When you think of Las Vegas, you think of casinos, and then you think of the rows and rows of slot machines that line those casinos.
So it’s not much of a leap, when brainstorming ideas to promote a TV show set in Las Vegas, to come up with slots.
And there they are, in a storefront in Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, a bit of Las Vegas, and crowded around in front are what you'd expect to find on a sunny New York summer day, tourists and New Yorkers.
What makes this alternative media campaign, for the sixth-season premiere of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” so different is that the people standing around are actually playing the slots, in a manner of speaking.
The slots in the window are user-activated, interactive machines that invite passersby to compete for prizes, the top prize being $5,000 and a trip to the “Top Chef” kitchen in Las Vegas.
To play, they simply dial in with their cell phones.
“Bravo’s goal was to make sure everyone knew the show was going to be in Vegas,” says Chris Beauchamp, CEO of Monster Media, which worked on the campaign with Fallon Worldwide and the network.
“I don’t think there’s a better way to make people understand that it’s in Vegas starting this year other than bringing Vegas to the streets of New York City, which is basically what we did.”
Here’s how it works: Monster created a mock casino display in which two interactive slot machines were placed against a backdrop of eight LCD wall screens.
When pedestrians walk by the display, which is housed in the NBC Experience Store window, their presence is picked up by motion detectors, which trigger the slot machines to light up.
Messages appear on the LCD screens inviting users to text the words Padma or Tom, the names of the “Chef” hosts, to a specified number.
Upon receiving the text, the slot machine begins spinning. Participants watch the screens for the last four digits of their phone number, signaling them that their turn has begun.
If they spin a winner, players receive a message on their phone telling them how to redeem their prize. One in five players wins a small trinket, such as a T-shirt or cell phone screen savers. All players are entered for a chance to win the $5,000 grand prize and trip to Vegas.
What separates this campaign from so many that rely on passersby's cell phones is that this one leaves it up to the passerby to initiate the interaction, meaning the participant is truly engaged.
“The No. 1 priority for us and Fallon and ‘Top Chef’ was to engage consumers on the street level, plant a seed on mobile devices before they walk away, and do it without using Bluetooth,” Beauchamp says.
The link between the brand and the device used to promote it is pretty obvious – “Chef” is set in Vegas, which is where you find slot machines. But there are other things about the campaign beyond the branding and the engagement factors.
Another is certainly the location. Rockefeller Center is crawling with tourists this time of year, and it’s in a bit less commercial than Times Square, where you can’t walk three steps without being bombarded by advertisements.
That helps the promotion stand out.
And the location has helped to build buzz. Beauchamp says a number of tour buses stop right outside the storefront, and when the tourists exit the bus, they walk right up to the slot machines and start spinning.
“The client’s very happy because we can track the amount of people who actually dialed in and participated,” Beauchamp says.
The interactive casino went up on Aug. 10 and will stay up through Aug. 31. “Chef” premieres tonight.
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