A Winning Hand

The Sands Hotel and Casino in-plant plays a huge part in the organization's direct marketing efforts.

A casino is a living, glittering dream world—a fantasy of flashing lights and free drinks; a place where mounds of money chips and jangling jackpots of coins seem within easy reach.

Naturally, every casino wants you to pull its levers and toss money on its tables. So how do the successful ones get you in their doors?

Direct marketing.

At least that's the case at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. By mailing personalized statements out to frequent players, combined with coupons for free services based on how much they've spent, the Sands encourages past spenders to return.

To grab their interest, however, these statements must not only be personal, they must be colorful—and that's where the Sands' in-plant comes in. Working closely with the casino/hotel's direct mail department, the 17-employee Sands in-plant prints four-color shells for these statements, then passes them on to the MIS department, where the variable data is added.

The in-plant, just two blocks from the Atlantic City boardwalk, not only prints for the Sands, but for two casinos run by its parent, Hollywood Casino Corp.—one in Tunica, Miss., and one in Aurora, Ill. It also prints for the Sands in San Juan, Puerto Rico. These jobs are then mailed out from the Sands' New Jersey-based direct mail operation.

"We have the database here and we have the equipment, so it's cheaper for us to have our own mailing operation," remarks Samuel Greene, director of printing operations.

Effective marketing has become increasingly critical for casinos. Now that they've sold the public on the dream of becoming instantly rich, the resulting boom in riverboat and Native American gambling operations has created lots of competition. To catch the public's eye, casinos like the Sands make generous use of color in their marketing materials. Greene says that an amazing 75 percent of his in-plant's printing is four-color work. Plus, 25 percent of that work is either foil stamped or diecut.

A quick look at the in-plant's past work reveals some extremely clever pieces, many with intricate diecuts:

• A Halloween party invitation is cut in the shape of a bat, with its wings folded over itself.

• An invitation to a rock concert is cut in the shape of a guitar—with six foil-stamped strings.

• A '50s dance party invitation shows the back of a pink cadillac; when you lift its trunk, more information appears.

• A dinner invitation features performers' faces on playing cards, one of which has been diecut and tucked into a slot on the front of the folded piece.

During a visit to the in-plant, Greene eagerly shows off these and other samples, including posters, coupons, menus, presentation folders and letterhead. His pride is evident.

In-house Design More Efficient

In addition to duplication and bindery services, Greene oversees the design department, which includes five designers. The Sands is phasing out its use of design agencies and moving its marketing design jobs in-house, Greene says. This is due both to confidentiality concerns and to the need for speed.

"Everything is always urgent," he observes. "Whenever somebody gets a marketing idea it's: 'Quick, let's do it right now.' "

By having the designers in-house, these marketing pieces can be designed and printed more quickly.

Though the in-plant has five Macintosh workstations, getting the first one wasn't easy. It required a bit of deal-making with vendors.

Greene explains that when Besco Graphic Systems, working with Kodak, was trying to get the in-plant to buy its plates, film, chemistry and ink, he made them a deal: if they bought him a new Mac they would get his business. It worked.

In the same deal he also got a Kodak color proofer, processor and laminator, as well as a Log E platemaker—all without dipping into his equipment budget. To top it off, when Sands' management saw how much money was being saved by doing work in-house with the Mac, it bought the in-plant three more.

Greene is spearheading an effort to keep even more work in-house by adding an imagesetter. He recently submitted a proposal detailing how an imagesetter will save $30,000 to $40,000 a year over the cost of doing separations outside.

Fighting Facilities Management

Greene is adamant about tracking costs and computing figures such as this—and it has paid off. In the past two years he has fought off facilities management takeover attempts four times. When the FMs tried to show his management a table of prices that "proved" the FMs were cheaper, Greene made the FMs list prices and quantities for individual jobs. Those prices, he discovered, were higher than what the charts showed.

"The chart was just...to impress somebody," Greene says. "There were a lot of little things it didn't include." Like tax and shipping costs, he notes, neither of which the in-plant charges. When these were added in, the FMs' prices rose. He was thus able to show his management, using figures collected by his Printers Software management system, that the in-plant was a much better deal.

"You have to keep good records of what your cost is. You have to keep your cost down. You have to watch your overhead," he advises. "Seems like every day in your operation you have to be aware that you have the vultures out there trying to take the work away from you."

Excellent Customer Service

Another way Greene maintains a good reputation for the in-plant is by making himself available to customers. Though the in-plant is fortunate to have first refusal rights on all print jobs, he still treats each customer as his most valuable customer.

"We're almost like salespeople," he remarks. "We stay as visible as possible. It's important as director to actually go out [and visit]. If there's a problem, I try not to solve it on the telephone; I like to go right to the person in the office."

Greene has seen a lot of changes in his 14 years in the casino industry. Other casino in-plants have disappeared as acquisitions brought new owners who, in their haste to trim expenses, failed to look beyond the overhead costs of in-house printing. Fortunately, the Sands' owners, Hollywood Casino, are smart enough to recognize the savings their in-plant provides.

But as for the Atlantic City casino industry itself, Greene sees no end to the acquisitions.

"In 10 years from now there's only going to be about two or three big fish down here owning everything," he speculates. "It's truly a Monopoly game here." IPG

You can contact Bob Neubauer at:

bneubauer@napco.com

Quick Look

Sands Hotel and Casino

Atlantic City, N.J.

• Director of printing: Sam Greene

• Operating budget: $3 million

• Employees: 17

• Four-color work: 75 percent

• Size of shop: 7,500 square feet

• Specialities: printing four-color shells for direct mail marketing materials; foil stamping; diecutting.

• Partial equipment list: