Submitted by Viral NationAgency IPI Score 74/100

MGM Resorts International x Viral Nation: Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix Takeover

Influencer Marketing

Three creators, matched to three MGM properties, produced 117 posts across TikTok and Instagram during F1 Las Vegas race week, generating 16M reported impressions.

537.3KTotal engagements
16MTotal impressions

About the campaign

During Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix week in November 2024, every premium hotel, sponsor and lifestyle brand competes for the same affluent audience at the same moment, and MGM Resorts, a Founding Partner of the race with hospitality across multiple Strip properties, needed to own the premium narrative and translate attention into bookings rather than settle for presence. Viral Nation, appointed MGM's Influencer Marketing Agency of Record in June 2024, used the portfolio's own diversity as the creative resource, matching each of three creators to a property whose personality aligned with their audience instead of asking all three to tell one generic MGM story.

Christina Kirkman was paired with The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, celebrating her father's 60th birthday with VIP race access so the content documented a real family milestone; Mia Baker delivered aspirational prestige storytelling at Bellagio; and fencer Miles Chamley-Watson brought high-energy athletic sophistication to ARIA. Across race week the three creators published 117 posts on TikTok and Instagram, drawing on qualifying sessions, race events, exclusive property activations and dining.

Viral Nation reports 16 million impressions and 537,300 engagements; booking and revenue outcomes were not disclosed.

Case in 60 seconds

Las Vegas during F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix week in November 2024 is saturated with luxury brands, celebrity activations, and competing hospitality offers, making it difficult for any single operator to own the premium narrative and convert attention into bookings.

MGM's portfolio spans properties with distinct personalities, and each property's individual identity offered a natural anchor for creator storytelling rather than a single generic brand message. Genuine personal stories, such as a milestone family occasion, add emotional resonance that branded content alone cannot replicate.

Match each creator to a specific MGM property whose personality aligns with their audience, and build real personal narratives into the race-week creator trips so content feels authentic rather than promotional.

Viral Nation deployed three creators across TikTok and Instagram: Christina Kirkman at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (celebrating her father's 60th birthday with VIP race access), Mia Baker at Bellagio for aspirational prestige storytelling, and Miles Chamley-Watson at ARIA for high-energy athletic sophistication. The program produced 117 posts across the two platforms during race week.

Viral Nation reports the campaign delivered 16M impressions and 537.3k engagements across the three creators. No independently verified booking or revenue figure is available in the sources.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Luxury travellers, F1 fans, and affluent entertainment seekers attending or following the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The campaign also targeted existing audiences of the three selected creators, who each brought distinct follower bases aligned to The Cosmopolitan, Bellagio, and ARIA's respective brand personalities.
F1 Las Vegas concentrates exceptional luxury marketing noise into a single week. Every premium hotel, sponsor, and lifestyle brand competes for the same affluent audience at the same moment, meaning presence without differentiation produces minimal recall or action.
Hospitality brands at large-scale tentpole events commonly default to broad reach plays, such as celebrity endorsements, hero content, and sweepstakes. MGM's challenge was to cut through that noise while maintaining the premium positioning expected of its portfolio and translating attention into bookings, a harder conversion target than pure awareness.
MGM Resorts operates hospitality activations across its Las Vegas Strip properties during Formula 1 race week, giving the brand a substantial physical activation footprint that creators could document authentically. The influencer program sat on top of that existing activation base rather than substituting for it.
Content that documents a real, emotionally meaningful personal experience, rather than performing brand messages, tends to generate stronger audience engagement and shareability. Viral Nation's decision to build Kirkman's family milestone into the creator trip illustrates this principle in practice.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • TikTok posts (volume not broken out by platform in sources)
  • Instagram posts (volume not broken out by platform in sources)
  • 117 total posts across both platforms reported by Viral Nation

Partners

  • Viral Nation (Influencer Marketing Agency of Record, appointed June 2024 per BusinessWire)
  • Christina Kirkman (creator, paired with The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas)
  • Mia Baker (creator, paired with Bellagio)
  • Miles Chamley-Watson (creator, paired with ARIA)

Participation mechanic

  • Creator-property matching: each creator assigned to one MGM property aligned to their audience personality
  • VIP race-week access: qualifying sessions, race events, exclusive property activations, and dining
  • Personal narrative integration: Kirkman's father's 60th birthday trip used as a content anchor
  • Content published across TikTok and Instagram throughout race week

Creator role

  • Lead content creator and experiential documentarian for assigned property
  • Brand ambassador reflecting property-specific luxury identity
  • Personal storyteller (Kirkman: family milestone; Chamley-Watson: athlete energy at ARIA; Baker: aspirational prestige at Bellagio)

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult typeConfidence
Total impressions16MReachAgency reported
Total engagements537,300EngagementAgency reported

Why Viral Nation's strategy worked

  1. 1

    **Property-to-creator matching preserves brand differentiation at scale.** Assigning each creator to a distinct MGM property — Kirkman to The Cosmopolitan, Baker to Bellagio, Chamley-Watson to ARIA — meant each piece of content had a clear point of view rather than repeating a single brand message, which the agency argues kept MGM's luxury positioning intact across a diverse portfolio.

  2. 2

    **Personal narrative integration can add engagement value beyond product showcase.** Building Kirkman's father's 60th birthday trip into the activation gave her content an emotional anchor. The agency reports this strengthened impact with both existing and new audiences, though the causal claim is not independently tested.

  3. 3

    **Activating on top of a real event footprint gives creators concrete material.** MGM's Founding Partner status at the Las Vegas Grand Prix and its race-week fan zones, dining, fashion pop-ups, and luxury track packages provided genuine premium experiences for creators to document, reducing the risk of content feeling staged.

  4. 4

    **A small, well-matched creator set may outperform a broader, lower-fit roster for luxury positioning.** Three creators publishing 117 posts is a concentrated deployment. The agency's framing suggests that fit quality was prioritised over scale, which is consistent with premium hospitality brand norms.

  5. 5

    **AOR relationships enable faster, more coherent campaign execution.** Viral Nation's appointment as influencer AOR in June 2024 meant the agency had established brand and property knowledge ahead of the November race-week campaign, likely reducing briefing friction and improving creator alignment.

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