Vegas brand emphasized in new ad campaign

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2000 | 11:01 a.m.

A $41 million Las Vegas advertising campaign that will reinforce what the city is famous for without focusing on individual hotels, restaurants and shopping malls was unveiled Tuesday to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

"Las Vegas: What you want. When you want," is the new tagline for the multitiered campaign developed by R&R Partners, the Las Vegas advertising agency contracted by the LVCVA.

The campaign features a variety of images and storylines presented in television and print ads, promotions, public relations, street marketing and a new Internet site. The unifying theme -- the freedom to escape to a place that is different from home -- is emphasized instead of landscape shots of resorts or happy couples in restaurants.

It's the first time that Las Vegas will rely on its name-brand recognition and not deliver images that attempt to define the destination. There's little mention of gaming in the campaign.

Billy Vassiliadis, chief executive officer of R&R Partners, said that's no accident.

"Las Vegas is the place people go to be something that they can't be at home or any place else in the world," Vassiliadis said. "The campaign provides an emotional reminder. They know the product."

Vassiliadis explained that a year of interviews in focus groups assured his staff that the public knows what Las Vegas has to offer. So, the emphasis shifted to encouraging customers to make the decision to escape work, traffic jams and everyday life to experience the diversity the city offers.

"For some chief executive officers who wear suits everyday, it (Las Vegas) could mean going to the tables and playing cards in a polo shirt," Vassiliadis said. "To the blue-collar guy who works on things with his hands, Las Vegas is a place to go to get dressed up. It's different things to different people."

In order to get those differing perspectives, some of the advertising spots use interviews of people describing their feelings about Las Vegas. One uses Susan Sheehan, a Janesville, Wis., librarian, trying on a necklace at a local jewelry store. Another has Brenda and Trevor Frost of Sheffield, England, enjoying Las Vegas on their 40th wedding anniversary.

Other ads follow a couple's drive across the desert and the discovery of a discarded dress shoe, cellular phone and briefcase. The final shot shows a necktie hanging from the famous "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign.

And, another ad uses animation to bring the "chrome girls" commonly seen on truck mudflaps to life. The girls jump off their mudflaps and climb aboard a semi tractor-trailer rig bound for Las Vegas.

The agency's print campaign follows the same theme. One ad specifically targeted to run during the National Football League playoffs asks, "Do you really think the Super Bowl winners are going to Disneyland?" Another that is being unveiled immediately and will run again when the Winter Olympics are conducted in Salt Lake City in 2002 juxtaposes things to do in Las Vegas with Olympic events.

The ad campaign will be formally rolled out Sept. 25 at the American Society of Travel Agents trade show in Las Vegas.

R&R Partners, which had about 50 employees attending the LVCVA meeting to gauge reaction, also plans a new Internet site -- www.vegasfreedom.com -- and street marketing to sell the message.

The new site debuts Sept. 25 and will include links to local resorts. Positions will be purchased on several popular sites to lead viewers to the Las Vegas site, including USA Today, Travelocity and Weather.com. There also are plans to appeal to black and Hispanic travelers by linking from BET.com and quepasa.com, portal sites directed at those minority groups.

Street marketing involves delivering the message in unexpected locations where people congregate every day. For example, a recorded ad placed near potato chips in a grocery store might ask, "Are these the chips you really want to play with? Las Vegas: What you want. When you want."

Reaction to the campaign's unveiling was positive.

"I think it's a great campaign," said Mark Dodson, executive vice president of Park Place Entertainment Corp., one of the LVCVA board members who voted unanimously to approve the concept.

A spokesman for the Venetian hotel-casino -- a vocal critic of past promotional efforts -- said resort officials attended the LVCVA meeting and said they did not want to comment until they have reviewed some of the backup material distributed at the meeting.

R&R produced a 145-page book explaining the campaign, listing publication dates, outlining the budget and backing up the research.

The Venetian is prominently featured as a backdrop in the new R&R ads. For example, the commercial featuring the Frosts, the English couple celebrating their anniversary, shows them aboard a gondola at the Canal Shoppes at the Venetian.