LAS VEGAS — The first thing you see when you walk into Christine Monjer’s office at one of the MGM Resorts International locations are the words “Boss Lady,” written on a sign sitting on the top of her desk. She received it as a gift from the Las Vegas Aces last season, the team’s first in the city since moving from San Antonio.
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On either side of the sign are photos from her time with the Aces and an A’ja Wilson soda can. A giant whiteboard hangs on one of her walls, filled with a list of things she needs to get done. There’s also the Kanye West tour sign she got to keep when the rapper came through Las Vegas. All of it in one place represents who Monjer is and where she’s going.
The WNBA announced in December 2017 that the San Antonio Stars were relocating to Las Vegas for the 2018 season and that MGM would own and operate the franchise. Monjer, executive director of entertainment marketing at MGM, has been with the company since 2016. When the Aces came to town, she became a big part of marketing and building the team into what it is today through all of the small details, something she takes pride in.
The Athletic sat down with the Aces assistant general manager to talk about developing the Aces’ brand, her idea to advertise the team on public transportation this year and what went into hosting WNBA All-Star weekend last month.
What was life like for you growing up? How did it lead you to where you are today?
I’m originally from South Florida. I spent most of my life between Miami and Venezuela. My family’s from South America, so I would do my school during the year and then I would go back to Venezuela in the summers. I did my undergrad at the University of Miami and I always knew that I liked product. I liked brand, I liked sports. I am a big Miami Heat fan. I’m a big Miami Hurricanes fan. I always liked sports, but I never really thought about it as a career. I actually wanted to be a retail buyer. Coming out of undergrad, I worked for Macy’s; they had a retail leadership development program, so I went into that. I always knew I wanted to go back to business school … (Coming out of Cornell), I thought that CPG — consumer packaged goods marketing — was the way to go, so I was really lucky. I had a very tight list and I got PepsiCo on my list. I got my internship at the Chicago office working on Quaker Oats brand, and at Quaker, that’s where I started to get a taste of sports and business.
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At Quaker, I get there on the activation team and didn’t even know what activation was, I’ll be honest. That’s where I started working with the Chicago Fire. We were the MLS jersey sponsor. I worked with their front office to make sure that our sponsorship was being executed. That was kind of like my first taste. Then, I transitioned to a different role, which is where I really developed a lot of my marketing skills. I was overseeing the hot cereal business, which is Quaker’s flagship portfolio. There I got to do Super Bowl because Quaker is the NFL’s official hot cereal partner, so that’s when I started to see sports as an area of business that I could transition to. I didn’t really think anything of it other than like, hey, this is pretty cool. I’m enjoying what I’m working on, but I’m still running a business. I like the brand side, that’s really where I get a lot of my life inspiration and what I love.
Leading up to the Aces arriving in Las Vegas, what was your role?
I was moving out to Vegas because my husband’s out here, and I basically looked at all the organizations here in Vegas, and the one that felt like it resonated most with me was MGM. So I joined the company through their post-MBA program called the Executive Associate Program. I did that for about six months and I got promoted. I was working on strategic marketing projects. They had me reorganize the department. Basically, there were four people at the time. Then they asked me to interview for the leadership role and I was really lucky that they selected me to take that team to the next level. I went from a team of four that I wasn’t managing (and) we grew a team of 15, which was pretty big for marketing. We were responsible for all of the concerts at all of our venues. We were responsible for all the residents at residency acts. At that time, we launched Cher, we launched Ricky Martin. I got to work on some of the (Lady) Gaga deal, like the planning with the Gaga marketing we got to work on. … We worked on Mayweather-McGregor, like some of the biggest fights and just events that happen here in Vegas. That’s where the size of MGM is just so powerful.
When MGM bought the Aces, what were your early duties?
I was asked to do the marketing for the team. That meant identifying colors, name, logo, uniforms, court. I’ve, like, done all of it, which is cool, because it’s not often that you say you were part of that. For the naming and the logo and all that, we worked with our chief executive officer … You got to think about, what do we want this team to represent? Who do we want this team to be? When someone sees that logo, what do you want them to feel? We leaned into if you look at the strip, you look at all the architecture that’s been coming up. It’s this sleek, modern Vegas (that’s) starting to kind of evolve from an architectural perspective … so we knew that that was important to us. We wanted to play into where we are, which is Las Vegas, so … we wanted to make sure it was the two-word name: Las Vegas. Then if we’re going to go Aces, how did you give that nod to the fact that it’s gambling and casino in that industry. Also what is an ace? An ace is excellence, someone who’s at the top of their game. And so that could translate to basketball players, but it can also translate to what we do in our community. We’re helping people be better.
