MGM Resorts wanted to help position its brand among millennials as the world’s leading entertainment company and its 14 Las Vegas properties as must-visit destinations. MGM Resorts lines the Vegas strip with over a dozen unique destinations from Bellagio to ARIA. Each property offers bespoke experiences, so MGM wanted to build broad awareness of its Las Vegas portfolio amongst a millennial audience as well as create unique and memorable experiences for their customers and fans.

This required a break-through creative execution that could bring the excitement of MGM Resorts right into millennial consumers’ social feeds by leveraging Thrillist’s trusted voice.

The creative result was “Roll The Dice” -- an eight-part interactive Facebook video campaign centered around a man-on-the-street game show. “Roll The Dice” showcased MGM’s hottest Vegas entertainment as unsuspecting Sin City visitors answered trivia for huge prizes and a chance for an only-at-MGM experience.

But we didn’t stop there. We leveraged Facebook’s new Game Show API -- making MGM the first brand to create a Facebook live game show -- to extend “Roll The Dice” live into Facebook users’ feeds, so they too could play some Vegas trivia.

MGM partnered with Thrillist to leverage the digital publisher’s authoritative voice on how to live your best life. The brand wanted to reach millennials at scale, so we opted to create an eight-part, original mobile video series optimized for Facebook distribution. “Roll The Dice” needed to highlight MGM’s Las Vegas portfolio and its unique entertainment offerings along the strip.

For the surprise 9th episode, we tapped MGM comedian, Kevin Fredericks, A.K.A KevOnStage, to host our live game show. Facebook users who answered every question correctly were entered to win an amazing MGM VIP package, which included a suite at the Park MGM, VIP tables at ‘On the Record’ Speakeasy and Club, dinner at CATCH at Aria, and a spa day at the Bellagio.

On the production side, we initially planned for eight episodes. However, Facebook viewers were so engaged with “Roll The Dice” and asked how they too could play the trivia game. We responded to viewers’ requests to get in on the fun by creating the first branded Game Show on Facebook with our surprise, interactive ninth episode. In doing so, we had to figure out the nuances and the very specific needs for this totally new, live, mobile, social video format. We were also tasked with creating trivia questions that progressed from easy to hard and felt like homages to Las Vegas.

Logistically, we needed to live stream through the Facebook API in this new format via an MGM studio, while visually integrating both partners’ branding in an extremely narrow (9:16), static shot.

We targeted millennial Facebook users interested in “Las Vegas,” “Game Show,” and retargeted previous “Roll The Dice” campaign viewers.

We made a huge bet to enable MGM to become the first brand to leverage Facebook’s new Game Show API with our surprise ninth episode of “Roll The Dice.” Our live, mobile, social game show reached over 2MM Facebook users and 18K new MGM showpage fans. Even more remarkable was the fact that “Roll The Dice” broadcast retained 100% of its live audience throughout the entire game show, even though contestants who answered incorrectly were out of the running for the grand prize.

Overall, MGM’s “Roll The Dice” campaign reached 41MM people and generated 40MM video views. According to our Facebook Brand Study, MGM enjoyed:

--An incremental 1.25MM people with intent to visit Vegas -- a key metric that is historically hard to move given its already high baseline.

--10% lift in brand favorability for MGM

--11% “Roll The Dice” Live Ad Recall

--8% “Roll The Dice” Live Brand Awareness