority have what was once considered a monopoly (8 percent) or duopoly (6 percent). Half of the respondents reported they share the market with two to four competitors within an hour's drive. Thirty-six percent battle for market share with five or more competitors.
As many databases in the hospitality industry migrate to digital, the casino industry continues to see its most significant returns from dear old snail mail, but growing use of email. The database continues to be the primary channel that we use to create visits, and we're using it pretty regularly. Sixty-one percent are sending a high-value player more than six messages a month. Forty-four percent of mid-value range players are getting more than six.
Analytics and Key Metrics
This dependence on mail and reinvestment makes it essential that marketers have access to critical metrics and the tools to assist them in making decisions that will drive revenue at an appropriate investment. The casino industry has seen a veritable explosion of third-party tools to assist them in this process.
Respondents are confident in their access to key metrics and the analysis of drivers of the business, utilizing tools ranging from third-party tools to in-house data warehouses and desktop tools. It's interesting to note that, while the majority of respondents use third-party tools to gain insights into key metrics, properties using in-house and desktop tools (Excel, Access, SQL, Tableau) rate the quality of the information at a consistently higher level.
Player Development
Person-to-person contact with the most valued players has been a long tradition in the industry, and shows no signs of being replaced. Most respondents reported six or more employees with that responsibility. While the median number of players for each host ranges from 151 to 400, the majority are responsible for building personal relationships with up to 800 guests.
Advertising
The majority of respondents (77 percent) were involved in or had a responsibility for advertising of the property. Although respondents expected budgets would remain flat or grow, very few planned cuts for 2020. Now we know that, because of the closures prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, many of our expectations for both revenue and expenses have been revised. We will have a clearer picture of the impact in the 2020 version of the Monitor report.
Additionally, although 2019 advertising budgets were spread over all media forms, the change in communications channels brought on by the pandemic should likewise be reflected in revised budget allocations. Of interest is that while some industry pundits continue to look to millennials as a prime target audience, often advising a change in message and strategy, a large majority of respondents have not chosen to view their messaging and marketing in terms of audience age.
Creative design and online work continued to migrate in-house, further adding to the workload we see in the number of hours worked per week.
Entertainment, Promotions and Events
As we begin to return to our operations, a few marketing tools have been put on hold for the time being: entertainment, promotions and events.
Entertainment has been a standard casino offering since the days of Elvis and the Rat Pack. As regional markets developed their offerings, the ability to provide headline entertainment became a must. In 2018, respondent properties hosted ticketed shows at a nearly monthly rate, if not more often. Marketers were generally on pace to increase this frequency in 2019 and to carry the pace into 2020. Today, we're restricted in capacity and encouraged to stay a safe distance—two things that will surely dampen the energy of concerts.
While smaller draws may still be a possibility, they won't have as great an impact on the customer experience or profitability, as comps to high-worth guests have traditionally been a significant part of the attendee equation.
Eighty-four percent of respondents saw promotions as essential to meeting revenue as well as creating energy on the gaming floor. While properties have seemingly found a thriving calendar of events, marketers are now faced with the challenge of meeting these expectations in ways that don't draw crowds, are touch-free and are still engaging.
The good news is, we know what prizes gaming patrons are looking for— prizes that keep them in play, rather than big-ticket items. Ninety percent of promotions are under $50,000—not life-changing prizes. Promotional awards are being spread over multiple winners. Seventy-eight percent of impactful promotions are based on player value and delivered one to one.
The challenge today is not the development of promotional ideas. The community of casino marketers loves to share best practices through platforms such as trade shows and conferences, our Casino Marketing Masters Facebook group and spotlight events like the annual Romero Awards. Additionally, casino promotion vendors have been quick to adapt existing programs into touchless and touch-free options.
Knowledge Enhancement
As mentioned earlier, after growing revenue, casino marketers view staff development as the second most significant challenge they face.
As a lifelong student of marketing, this was one of the areas I was most interested in, because while I love to attend and participate in many casino marketing gatherings, it's that moment when a marketer clicks with a concept or idea that makes the effort worth it in so many ways.
The opportunity to provide relevant, accessible training is what we noticed when we created Casino Marketing Boot Camp, and it's why we continue to develop programs to enhance marketer skills and ready them for advancement. With most training coming through self-service options such as books, webinars and newsletters, only 11 percent give high marks to the training currently available. Considering the challenges respondents have identified, training programs and options need to help them grow revenue and develop their staffs.
