Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Caesars Sportsbook — it was built in 99 days. The US-based outlet of sports betting company William Hill, was acquired by Caesars Entertainment in April 2021. We had just a few short months until NFL season to build a completely different sports betting brand, along with re-branding the app and customer experience.
Through a series of iterative research & focus groups, we uncovered an insight that determined our white space for the category, and formed our brand positioning rallying cry: We Are All Caesars. This positioning worked to reinforce our core differentiator, Caesars Rewards, while staying true to the roots of the Caesars brand: Caesars founder Jay Sarno decided in 1966 to intentionally leave out the apostrophe from “Caesars Palace” because he wanted Caesars to be a place where everyone could feel like royalty.
This strategic North Star was the core of brand and campaign executional components including:
A 360 creative ad campaign — from TV, OOH, partnerships and digital, to even wrapping Ubers to look like chariots
Full-scale media plan at both the national and local level, including the first-ever NFL in-game broadcast placements for sports betting
Integrated customer experience that carried the brand look, tone and feel through from the app itself to inside our casino properties
Best-in-class promotions that drove home our differentiation
Caesars Sportsbook launched in August 2021, and met or exceeded customer acquisition goals while also growing unaided brand awareness over 1000% during the NFL season — capped off by a spot in Super Bowl LVI.
