VICE PRESIDENT | SALES, MARKETING & ENTERTAINMENT
Oneida Indian Nation's Turning Stone Resort & Casino complex • Verona, NY
July, 2006 to present
Led award-winning sales, consumer and casino marketing, entertainment, public relations and Internet marketing teams for complex of four hotels (with two AAA 4-diamond award winners), event center and showroom, destination spa, five golf courses (including a PGA Tour tournament), 120,000 sq ft casino (more than 2,400 machines, 87 table games, 32 poker tables), 21 restaurants, nightclub and more than 100,000 sq ft of meeting/conference space; departments supervised totaled more than 200 employees
- Launched resort's first destination marketing/branding campaign, led agency selection and supervision, uniquely targeted casino visitors by zip code cross indexed with vacation, golf and spa travel patterns; travel agent marketing resulted in 253% increase in recognition of an "outstanding vacation experience” (Questex research)
- Negotiated with AAA and created branding theme which positioned Turning Stone as "one of AAA's top 20 diamond award winning resorts in North America"
- Led sales team (hotel, meetings, groups, tours) selling more than 50,000 room nights annually
- Revamped branding, advertising, collateral and other materials for resort, casino, hotels, spas, golf courses and restaurants; created/edited quarterly newsmagazine
- Introduced new reservations portal with TravelClick and entry to GDS; supervised creation of five new websites; initiated first email newsletters and online marketing campaigns; increased email database from 40,000 to 250,000 in less than one year
- Supervised special events team developing monthly traffic-building promotions, including major events and festivals such as Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo, Feast of San Gennaro, many others
- Launched marketing program for the first PGA Tour event (the $6 million Turning Stone Resort Championship) held on Native American soil, attracting first-year attendance of nearly 50,000
- Responsible for Casino Marketing and VIP Player events and tournaments, including Kentucky Derby, NASCAR, Super Bowl, Lightening Poker, many others
- Managed entertainment and showroom facilities, operations, booking and personnel; venues nominated as Casino of the Year by Country Music Association; hosted more than 150 concerts and performances annually (Mariah Carey, Black Eyed Peas, Tony Bennett, Tim McGraw, Bill Maher, Carrie Underwood, et al)
- Created and edited quarterly glossy newsmagazine, Turning Stone Spirit
- Introduced marketing program for Skaná, the Spa at Turning Stone; public relations efforts earned recognition in Condé Nast Traveler's “Hot List” and as one of Spa Magazine's "Best New Spas"
- Ran in-house advertising agency (creative, media and production teams) for local markets; supervised selection and operations of outside advertising and public relations agencies for national markets
- Honored with 24 awards for marketing, branding, advertising and communications excellence in one year, including television and print advertising, websites, Internet marketing, direct mail, brochures and others
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