Then it’s OK, as you’re identifying what you want this to feel like, what colors create that feeling? For the first year, we had like a little bit of constraints, where we still had some of the San Antonio colors left over. Luckily, it was black and silver, which isn’t bad. We got to decide what we wanted the colors to look and feel like and knowing that probably for 2019, things will look a little bit differently. If you follow us last year versus this year, you saw for the silver we have the red, which is stunning. Then we got to design the court and we were really thoughtful. Everything about our brand means something, so if you see the diamond, and you see our partial logo, that’s a diamond; or even what we’re doing on roster cards, every player is within a suit of a card. Now we’re starting to evolve and play with that, which is really fun. On the court, sometimes I don’t think fans can see it if they’re too close to it, but when you get a little bit more of a distance, you can see that we have the card suits in the wood stain. You can see there’s like the spade, the club, the heart. There’s these details about it that’s so intentional. It’s thoughtful.
You mention all these little details that people might not always notice, but how important are the details to you?
I think that’s a philosophy. But my philosophy is the details are everything. Because the details are, like, this combination of these little things that, when you put them together and aggregate, they create just a different experience. It’s one of those things where fans, they can’t quite put their finger on it, but they know they like what you’re doing. I think it has to do with the fact that when you see a representation of our brand on the marquee when you’re driving on the I-15, or you open The Weekly and you see our print ad, or you’re online and we’ve targeted you and you’ve got one of our display banners, and then you show up at our game, there’s a sense of consistency. That’s what great branding really usually has — consistency. I think that we’re intentional in what we do. We really try to make it relevant and fun and cool to the extent we can, and the details matter.
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Photos of the Aces banner on city buses started circulating on social media last month. What inspired you to do that?
I wanted buses last year. The buses really were a full-team effort. I mentioned in the meeting (that) we need to find a way to do buses. As you can imagine, we’re a small team. Our marketing budgets, people sometimes think that we have these unlimited marketing budgets, and really what we have is just a really good marketing manager, which is Taylor Janison on my team, and we have a fantastic graphic designer. I’m in the back kind of just guiding where I think things should go. We’re just really good with our limited dollars. We worked with the RTC (Regional Transportation Commission), so it’s a partnership deal. We worked with them and what that helped us do was produce the banners. We identified the buses we created, we did trade with them. My reason for the buses was we can’t be everywhere because it costs money. Billboards are so expensive. Some of the people coming to our games aren’t looking at us on social media, they’re not looking at us on our website. We need to be in the places where the locals are and I wanted static assets, but those are so expensive. Well, what’s the next best thing? Usually for shows, we’ll do the taxi toppers because you think about where they’re going, and they’re all around the strip, and you see these taxis. So, we were just like, what can we do?
I was, like, buses. Buses go everywhere. Buses don’t discriminate what neighborhoods they go to. We picked all the routes where they’re really heavy, densely populated local environments. Our buses won’t be on the strip because we’re not really trying to target those individuals. They’ll see our signage and all our properties. We’re trying to get locals to know who we are and come (to games). The buses were such a proud moment.
Now that you are assistant general manager, what are your duties attached to that title?
I oversee all of business operations, so really it’s revenue, ticket sales. I oversee marketing and community public relations and, to some extent, the in-game presentation and how that comes to life and our building. Also, I’m franchise development and player branding.
What does a normal game day look like for you? How do things work?
Game day for me usually starts at the office because it depends on what the game is — if we have a theme night, if we have a giveaway. Like, our Women of Inspiration Game is an example. We’re going to be hosting a panel, so for that game that’s coming up, I’ll probably come here and make sure that we have everything that we need. I may be attending a meeting, I may have other things that I’m doing as it relates to just my job with, like, interfacing with MGM and interfacing with our other departments. I usually get there when the players are coming out and they’re warming up and I’ll talk with Bill (Laimbeer). We’ll talk for, like, 15 to 20 minutes, and we’ll talk about what we think attendance is going to be, what’s going on, maybe we’re talking about a meeting we just had. Then, usually for the most part during the game, I’m just there to support the team and problem-solve. If there’s a VIP that we need to take care of that they just want to talk to someone, if there’s a member that wants to chat with someone, I’m pretty much just floating. Then when the game actually starts, I’ll go and I’ll watch.
