I can’t take credit for discovering these–they were forwarded to me by my Reno correspondent. They are a series of commercials for Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City. If you’ve got two minutes to spend, it’s worth it:
I know that the “Harrah’s Resort” sounds a little pretentious to those of you who are used to the Harrah’s “brand” from Las Vegas, but this is really a phenomenal property. (Hey, I sound like Donald Trump there.) Seriously, if this was on the Strip and called something besides Harrah’s, people would be going nuts over it. The Waterfront Tower is really incredible. At night, the entire building turns into a sign. It’s hard to describe, but I’ll try to get some video. It’s modern, yet fun, which is what a casino should be.
So why isn’t it a bigger deal? I think that the name is the big problem. In a way, Harrah’s has been so successful at positioning themselves as a mecca for mid-level slot players that this push into luxury is incongruous. It doesn’t help that there’s a Harrah’s racino about 60 miles away, further diluting the brand. As great as Harrah’s Resort AC is, I don’t know if they can ever reposition it as the high-end property that it should be.
So what should they do? I say, rename it, which would solve a few problems. Here’s my master plan:
1. Bally’s becomes the Horseshoe Atlantic City: this gives Harrah’s 2nd brand a foothold in the 2nd biggest US market with minimal investment.
2. The Showboat becomes Harrah’s Boardwalk Atlantic City. You’ve just eliminated two extra “brands” that the company clearly won’t be investing much in, and you’ve put the Harrah’s brand on a solid middle-market property.
3. Now comes the hard part: Harrah’s Resort becomes Caesars Marina, with minimal re-theming to reflect the original Caesars Palace. You don’t need to cover everything up to make it look like a Roman temple. Just let the buildings be cool and modern with a few classical statues and plenty of water features. Luckily the Romans were into maritime commerce, so there should be plenty of material to draw on. Also, dredge the channel or whatever needs to be done to REOPEN THE MARINA. This should have been done yesterday, since it’s a major attraction that only one other casino (the soon-to-be Margaritaville) has.
They’ve just rebranded the Casino Windsor Caesars Windsor and Caesars Indiana the Horseshoe South Indiana, so investing some time and money in repositioning properties in one of the company’s major markets would be well worth it.
Now, about those ads…pretty strange huh? I’ve been watching too much of The Wire, since the first thing I thought when I saw the toothbrush one was “lockup.”