The pandemic has forced many in-person opportunities to reschedule or cancel, but we must not lose sight of the need to create great marketers.
A Look at the Future
Casino Marketing Monitor remains committed to the development of an accurate portrait of casino marketing in the U.S. The next survey will be out in the fall, and I expect that we'll see quite a different picture in terms of the reliance on certain tools. Still, the goals of growing revenue and developing staff will continue to be of significant importance to us as individual marketers and as an industry.
Visit casinomarketingmonitor.com to download a copy of the topline report of the inaugural study and to add your name to the 2020 survey pool.
The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a pentagonalmansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately 50 kilometres north-west of Rome. This villa should not be confused with the Palazzo Farnese and the Villa Farnesina, both in Rome. A property of the Republic of Italy, Villa Farnese is run by the Polo Museale del Lazio.
The Villa Farnese is situated directly above the town of Caprarola and dominates its surroundings. It is a massive Renaissance and Mannerist construction, opening to the Monte Cimini, a range of densely wooded volcanic hills. It is built on a five-sided plan in reddish gold stone; buttresses support the upper floors. As a centerpiece of the vast Farnese holdings, Caprarola has always been an expression of Farnese power, rather than a villa in the more usual agricultural or pleasure senses.
History[edit]
In 1504, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III, acquired the estate at Caprarola. He had designs made for a fortified castle or rocca by the architects Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Baldassare Peruzzi.[1] Surviving plan drawings by Peruzzi show a pentagonal arrangement with each face of the pentagon canted inwards towards its center, to permit raking fire upon a would-be scaling force, both from the center and from the projecting bastions that advance from each corner angle of the fortress. Peruzzi's plan also shows a central pentagonal courtyard and it is likely that the later development of the circular central court was also determined by the necessities of the pentagonal plan. The pentagonal fortress foundations, constructed probably between 1515 and 1530,[2] became the base upon which the present villa sits; so the overall form of the villa was predetermined by the rocca foundations.
Subsequently, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, a grandson of Pope Paul III, and a man who was known for promoting his family's interests, planned to turn this partly constructed fortified edifice into a villa or country house. In 1556, he commissioned Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola as his architect,[3] building work commenced in 1559 and Vignola continued to work on the villa at Caprarola until his death in 1573.[4] Farnese was a courteous man of letters; however, the Farnese family as a whole became unpopular with the following pope, Julius III, and, accordingly, Alessandro Farnese decided it would be politic to retire from the Vatican for a period. He therefore selected Caprarola on the family holding of Ronciglione, being both near and yet far enough from Rome as the ideal place to build a country house.
Design[edit]
The villa is one of the finest examples of Renaissance architecture. Ornament is used sparingly to achieve proportion and harmony. Thus while the villa dominates the surroundings, its severe design also complements the site. This particular style, known today as Mannerism, was a reaction to the ornate earlier High Renaissance designs of twenty years earlier.
Vignola, the architect chosen for this difficult and inhospitable site, had recently proved his mettle in designing Villa Giulia on the outskirts of Rome for the preceding pope, Julius III. Vignola in his youth had been heavily influenced by Michelangelo. For the villa at Caprarola, his plans as built were for a pentagon constructed around a circular colonnadedcourtyard.[5] In the galleried court, paired Ionic columns flank niches containing busts of the Roman Emperors, above a rusticated arcade, a reworking of Bramante's scheme for the 'House of Raphael', in the Borgorione, Rome. A further Bramantesque detail is the entablature that breaks forward over the columns, linking them above, while they stand on separate bases. The interior loggia formed by the arcade is frescoed with Raphaelesque grotesques, in the manner of the Vatican Logge. The gallery and upper floors were reached by five spiralstaircases around the courtyard: the most important of these is the Scala Regia ('Royal Stairs') rising through the principal floors.
