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Proforma GPS helps Hot Shot Slots explode in popularity
To promote its Hot Shot Progressive slot game, Bally Technologies sent bottles of private label hot sauce packaged in a firecracker tube with marketing collateral to key contacts at casinos. Proforma GPS, Las Vegas, came up with the idea as a way to facilitate follow up calls by Bally sales reps.
The introduction of Hot Shot Progressive slots caused Las Vegas game-manufacturer Bally Technologies’ stock to double. “This was the most successful gaming launch in the 75-year history of the company,” says Steve Raucher, partner at Proforma GPS, a Las Vegas-based promotional products distributorship. “Can it be attributed to me? No, but I did help support it.”
Today, Hot Shot Progressive slot machines appear in nearly 200 casinos across 24 states and Canada. Progressive linked slot machines are connected to one another. A portion of the money that each player gambles is contributed to an overall jackpot, which anyone in any of the casinos can potentially win.
After the game was developed, Bally Technologies had two objectives. First, it needed decision-makers at casinos to adopt the games. Then it needed to promote the game to potential players. “One is push down, and one is pull-through,” says Raucher. “It’s one thing to get machines placed in a casino, and it’s another to get people to play them.”
Proforma GPS helped on both fronts by supplying promotional products. The distributorship serves the technology, telecommunications, broadband, wireless, automotive and retail markets, but the gaming industry is its bread and butter.
Raucher’s relationships with casinos and their vendors made him the go-to guy to support Bally Technologies’ B2B and B2C campaigns. The senior vice president of marketing needed to capture the attention of the decision-makers at these properties, so when sales associates called, they had their immediate attention,” Raucher says. “He leaves the product up to us. There are certain things we know it needs to accomplish from years of experience.”
Raucher generates ideas in a variety of ways. He rides his bike, brainstorms with his business partner and researches possibilities on the internet. As the creative process unfolds, he adheres to a concrete principle: “Come up with the right product to communicate the message and extend the brand properly in the marketplace.”
For Bally Technologies, Raucher offered a bottle of private label hot sauce packaged in a firecracker tube with collateral about the machines. The packages were sent to decision-makers, and then Bally’s sales reps followed up with phone calls and appointments.
“Come up with the right product to communicate the message and extend the brand properly in the marketplace.”
Steve Raucher, Partner
Proforma GPS, Las Vegas
As casinos came on board, Raucher’s attention turned to the players. Bally Technologies invited consumers to special events at the casinos, where they were introduced to the games. Raucher provided giveaways, including 60,000 miniature bottles of hot sauce featuring custom labels, imprinted boxes of red hot mints and T-shirts. “This campaign had to have national reach,” he says. “To promote the games, we used the Hot Shot slot machine’s prominent flame theme to link all the elements.”
Bally Technologies’ bottom-line growth is one indication that the campaigns worked, but measuring the overall effect of promotional products is still difficult, if not impossible. Yet there are instances, like this one, when everything just feels right. “Sometimes you just know a product is going to communicate the correct message and tie in just right to the theme,” he says. “The products are perfect, the budget is there and it all falls into place.”
—Andy Brown