Marketing with Technology and More

When Vegas has Bad Luck

I am a lucky guy, I turn 50 this week, and as a birthday present, my wife has taken me on a surprise trip to Las Vegas.  Las Vegas hotels however were not  so lucky this weekend when it comes to technology.  It seems that recently all of the hotels in the MGM Mirage Hotel group switched hotel reservations and front desk operations to a system called Opera.  On Friday, Opera decided not to function, or at least not to function much of the time.

If there was ever any doubt about the role that technology plays in our lives, or how it can impact a customer’s perception of a company or product, this disaster made it crystal clear.  When we arrived at The Bellagio, there were literally hundreds of people in lines at registration.  Hotel managers were hovering near the front door, informing us that the people in line had been there for about three hours, and that they did no know when the computers were coming back on line.

We queued up, and waited.  Some lines moved extremely slowly, others were a bit quicker, but if you can imagine the chaos involved in assigning rooms in a hotel with over a thousand rooms, when you don’t know for sure if the previous guests had checked out, you can get a sense of what the atmosphere was like.

The hotel staff was doing the best that they could, passing out water, cookies, answering questions, and trying to keep the more boisterous from rioting.  It became apparent quickly from a business perspective how massive the business loss was.  All of the people in line should have been in shops spending money, or in the casino losing it.  Instead they were like cattle waiting to be fed going nowhere fast. 

When we finally were assigned a room, it was not what my wife had booked.  It was also a smoking room (a very smoky smelling smoking room).  When we called the front desk, which was next to impossible to reach, they told us all room changes had been stopped for 24 hours, but we would receive a food credit, so to enjoy dinner on them (which was a good idea since none of the computers in the bars or restaurants worked either, and they could only accept cash or credit card. 

Today, the computers are up and down.  We were assigned to a new room.  When we arrived with our luggage in tow, there was a do not disturb sign on the door.  The bellman called, and sure enough, someone was in there.  Back to the front desk (since we had already checked out of the room we were in (which was also next to a large construction site that began work at 2AM (the hotel graciously sent us earplugs).   They told us not to worry, they would assign us a great room, the manager went into the back and returned with the key to the room we had just left.

Well, it’s Vegas, maybe their bad luck will be my good luck in the casino, but the key to remember is have a backup plan in place.

DMA Conference - A New Look at The Digital Frontier

The DMA conference wrapped up this week, and it was a great week.  First of all, for us at SubscriberMail, it was the unveiling of our new branding (logo, booth, etc).  For us that is significant.  However, I think more significant was a subtle shift in the DMA’s attitude towards the digital marketing community.

Those of you who have followed this blog over the years may have seen my posts here about how in past years the email marketing community has been treated as the ugly stepchild of the direct marketing industry.  Well, this year, it seemed like we were finally accepted into the family.  No more digital ghetto (like last year), no lack of an email category in the directory (like the previous).  Digital was front and center.  A major section in the main hall at the show.

It is great to see this organization moving in a digital direction.  Let’s face it, direct mail is not dead, but it has been severely wounded by mounting postal rates an increased focus on “green marketing,” and consumer responsiveness.  This is the industry I grew up in, so I don’t want to see it harmed, but I also realize that it is undergoing dramatic changes.

What remains to be seen is where the DMA weighs in on the legislative side.  As a lobbying organization, their primary focus is still on postal rates.  There are many major challenges facing the digital side of the industry from a legislative perspective.  DMA has the ability to assume a leadership role.  They also have the ability to mess it up royally (like they did when it came to defining opt-in).  As a member, I’m hoping they move in the digital direction.