Valley Native Rises to Top of Hotel-Casino World

Back in the year 2000, Ronn Nicolli took a trip to Las Vegas to clear his head.

The Austintown native was 22 years old at the time, had just gone through a breakup and needed some space.

He didn’t have much of a plan but figured he would stay in Vegas for a while, and then head to New York.

But with his education in marketing and love for the hospitality industry, it soon became apparent that he was right where he belonged.

Today, Nicolli is chief marketing officer of Resorts World Las Vegas – one of the newest, largest and most impressive casino-hotel properties in the world.

He leads a team that won multiple industry awards this year for its “Rule the World” marketing campaign.

Nicolli’s atypical business style, knack for spotting trends and ability to create next-level experiences for visitors propelled him to the pinnacle of his field.

How he got there is a testament to his talent, ability to seize opportunities and the work ethic that was instilled in him by growing up in Youngstown.

Early Days

Nicolli arrived in Las Vegas with $200, his pet cat and a bruised state of mind.

“I was supposed to get married but called it off a week before the wedding,” he said during a recent teleconference interview from his office.

“I went to Las Vegas to decompress. Youngstown is a great town, but it’s small and I didn’t want to bump into people I knew. It was an opportunity to hide and heal.”

He figured he would hang around for maybe six months, make a pile of cash as a bartender, and then try his luck in New York. In the back of his mind, he assumed he would eventually make his way back to Youngstown.

Six months turned into a year, and negative thoughts were creeping into Nicolli’s head.

So the Youngstown State University marketing major picked up a job in his field that was about as entry level as it gets – handing out flyers for a club on the Strip. The year was 2005.

“I was in this weird ecosystem in which I thought that going home would look like failure,” he says of his decision to take the job. “The six-month plan wasn’t working, and a friend asked if I wanted to be a promoter for nightclubs at the Wynn hotel-casino. I didn’t know what that meant in Las Vegas, but I took it. It was the lowest-ranking job you can get. I was passing out flyers on the street in a 110-degree summer.”

But that was when “the Youngstown state of mind” came into play, he says.

“If I was going to do it, I was going to be the best at it,” he says. “It just came down to competing against the other people in the room.”

Despite his indifference for the things that make Vegas what it is – or maybe because of it – Nicolli’s knack for marketing emerged and his career quickly advanced.

“I have no vices,” he says. “I don’t drink or gamble. I don’t really like going out [to clubs and bars]. I used that to my advantage in a city where everyone in a similar position enjoyed those things. My focus became work.”

Nicolli has had great success over the years in booking major pop artists – which is amazing because he doesn’t even listen to music.

“But I understand the trends of music,” he says, “and how a consumer will react to it.”

By 2011, Nicolli was named executive director of marketing for nightlife at the Wynn, managing the property’s marketing team and directing all digital marketing projects.

In 2016, he was promoted to senior executive director of nightlife marketing, developing strategic placements for billboards, magazines, online banners and other advertising, and overseeing all media placements for the nightlife division’s celebrity talent.

When he realized that creating experiences for vacationers is his forte, and Las Vegas is where he belongs, Nicolli finally saw his future. He committed to staying.

“Initially, I thought there was an expiration date [on my time in Vegas],” he says. “My overall goal was to make great money and come home in five years and buy a house and lead a very minimal life. It looked like I was on course with that plan.”

A little background reveals the origins of that mindset.

Nicolli’s first job was at a nightclub in Austintown that changed its name and its theme every year or so. He figured a career in that industry would be equally short-lived.

“I had worked at The Mill, which then became Club 1743 [in Austintown],” he says. “Nightclubs were always being recycled and were temporary in nature. So I thought [my job in Vegas] would come to an end. Plus, I had a conceptualization that I would lead a simple life.”

After about five years as a street promoter, Nicolli had paid his dues and began to separate from the pack.

“When they realized I had an education in marketing, they asked if I could help with billboards,” he says. “I had no idea how to do that, but realized if I asked too many questions, they’d just go to the guy next to me. But that’s what got me off the street, so to speak.”

After years of growing nightlife brands at the Wynn and working directly with entertainers, Nicolli knew his vertical was entertainment marketing.

The Palms, Resorts World

The clubs Nicolli led at the Wynn were some of the top ones in the world at the time, and the industry’s leaders were taking notice of his work.

Six years ago, casino developers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta asked Nicolli to head up nightlife at their new resort, the Palms. He was named senior vice president of creative strategy, a position that entailed marketing and business development.

“It was a step out of my comfort zone,” Nicolli says, but he took the position.

It also sparked a very public legal battle with the Wynn, which sued him for violation of a noncompete agreement. “I didn’t take it personally, and we all came out of it OK,” Nicolli says.

As a senior vice president at the Palms, he co-led the nightlife division, maintained oversight over talent and handled marketing and public relations during the property’s $620 million renovation.

He also led creative concept meetings and developed a cohesive brand.

The few years Nicolli spent at the Palms are what led him to his current position at Resorts World Las Vegas, where he made the final ascent of the marketing mountain.

Resorts World hired him as vice president of marketing in February 2020 – at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a time of great uncertainty.

“I got here when it was dust and dirt,” he says of Resorts. “We didn’t know if nightlife was coming back. The world was shut down, and there wasn’t much going on in entertainment.”

