Earlier this year, the owners of the famous Las Vegas Hilton (originally the International, where Elvis played) lost their Hilton franchise and had to change their name.  Managing old school style (one of the reasons they may have lost their franchise) they decided to change the name to something simple, yet catchy.  “Las Vegas Hotel”" or simply “LVH”

The moment they announced the name change, I knew this was strictly an Ivory Tower/ management decision, and not one well researched by marketing or the front line staff. And one that would bite them in the backside soon..

It Bit Them badly

According to one local business article, the marketing people may have been in with the decision makers.  Old school, in not understanding the new world of marketing.  Thinking they just need to print up some new brochures, change the heading and logo, make a few phone calls to brokers… and… “Puff” it’s all done.  The Internet will catch up with them…  nothing to worry about.

The Las Vegas Sun and it’s sister publication, Vegas Inc. ran an article on searching for the new hotel name on the web.  The new hotel name only appears in the top  10 of a Google search, because of a blogger.  The front nine are schools and medical companies. They appear once in the top ten of a Google Search because of a blogger, not because of their own SEO.  A blogger beats the big boys.

What Went Wrong?

If I had a client that came to me and said they wanted to change to a popular, generic word for a business name, I would have told them to please reconsider.  If not, let’s get busy and do some suicide prevention.

I call it suicide prevention because that’s what it is.  In a time when most of Las Vegas is hurting for business, and you don’t consider the impact of an important marketing channel (the Internet) in your business decisions,  I figure your just committing suicide.

1. Change The Name.  Not So generic..  Please.  for the love of the bank account… Change the name!
2. Start the new marketing immediately.  Not really a campaign because this will be an ongoing process.  They had several months of planning before they had to drop the Hilton name.  You start getting the new name out ASAP.  This includes on your own website.
3. I would set up other websites for the specific purpose of alerting everyone to the new name. Even MGM and locals giant Stations Casino set up new websites to brag about their remodeled properties.  So why not do the same for something this important??
4. Start a blog on the main website the moment the news became public. Detail out the changes.  Mentioning the name change often.  Yes, talk about the process.  What is happening and how it’s all going.  Get social and even point out the delays and flaws.  Make it personal.
5. Optimize every profile for the new name. SEO your social media profiles to focus on the name and new tagline.  Point them all to the new and improved website(s)
6. Get others to join in the message. Google your business name and find others who wrote about you recently.  Ask them to please go back into recent articles or post an update on the name change.  This will help you and them with new Google Luv.
7. Don’t think the Internet will catch up with you.  It won’t. Be in front of the internet.  Be proactive and consistent.

Hey LVH… Call Me, Let’s talk.  I can help!!