The Brief

The Venetian Resort in Macau is the world’s largest casino and boasts a 3,000- suite hotel. To feed this beast requires an aggressive growth strategy. India, with 1.1 billion people, was a key focus. Securing the rights to host the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards (the “Oscars” of Bollywood) would be invaluable. We had to seduce the 12 selection committee members with a high impact DM piece that would deliver both corporate image and ability to host such a large-scale event. We competed against countries and governments for the honour (only the Olympics and World Cup are bigger).

Creative Execution

Any country can try to win a bid through the usual speeches about friendly people, modern infrastructures and even monetary incentives. The fact that we were only a single resort limited our options. However, being a resort known for its magic and theatre worked in our favour. We knew that IIFA craves a venue that is worthy of a world-class event. So instead of going head-on against the competition by describing our facilities and infrastructure, we used our experience in theatrics to give a taste of the magic they will experience at The Venetian.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We had one thing that no government on earth has: the power of Theatre. Under one roof, The Venetian could accommodate all your heart desires… ‘Where anything is possible’. A high-impact DM conveyed excitement, energy and opulence to the 12-member selection committee. It delivered the very essence of The Venetian experience. We sent a Venetian gondolier and 12 butlers to personally deliver the DM to every IIFA member, bringing the theatre of Venice to India. Never before had such a theatrical delivery been delivered to the committee, which was accustomed to the boredom of government officials via video conferences.

Results

We successfully outbid 6 countries: Shanghai, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Poland, Ireland and Italy. The win in hosting IIFA had a direct link to The Venetian’s objective of building brand and driving traffic by tapping into the Indian population of 1.1billion through televised coverage and free PR. An increase of Indian tourist arrivals into Macau of over 190% in June, with a continued average of just under 30% thereafter. US$10 million of tourist dollars into The Venetian in just 3 days. US$65 million of free PR exposure through the televised event to 600 million people in 110 countries.