In our ongoing From One Operator to Another series, we sit down with industry leaders to talk about the real challenges and opportunities they face in their day-to-day work. This issue, we connected with Lacy Applegate, Vice President of Marketing at Downstream Casino, to get her take on how data is shaping marketing strategies and decision-making in today’s competitive gaming environment.
Lacy shared her perspective on using data not just as a tool for discovery, but as a guide for making smarter decisions. She also talked about the importance of keeping things simple, avoiding “analysis paralysis,” and how her team is evolving after attending the Casino Marketing & Technology Conference (CMTC) last summer.
Q: You’ve said you enjoy digging into data — what excites you most about it, and how do you decide which questions to ask?
A: I try to start with the questions “What were we trying to achieve?” and “How will we measure success?” This might sound a little wild, but I think most marketers get a charge out of seeing the black and white results of the behavior changes that we created. Whether we’ve succeeded or not, you have a new puzzle piece to add to what you know about the people in your database.
Q: When it comes to interpreting data, what are some of the biggest challenges you and your team face?
A: Too many systems. After speaking with some other casino marketers at CMTC, I learned that I’m not alone. There are so many great data tools in the market, but finding one that integrates with every other piece of your business and gives operations, IT, marketing, audit, and each venue what they need seems overwhelming.
Q: “Analysis paralysis” can be a real issue in marketing — how do you balance detail with keeping things simple and actionable?
A: I go back to those first two questions. Once we have what we need to answer those questions, we can dig in and get curious. It’s fun to find patterns that you didn’t notice before and then look at historical data and find out it’s always been there. My advice is to start with what’s on the tracking sheet first, then follow your curiosity as time allows.
Q: How important is consistency when looking at data over time, compared to adjusting for every possible factor?
A: You can wear yourself out trying to account for every anomaly in your analysis. I think it’s more important to be consistent in how you track success than to try to adjust for every human motivation you can brainstorm. If I want to add another factor to our analysis tracking, I start adding it to the history first to see if it’s actionable. If not, we make a note and move on to the next one.
Q: After attending the Casino Marketing & Technology Conference, what new perspectives or approaches to data are you bringing back to your team?
A: That we need help! As a resort property without any kind of corporate structure, everything comes from one team. I came home from CMTC and started convincing the manager on my team with the strongest database skills to accept a new challenge. We’ve promoted her to database manager, and she will begin her training program with Raving in a couple of weeks.
Q: You mentioned rethinking how to forecast a player’s potential worth — what sparked that shift, and how do you see it influencing your strategy?
A: It was the morning of the first day of the conference. Michael Minnier’s session titled Are You Missing VIPs? The Truth About ADT, ADW, and Predictive Analytics was dynamite. I’d heard about updated worth calculations but had a hard time finding information to back up any specific formula. I wasn’t willing to shake up my business for a new calculation if I couldn’t enthusiastically advocate for it. Michael’s explanation and the backup testing and research he presented were better than anything I’ve seen before. We’re currently looking at how this calculation would change our expenses and outcomes using historical data and hope to roll out some improvements over the next year.