When he started, Resorts was building the $5 billion property. It was the Strip’s first resort development in over a decade and the most expensive construction project in the world at the time.

Nicolli was among a handful of key executives trying to launch the property and navigate it through the pandemic. He soon was given extra duties as vice president of nightlife, which he gladly took on.

“I was just happy to have a job,” he says. “I said, ‘Throw any title at me – I’m going to take it on.”

Resorts World opened its doors in June 2021.

“We got it open, and it was amazing, incredible and a tremendous success,” Nicolli says.

But six months in, the management felt that the property needed a boost in developing brand recognition. They turned to Nicolli for help and offered him a promotion to chief marketing officer.

“Initially, I wasn’t into it,” he says. “I was on top of the world, and our clubs were doing well. But I reconsidered it and said yes.”

Even though Nicolli never dreamed he’d become CMO of a major resort, he had reached the top. “If I would say this was always my goal, it would be a lie,” he says.

Marketing Campaign

A year and a half ago, Nicolli and his staff began developing what would become the “Rule the World” marketing campaign for Resorts World Las Vegas.

It started when he and his “right-hand man,” Nick Martini, were walking around the property on a busy Saturday night.

“Luke Bryan was in the theater,” he says. “Top Rank Boxing and [famed DJ] Tiesto were also on the property. It was 11:30 p.m., and everything was letting out and the nightclub was getting started. We saw so much energy, so many characters and individual identities roaming around. I said, ‘This is Resorts World. We’re seeing it; we’re living it. It’s so broad, so diverse.”

Nicolli started writing a video treatment for an ad campaign that would convey the excitement he witnessed.

The “Rule the World” effort, which was launched last summer, garnered three platinum audio-visual arts awards from the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals, as well as other accolades.

“It was spawned by the two of us walking around the property, seeing the activeness of the consumers, and asking, ‘How do we bottle this up in a 30-second message to get people excited about what we are seeing right now?” he says.

Martini is vice president of marketing at Resorts World Las Vegas – and a Youngstown-area native. “He is my counterbalance,” Nicolli says. “He keeps me landed regarding what we can do within our budget.” The two have been friends for many years.

Martini put Nicolli’s career in perspective.

“Ronn has become one of the most well-known and respected marketing professionals in Vegas,” Martini says. “I find myself proud to call him my friend for life and to have grown with him from our humble beginnings in Youngstown. I know he’s far from being done, and really look forward to what we can accomplish working together in the years ahead.”

Career Advice

Resorts World Las Vegas is enormous.

It has a 3,600-room hotel and a casino. The property boasts 40 food and beverage entities, a nightclub and a dayclub and a 5,000-seat theater venue that hosts sporting events and concerts. Major stars – including Katy Perry, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Tiesto, Post Malone, Kevin Hart and Celine Dion – have played there.

The venue also hosts professional boxing and mixed martial arts cards.

Nicolli says the human connection is the foundation of marketing and producing events.

“You have to speak their language and be genuine in your approach,” he says. “You have to touch them to create action, or you will lose them.”

He likens a marketing effort to a good dinnertime conversation.

“The worst feeling is when you are having a fluent conversation at the dinner table and then there’s an awkward moment when it halts,” he says. “Marketing should never have an awkward pause. Through the many channels, you have to keep the communication active, because to reengage after a pause is so much harder.”

Nicolli’s position requires constant attention. He is on the Resorts World property seven days a week, for at least 12 hours a day. “It’s not a job,” he says. “It’s a lifestyle.”

Nicolli traces the genesis of his success to a chance meeting with Scott Menke, a major Vegas casino operator, during his first year in town. Menke would become his friend and mentor.

“I had a friend who was a driver for Scott Menke, who was part of one of the original gaming families of Las Vegas,” Nicolli explains.

One day, he found himself in the car with his friend and Menke and the two struck up a conversation that grew into a friendship.

Menke taught him about the gaming industry, and the lifestyle it requires.

“He told me stories about how he grew up in the Sahara casino and had all of his birthday parties there as a child,” Nicolli says.

“He died a few years ago, and I know he’s looking down right now and laughing [about how things turned out for me]. Every one of my kids now has their birthday party at the Resorts property, and we do family dinners there.

“Everything [Menke] said about being a real casino hospitality guy that I thought was crazy when I was in my 20s, I am now living in my 40s. He was the guy who made me realize that [a career in Las Vegas hospitality] was sustainable.”

Does Nicolli foresee a day when he will launch his own company?

“I’ve been asked that a few times,” he says. “Being in the CMO post for three-plus years, it comes up a lot. People have said to me, ‘I would stake you, and be a business partner.’ But I love what I do. I still feel that I have a lot more to do for this property.”

Nicolli still has family in the Youngstown area, and he and his wife and their children return to the city about once a year for a visit.

“Anytime I need to decompress, I come back to Youngstown,” he says. “Going back to my roots, being around family helps me to reset.”

He credits his success to his upbringing.

“I owe it all to Youngstown,” he says. “My work ethic. My ability to persevere and keep grinding. That comes from the roots of Youngstown.”

Pictured at top: The Las Vegas Strip serves as the backdrop in this photo of Ronn Nicolli and his family.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.