The Challenge
Harrah’s Resort SoCal had a familiar problem hiding behind a healthy balance sheet. The brand had a lot working against it including being stuck behind another casino, 60 miles outside of San Diego. Leadership was running plays from a success model that hadn’t evolved much in years. And employees weren’t nudged to try anything new, let alone given something meaningfully different to latch onto, rally around, or get excited about beyond the everyday things you’d find at a casino.
The Courage
knowledge
We started by listening. The brand had made significant capital investments across the property including investing in a Lazy River, So Cal’s only Swim Up Bar and a brand new Event Center. It earned them “Resort” status — one of only 6 Harrah’s in America to do so. We then interviewed leadership and diagnosed employee surveys where we discovered Harrah’s didn’t have a product or market issue but an identity problem. Our mission was to create enough curiosity that people would be willing to drive 60 miles out of their way to see what this new “destination” was all about.
faith
Clarity needed a rally cry, so we recommended a truly courageous idea: building an entire city around it. Being on tribal land, we worked with the Tribe to legally change the name of the city Harrah’s resides in to Funner, California! It would spark an entirely new identity the whole organization could get behind.
action
With leadership in alignment, we ran mandatory training sessions across the 2500 team members educating them on how to deliver on the premise of Funner: a city of chance, choice, and delight. And we created a new advertising campaign: “Fun Is Boring. Choose Funner” to showcase the delta that lived between most routine fun choices and the spontaneity that happens at Funner, CA.
