How R&R spends its $67.4 million LVCVA budget

Friday, July 22, 2005 | 5:10 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

July 23-24, 2005

R&R Partners Inc. was given a $67.4 million budget from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

The LVCVA referred questions to R&R about the way the budget was spent.

Most of the money was spent by the agency to buy advertising time on television and radio and ad space in the print media.

The agency typically makes a pre-tax profit from its LVCVA work of 2.5 percent to 4 percent annually, according to Dain Percifield, R&R's associate public relations director. That would have calculated to between $1,685,000 and $2,696,000 last fiscal year.

In addition, Percifield said the agency charges a 16 percent commission based on the cost of placing the ads.

Percifield said he could not furnish a precise breakdown of expenditures and commissions, but made available an R&R pie chart that assigned percentages of the budget to various forms of advertising and other aspects of the agency's work.

If one were to subtract a maximum pre-tax profit of $2,696,000 from the $67.4 million budget, that would leave $64,704,000, including roughly $8.7 million in commissions and an estimated $54.3 million spent on advertising.

The following are the Sun's calculations of the expenditures and commissions based on the pie chart:

Broadcast television ads promoting Las Vegas -- $27,822,720, including $4,451,635.2 in commissions. This represents 43 percent of the pie.

Print media ads promoting Las Vegas -- $9,058,560, including $1,449,369.6 in commissions. This represents 14 percent of the pie.

Laughlin ads -- $3,235,200, including $517,632 in commissions. This represents 5 percent of the pie.

Radio media ads promoting Las Vegas -- $2,588,160, including $414,105.6 in commissions. This represents 4 percent of the pie.

Outdoor media ads promoting Las Vegas -- $1,941,120, including $310,579.2 in commissions. This represents 3 percent of the pie.

Promotions media ads touting Las Vegas -- Same figures as outdoor media.

Trade media ads promoting Las Vegas -- $1,294,080, including $207,052.8 in commissions. This represents 2 percent of the pie.

Mesquite ads -- $647,040, including $103,526.4 in commissions. This represents 1 percent of the pie.

International ads promoting Las Vegas -- Same figures as Mesquite ads.

Other media ads promoting Las Vegas -- $5,176,320, including $828,211.2 in commissions. This represents 8 percent of the pie.

Ad production -- $8,411,520, some of which R&R subcontracts to hire directors and actors in TV ads. This represents 13 percent of the pie.

Research -- $1,294,080, which represents 2 percent of the pie.

Public relations -- $647,040, which represents 1 percent of the pie.

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