THE AUDITION

TitleTHE AUDITION
BrandMELCO CROWN ENTERTAINMENT
Product / ServiceINTEGRATED CASINO RESORTS
CategoryA04. Travel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains
EntrantFLEISHMAN HILLARD Hong Kong, HONG KONG
PR FLEISHMAN HILLARD Hong Kong, HONG KONG
PR 2 STRATEGIC PUBLIC RELATIONS GROUP Hong Kong, HONG KONG
Idea Creation FLEISHMAN HILLARD Hong Kong, HONG KONG

Credits

Name Company Position
Chris Plowman BlueCurrent l FleishmanHillard SVP & Partner
Alex Lanceley FleishmanHillard SVP & Partner
Kitty Lee FleishmanHillard SVP
Mandy Go SPRG Director
Denise Siu SPRG Account Manager
Karen Tang SPRG Account Manager

The Campaign

How do you promote resorts with casinos in markets where you can’t promote gaming. You don’t. You promote a movie set in casinos! Inspired by the Hollywood-themed Studio City, ‘The Audition’ was a short film that featured both City of Dreams Manila and Studio City as the backdrop to its storyline and starred some of Hollywood’s most famous names. It delivered us a perfect platform for a PR campaign that put the film at its centre - our entire communications strategy was built around 'The Audition'. The popularity of movies and the stars in our target markets attracted high levels of media and consumer exposure, while the universal language of film and broad appeal of Hollywood assured us media attention on a global scale.

Execution

Following a series of events that featured a launch press conference, three roadshows across China for media, travel partners and consumers, a date reveal announcement and accompanying hard-hat media tour, the grand finale of the campaign saw the global premiere of The Audition at the grand opening event of Studio City, with international socialites, celebrities, and media from around the world in attendance. A long list of Asian and global superstars graced ‘The Audition’ Premiere Red Carpet and the world’s media were there to capture every single moment. At the press conference, Melco Crown Entertainment’s Co-Chairmen Lawrence Ho and James Packer shared the stage with the Hollywood icons, with Leonardo DiCaprio delivering the best quote of the night, “bringing the cinematic spirit to Macau for us is amazing, and being here especially representing this movie to open it all up, is fantastic and an honor”.

• Earned global coverage in the world’s top print titles, mainstream broadcast channels and online, valued at US$35 million • 33 million impressions and over 50,000 active discussions on social media • 8.5 million through the doors of City of Dreams Manila in 2015 • One million visitors to Studio City in its first month and 4.5 million since launch, hotel occupancy over 90% since opening • Double digit tourism growth in the Philippines and up 9% for Macau, in 2015

The Situation

How do you promote two integrated casino resorts that are launching within months of each other, amidst an uncertain global economy, declining gaming revenues, and in markets where the promotion of gaming is either super sensitive or strictly prohibited? Ours was a complex, significant and seemingly insurmountable communications challenge. Our solution was bold, ambitious and stunningly simple. We made a Hollywood movie! Not just any Hollywood movie, but one that stars some of the greatest names in Tinseltown's history. Then built our PR-led campaign entirely around it.

The Strategy

This was not celebrity for the sake of celebrity. It was a well-thought-through strategic move. Leveraging ‘The Audition’ throughout our communications campaign, we ‘directed’ De Niro in a video as if speaking to Manila from Las Vegas, then revealed him live on stage to a standing ovation from the crowd and the media. We wrote a script for Martin Scorsese, the award-winning director, to record a personal video message for media. Our press events featured film reel effect staging, film studio lighting, a film canister time capsule, clapperboard moments, and an opening date reveal film countdown. We took the resorts to the media, travel trade partners and consumers by building miniature sets inside shopping malls and took our legendary cast with us by creating life-size cardboard cut-outs, which proved hugely popular with people eager to share selfies with the Hollywood stars through social media, helping to further amplify our message.