![How Content Takes the Stage to Change Brand Perception [Example]](http://www.marketinghub.today/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/how-content-takes-the-stage-to-change-brand-perception-example.png "How Content Takes the Stage to Change Brand Perception [Example]")
With its flagship property, MGM Grand, associated so closely with Las Vegas, few people realize how many properties the company operates (in Las Vegas and around the world), let alone what MGM Resorts offers apart from a casino experience. Help individual voices work within an ensemble MGM Resorts International operates many well-known destination brands including Aria, Bellagio, MGM Grand, The Mirage, Circus Circus, and others in Las Vegas. 08.24.18 https://t.co/ek5eqWrtDv pic.twitter.com/tq3GSK3O9g — MGM Springfield (@MGMSpringfield) August 20, 2018 The content ties the new property to many Vegas staples, but also shows what the property offers regardless of your interest in gambling. Much of the related content created and promoted by Beverly’s team rolls out on social channels (as in this example): But the MGM Resorts team also looks at creating experiences that bring people along the customer journey. This content comes from Beverly’s team of strategists and “makers,” who create and execute stories across every touchpoint at every experience. Most of the team can shoot and edit video plus create content and lay out the strategy for how it can be used across channels. This area is in transition because of the shift from gaming and hospitality brand to an entertainment brand. Beverly’s team tracks where the traffic comes from on social channels as well as how social moves people through the MGM experience. To find out live who is named the 2018 Content Marketer of the Year (and lots of things to help your content marketing program), register today for Content Marketing World Sept. 4-7 in Cleveland, Ohio. Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute Author: Carla Johnson Recognized as one of the top 50 influencers in content marketing, Carla's latest book, Experience: The 7th Era of Marketing, with CMI's Robert Rose, teaches marketers how to develop, manage, and lead the creation of valuable experiences in their organizations.
Editor’s note: Beverly Jackson is a finalist for 2018 Content Marketer of the Year. We’ll share insight from CMY finalists in the blog before the winner is announced at Content Marketing World in September.
When was the last time you went to a casino? When was the last time you went to Las Vegas just for the gambling?
Though plenty of people do, a much larger set of people don’t put gambling or Las Vegas at the top of their what-to-do-for-fun lists.
How to gain recognition in a larger market – while keeping existing customers clamoring to return – posed a challenge for MGM Resorts International. With its flagship property, MGM Grand, associated so closely with Las Vegas, few people realize how many properties the company operates (in Las Vegas and around the world), let alone what MGM Resorts offers apart from a casino experience.
Shifting the market’s perception of the company from gaming is the goal of the digital, organizational, and cultural transformation the company is going through. Instead of simply gaming, MGM Resorts wants its 28 global properties to be known for something with a near universal appeal – entertainment.
Content stands center stage in this effort. But it isn’t just any content.
“You don’t say you’re going to compete with Disney and then put out content that looks like Firestone,” says Beverly Jackson, vice president of social strategy at MGM Resorts International.
Beverly’s work as head of the team that strategizes, conceives, creates, and distributes the social content promoting these experiences earned her a nomination for Content Marketer of the Year. And it offers several lessons for other marketers.
Help individual voices work within an ensemble
MGM Resorts International operates many well-known destination brands including Aria, Bellagio, MGM Grand, The Mirage, Circus Circus, and others in Las Vegas. Many of these properties have distinct brand characteristics and audience segments. Aria, for example, touts smart-technology experiences like tablet-controlled services, while Circus Circus focuses on family-friendly, theme-park-style experiences.
When Beverly joined the company in 2015, one of her challenges was to create a social strategy and presence for the parent brand, MGM Resorts International. Although people knew individual properties’ brands, the parent brand only mattered on Wall Street as investors evaluated the company’s overall inventory.
Beverly first brought together all of the brands’ social and content strategists and creators into one central department. Though they now work together, the teams preserve the tone and approach that make sense for each property.
Consider the difference in tone between this tweet from Circus Circus:
There’s nothing like this feeling…RT if you agree. pic.twitter.com/uxow81DruB
— Circus Circus (@CircusVegas) June 30, 2018
And this one from Aria:
Embrace the sights of spring. https://t.co/OINWT2Skjx pic.twitter.com/fBT7wsNac0
— ARIA Las Vegas (@AriaLV) April 10, 2018
Though the experience on display differs, the theme of entertainment unites them. In fact, the idea that entertainment is a human invention ties together the brand content.
And that emphasis on entertainment extends to properties far beyond the Strip. Social content counting down to the August 2018 opening of the MGM Springfield in Massachusetts, for example, highlighted the range of entertainment available.
Gaming gets a plug. But so do wining and dining.
The countdown has begun which means @ChefMichaelMina‘s Cal Mare culinary delights are that much closer. https://t.co/cwPHkQ7dmo pic.twitter.com/SgLM159MlW
— MGM Springfield (@MGMSpringfield) August 14, 2018
… and even quietly reading.
Relax, unwind, and let your imagination wander in 4 days. 08.24.18 https://t.co/ek5eqWrtDv pic.twitter.com/tq3GSK3O9g
— MGM Springfield (@MGMSpringfield) August 20, 2018
The content ties the new property to many Vegas staples, but also shows what the property offers regardless of your interest in gambling. The Boston Globe took…
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