Approach and entrance[edit]
The approach to the Villa Farnese is from the town's main street, which is centred on the villa, to a piazza from which stairs ascend to a series of terraces beginning with the subterranean basement excavated from the tuff, surrounded by steep curving steps leading to the terrace above. This basement floor in the foundations, which functioned as a carriage entrance in inclement weather, features a massive central column with a series of buttresses and retaining walls; on the exterior, large heavily grilled doors in the rusticated walls appear to lead into the guardrooms of a fortress, while above them a curved balustraded external double stairway leads to the terrace above. This in turn has a formal double staircase to the principal entrance on the Piano dei Prelati floor which is accessed from the broad terrace. This bastion-like floor, which appears in the elevation as a second ground floor, is rusticated, the main door a severe arch flanked by three windows on each side. The facade at this level is terminated by massive solid corner projections.
Above this is the double-height piano nobile, where five huge arched windows incongruously dominate the facade over the front door; above this sit a further two floors for housing gentlefolk with servants above them, the numerous windows divided on the exterior by rusticated pilasters in dressed stone.
Interiors[edit]
The villa's interiors are arranged over five floors, each floor designed for a different function. The main rooms are located on the first floor or piano nobile, where a large central loggia (now glazed in) looks down over the town, its main street and the surrounding countryside. This hall is known as the Room of Hercules on account of its fresco decorations,[6] and was used as a summer dining hall. It has a grotto-like fountain with sculpture at one end. To either side of the loggia are two circular rooms: one is the chapel, the other accommodates the principal staircase or Scala Regia What is the closest casino to boca raton florida. , a graceful spiral of steps supported by pairs of Ionic columns rising up through three floors and frescoed by Antonio Tempesta.
The two grand apartments at first floor level are symmetrically-matched in plan and complete the remaining enclosure of the courtyard. Each has a series of five rooms with state rooms, which begin with the largest reception hall nearest the entrance and proceed, with increasing intimacy and decreased size, to a bedroom, wardrobe and studiolo at the northern end; an ordered suite that would become standardized in the 17th century as the Baroque state apartment. The different orientations of these two apartments allows for a seasonal differentiation; the east, or summer apartment is associated with the active life, the west, or winter range with the contemplative life.[7] The scrupulous symmetrical balance of the two apartments is carried through by their matching parterre gardens, each reached by a bridge across the moat and cut into the hillslope.
The suites are famous for their Mannerist frescoes. The iconographic program of frescoes expressing the glory of the Farnese was worked out by the humanists in Farnese's court, notably his secretary, Annibale Caro;[8] The fresco cycles portray the exploits of Alexander the Great, and of course of the Farnese themselves: in the Sala dei Fasti Farnesiani (the Room of Farnese Deeds), decorated by the brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, the Farnese are depicted at all their most glorious moments, from floor to coffered ceiling.[9] Other artists employed in fresco decoration include Giacomo Zanguidi (il Bertoia), Raffaellino da Reggio, Antonio Tempesta, Giacomo del Duca, and Giovanni De Vecchi. The Flemish painters Joos van Winghe and Bartholomaeus Spranger assisted il Bertoia with the decorations in the rooms he had been commissioned to finish.[10]
Among the frescoed subjects of the contemplative winter suite is the famous 'Room of the World Map' or Sala del Mappamondo, displaying the whole known world as it was in 1574 when the frescoes were completed.[11] Above, the frescoed vault depicts the celestial spheres and the constellations of the zodiac.
Gardens[edit]
The gardens of the villa are as impressive as the building itself, a significant example of the Italian Renaissance garden period. The villa's fortress theme is carried through by a surrounding moat and three drawbridges. Two facades of the pentagonal arrangement face the two gardens cut into the hill; each garden is accessed across the moat by a drawbridge from the apartments on the piano nobile and each is a parterre garden of boxtopiary with fountains. A grotto-like theatre was once here. A walk through the chestnut woods beyond, leads to the giardino segreto, or secret garden, with its well-known casino.
The Casino[edit]
The Casino, a small habitable summerhouse with two loggie for al fresco dining. It was built probably on designs by Giacomo del Duca, with later alterations were made to the area around the casino by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi.[12] The casino is approached by stairs contained between heavily rusticated grotto walls, with a central catena d'acqua, a cascaded rill or 'water-staircase', which the water flows down to a stone basin. At the top of the steps and set in an oval space are large statues of two reclining river gods to either side of a large central vase fountain. Stairs built into the oval walls lead up to the parterred terrace in front of the south facade of the casino. This part of the terrace is lined by stone herms with cypress trees. To the north of the casino is a private garden which steps up slightly and accommodates roses.
