Wednesday, June 9, 1999 | 10:28 a.m.
Las Vegas' aggressive advertising blitz in Portland, Ore., yielded spectacular awareness ratings.
But whether that translates into visitors from Portland coming to Las Vegas may be harder to quantify.
R&R Advertising of Las Vegas, which conducted the $750,000 blitz during in May, reported a 25 percent increase in awareness of Las Vegas based on surveys conducted before and after the campaign.
"They were asked questions like, 'Have you seen an ad about Las Vegas?' and 'Have you ever considered going to Las Vegas?' before and after the ad campaign," said Terry Jicinsky, manager of the research department at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Jicinsky said a 25 percent increase in awareness "is toward the top of the scale by any measure." But determining whether the campaign will work to put Portland residents in Las Vegas hotel rooms isn't as easy to measure.
"It's hard to tell whether people came because they saw the campaign or whether they're coming next month or next year was the result of the campaign," Jicinsky said. "It's one of those areas within the industry that's hard to quantify."
The city's marketers consider the Portland experience a success and now are in Atlanta delivering the same message.
The blitz includes newspaper, radio and television advertisements, billboard ads, heavy promotion of a new World Wide Web site -- www.ultravegas.com -- and community appearances by the Las Vegas Ultra-Lounge Extravaganza.
The Ultra-Lounge is a mobile marketing vehicle that makes daily stops at sporting events, record stores, shopping malls, nightclubs and other heavily traveled venues. Inside the vehicle are Las Vegas brochures, casino games with prizes, giveaways, showgirls and an Elvis Presley impersonator.
The showgirl and Presley icons continue to be the most popular Las Vegas identifiers, LVCVA board members were told in a Tuesday report.
The four-week blitzes in Portland and Atlanta were the first time the LVCVA had saturated a target market with a heavy multimedia campaign. Those cities were selected because the demographic profile identifies a strong potential customer base and nonstop airline flights are available from their airports to McCarran International Airport.
Next year, R&R, the LVCVA's advertising and marketing contractor, plans similar blitzes in Seattle, Boston, Indianapolis and Miami.
The ad campaigns are stressing the variety of activities available to visitors and not just gaming. Recent LVCVA marketing studies show Las Vegas visitors are interested in the entire entertainment experience, shopping and dining as well as gambling.
Other companies are jumping on Las Vegas' marketing bandwagon. The Ultra-Lounge Extravaganza was co-sponsored by Tower Records, Capitol Records, Southwest Airlines and Cadillac.
While R&R was priming the pump in Portland and Atlanta, travelers from the rest of the nation are gearing up for summer vacations. The LVCVA is encouraged by first-quarter visitation trends and forecasts from several travel industry sources.
In its 1999 summer travel forecast, the Travel Industry Association of America anticipates a 4 percent increase to 271 million person-trips during June, July and August.
Some of the travel forecast highlights reported to the LVCVA:
Travelers indicate they plan to take longer vacations and pleasure trips this summer, averaging 8.5 nights away from home on their longest trip -- up significantly from 1998.
An estimated 35 percent of those traveling plan to spend $500 or less on their vacations, 33 percent plan to spend between $500 and $999, 23 percent expect to spend between $1,000 and $2,499 and the remaining 9 percent plan to spend more than $2,500.
Nevada ranks seventh nationally in the top 10 locations Americans want to visit this summer. That's behind Florida, California, Hawaii, Colorado, Texas and New York and ahead of Arizona, Washington state and Washington D.C.
While going to a beach is the top activity planned by vacation travelers, LVCVA officials are encouraged that visiting a casino and attending a family reunion increased over last year. Las Vegas plays host to hundreds of family reunions, some of them large enough to be registered as a convention.
Vacation travel by air is expected to increase by 3 percent this summer. The Air Transport Association warns, however, that rising fuel prices could lead to higher fares and may reduce demand for air travel.
Summer travel by car, truck and recreational vehicle is expected to total 229 million person-trips -- 84 percent of all summer vacation travel.
Business travel is expected to grow again this summer with 25 percent of all Americans indicating they are likely to travel for business or convention purposes, up 3 percent from last summer.
The Automobile Association of America ranks Las Vegas No. 2 as the top summer air travel destination -- behind Orlando, Fla.
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