Being a part of this organization and MGM for a few years, how important was it show off Las Vegas and the Aces for the All-Star Game?
So important. I thought I really felt we crushed it. I think not only did we showcase our city, I think we showcased our company. I think MGM does entertainment and hospitality better than anyone here. I mean, the player experiences from when they arrived to their hotel rooms, their suites to how we treated them on property. We had the marquees with all their players’ images welcoming them. We’ve learned through our women that they love to see themselves on the marquees and see themselves on these gigantic digital screens. We thought, what a treat for these other players who are coming into our market to do the same for them. Just show them and to give them that respect and that praise. I think hosting the All-Star Game here was important for so many reasons. We do some things that do require a lot of money and we do certain things that other places just probably don’t have that same resource. Like, does another team have a Mandalay Bay marquee? Probably not, but are there opportunities that they can collaborate with their airport and have signs at the airport? Are there ways that they can do more with their local media partners? Yeah, and so I think what we showcased was, yeah, we’re going to show off in the areas where we have some assets that others don’t, but I think the other part of it was that we just had really good strategic plans. We knew what we wanted to do. We knew how we wanted to get in front of people. We knew the types of events we wanted to host and we just executed. We planned it for about a year, and when we were sitting there during the game, I looked around. It was one of those surreal moments like, we did it!
You mentioned earlier what an Ace is. Will you go more in depth on what you think it means?
To me, it means excellence. I think it means excellence both in how you do your work and how you relate to others. One thing that I’m really proud of in our front office is just how we work together and how we work with both internal individuals, and how we work with our outside partners, how we work with our venue, how we treat our fans. We’re always trying to deliver the standard of excellence. If that means it’s a customer service interaction with a member, we want to make sure that we leave them feeling better than when they first spoke to us. Also, how we interrelate as a team. It’s a space where we want everyone to succeed, we want everyone to do their best work, so we give each other feedback, we help each other out. No one’s above any task. It’s honestly a really great working environment because we’re also committed to being the best, but without it sounding like we’re competing within our team and competing with each other, competing with those we come in contact with. We’re always trying to do great things for this community and for each other. It means a lot to me because it’s my own personal values, so it’s like my professional values and my personal values have really aligned in this job.
What is your favorite part of the job?
There’s a lot of good ones. My favorite part of the job is the fact that you’re helping people make memories and you’re giving them something that inspires them, that makes them feel happy, that it brings people joy. Or, let’s say doors open at 6 and we have these diehard fans that will be outside at 5:30 and I’m walking out because I have to go to the box office, and there they are, ready and committed and in their shirts and in their hats. They are so all-in with us. There’s something very rewarding about that. That you look around and two years ago, this was just a dream. This didn’t even exist. Now here we are, we have a fan base. It’s a testament to the hard work and the support that we’ve had from this community, but I think it’s those interactions with the fans. Then the other part is when you unveil something, like when we showed A’ja her bobblehead. She was just so into it. Or when Kayla comes to the office and she sees her picture on the wall. They know that we’re treating them with that respect and with that celebration like, you’re the best in the world and we’re going to treat you like that. That’s really rewarding for me.
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You got to work for the Super Bowl and now you get to work with women’s basketball, which isn’t as big as the NBA. What do you think is so special about women’s basketball and these players you get to work with?
I think it’s definitely that sense of community. For me, what I really love is that you feel like you’re a part of something bigger — bigger than yourself, bigger than the city. It feels like we’re on the brink of something with the WNBA, like we’re ready to break through and ready to have that moment. I like being scrappy. I like that we have to fight a little bit harder to break through in the media. It just causes you to be a better business person. I think for me, it’s just been this puzzle that I want to solve. I really want to figure it out. I want to set records in the W. I just want to help elevate this league.
What are your hopes for the organization in the upcoming years?
I want to sell out games. That’s definitely something that’s important to us as a company. I want to expand our region, the community. I want to reach more lives. I think with our Lace Up program, as an example, we provided mentorship to three high school girls basketball teams here in town. I’d like to see us touch more kids’ lives. Team sports are really important and I really love that our players are so accessible. You mentioned that there’s a difference between us and the NFL or NBA. I love that this child can walk up to A’ja, who is arguably one of the best players in the world, they can learn from her. They can learn a passing drill … and they can play and they can laugh and they can create that memory. I want to be able to do that for more children and for more people in our community. So, I think it’s selling that building out day in and day out and touching more lives.
(Top photo courtesy of Christine Monjer)