Today[edit]
Alessandro Farnese died in 1589 bequeathing his estates to relations - the Farnese dukes of Parma. The Cardinal's fabulous collection was transferred eventually to Charles III of Spain in Naples. In the 19th century the villa became for a while the residence of the heir to the throne of the newly united Italy. Free bonus no deposit online casino australia.
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Elements of the villa's Renaissance gardens have influenced many estate gardens of the 19th and 20th century by landscape designers, such as Beatrix Farrand, A.E. Hanson, and Florence Yoch. 1920s gardens with a catena d'acqua include the Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills and 'Las Tejas' in Montecito, California, with the latter also having a casino in direct homage to the original at Villa Farnese.[13]
Today the casino and its gardens are one of the homes of the President of the Italian Republic. The empty main villa, owned by the State, is open to the public. The numerous rooms, salons and halls with their marbles and frescoes, and the architecture of the great palazzo-like villa are still as impressive and daunting as they were first intended to be.
Filmography[edit]
- Several scenes from the TV series Medici: Masters of Florence are set in Villa Farnese.[14]
- Several scenes from 2003 movie Luther Luther was filmed in Villa Farnese, featuring the central courtyard and Scala Regia.
The Villa was depicted both as the interior of Papal Palace in Vatican and as Castel Gandolfo in the original Netflix movie The Two Popes.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Coffin David, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, Princeton University Press, 1979: 281-5
- ^Coffin, 1979: 281
- ^Coffin, 1979: 285
- ^Partridge, Loren W. 'Vignola and the Villa Farnese at Caprarola', Part I The Art Bulletin52.1 (March 1970:81-87), Part II
- ^Partridge Loren W., 'The Farnese Circular Courtyard at Caprarola: God, Geopolitics, Genealogy, and Gender', The Art Bulletin83.2 (June 2001:259-293)
- ^Partridge, Loren W. 'The Sala d'Ercole in the Villa Farnese at Caprarola, Part I' The Art Bulletin53.4 (December 1971:467-486), 'Part II' The Art Bulletin54.1 (March 1972:50-62).
- ^Baumgart, 1935 noted by Kish 1953:51; Coffin, 1979: 296-7.
- ^Robertson, Clare. 'Annibal Caro as Iconographer: Sources and Method Annibal Caro as Iconographer: Sources and Method' Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes45 (1982:160-181); see also Baumgart, Fritz. 'La Caprarola di Ameto Orti', Studi Romanzi, 25 (1935:80); in 240 Latin verses, La Caprarola of Ameto Orti (c 1585-89) describes the beauties of the Farnese castello.
- ^Partridge, Loren W. 'Divinity and Dynasty at Caprarola: Perfect History in the Room of Farnese Deeds', The Art Bulletin60.3 (September 1978:494-530).
- ^Véronique Bücken, 'Deux flamands dans l'atelier de Jacopo Bertoja: Joos van Winghe et Bartholomaeus Spranger', in: Jadranka Bertini (red.), Lelio Orsi e la cultura del suo tempo. Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Reggio Emilia – Novellara 1988, Bologna, 1990, pp. 49–56
- ^Kish, G. ' 'The Mural Atlas' of Caprarola' Imago Mundi10 (1953:51-56); the date 1574 is worked into the border of the map of Europe (p. 53); Kish identifies the sources in contemporary printed maps; the ideology of status, service, and personal merit behind the presentation of maps was interpreted by Partridge, Loren W. 'The Room of Maps at Caprarola, 1573-75' The Art Bulletin,77.3 (September 1995:413-444); the frescoes are revisited by Quinlan-McGrath, Mary. 'Caprarola's Sala della Cosmografi', Renaissance Quarterly50.4 (Winter 1997:1045-1100).
- ^Coffin, 1979: 302 although later alterations were made to the area around the casino by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi.
- ^Streatfield, David. 'California Gardens: Creating a New Eden.' Abbeville Press. New York, London, Paris. 1994. ISBN1-55859-453-1. pp. 127. 107-11.
- ^'Palazzo Farnese a Caprarola: le location della serie tv i Medici Masters of Florence'. 6 March 2017.
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- Murray, Peter J. (1963). The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance. London: Batsford. pp. 240ff.
External links[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Palazzo Farnese (Caprarola). |
- Great Buildings Online: Villa Farnese - Giacomo Vignola: images, drawings, and data.
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