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twitterWill Vegas advertising that worked before, work again?
Return to an iconic theme follows ad campaign tied specifically to the recession
Leila Navidi
Sean Corbett, Director of Digital Marketing, sits during a brainstorming meeting for the LVCVA account at the office of R&R Partners in Las Vegas Friday, Aug. 21.
Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Coverage
Silent Car
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is bringing back the"What happens here, stays here" campaign.
Reporting from Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is bringing back the "What happens here, stays here" campaign.
Free Will
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is bringing back the "What happens here, stays here" campaign.
Mistress of Disguise
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is bringing back the "What happens here, stays here" campaign.
Fortune Teller
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is bringing back the "What happens here, stays here" campaign.
The cutting room floor at R&R
During the months of brainstorming that came up with the tag line, “What Happens Here, Stays Here,” dozens of other pitches were considered — and rejected. Among them:
- The stories are true.
- The secrets are yours.
- You’ll know what to do.
- You know how it goes.
- You know you want to.
- Get away with it.
- What you admit … is up to you.
- Your stories. Your secrets.
- You just can’t tell.
- Share a secret.
- Who’s to say?
- The secret’s out.
- Imagine that.
- Stranger than fiction.
- You’ll know the truth.
- They wouldn’t believe you anyway.
- Leave it here.
- Don’t tell a soul.
- You’ll know the real story.
- Who can say?
- Let them wonder.
- If you go, you’ll know.
- Fill in the details.
- You may want to keep it to yourself.
- Try not to tell.
- The neighbors don’t need to know.
- The kind of fun you’d rather not talk about.
- Get in on the secret.
- Get in on it.
- It’s all you’ll want to say.
- Your secret is safe.
- Enough said.
- Let them guess.
- You won’t soon forget.
- Who needs to know?
- You’re in on the secret.
- You’re in on the story.
- Be part of the story.
- Say no more.
- We’ll let you tell the story.
- The tales you could tell.
Beyond the Sun
For an ad man with an ounce of imagination, Las Vegas is rich with sales material — cheering gamblers, sexy nightclubs, celebrity-chef restaurants, haute couture boutiques and stunning stage productions.
But none of these would be highlighted in Las Vegas’ most successful advertising campaign. Instead, the commercials would only tease, thick with innuendo, to unspoken tourist experiences.
“What happens here, stays here” sold Vegas for years.
When business plummeted in the recession, new ads appeared. “Vegas right now,” the new ads said. “Crazy times call for crazy fun,” others said. These ads respected the difficult times. There were sensibilities to take into account.
But now, with the stakes never higher and the town against the ropes, tourism officials are returning to the message that sold Vegas in the best of times.
The “What Happens Here” campaign has been pulled off the shelf and put back on TV, and more ads are being produced.
To know why the city is returning to an old campaign to help pull itself out of the recession requires an understanding of what has happened over the past decade.
• • •
Throughout the 1990s the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority ran advertising resembling a chamber of commerce brochure, with pools, golf courses and posed showgirls. The message was simple and straightforward: Las Vegas is more than just gambling.
The ads were urgently needed. Las Vegas-style tribal and riverboat casinos were spreading nationwide, making a once-exclusive attraction an easily accessible commodity.
So the ad gurus grasped for a bolder, more emotional message, hoping to sell Vegas the way Nike sold shoes and McDonald’s sold burgers — by setting a scene and telling a story.
It was a radical idea for the tourism industry but well-known to consumer products companies.
In 1998 R&R Partners, the advertising agency that has been selling Las Vegas since 1979, decided to frame Las Vegas as an experience versus a product. The agency launched 18 months of surveys and began conducting dozens of focus group interviews to define those experiences.
On everyone’s lips were the recurring themes of adult Disneyland, escapism, letting loose. So R&R set out to create ads that evoked a feeling of “adult freedom.”
The resulting television spots were all over the map.
One ad, that aired during the 2000 presidential campaign, depicted a smarmy fellow representing the “Freedom Party.” Another commercial showed a man holed up in an arctic igloo, wistfully pasting photos of himself onto postcards of Vegas. In another, truck mudflap girls came alive and jumped off one vehicle and onto another bound for Vegas.
R&R tried something different in 2001, enlisting award-winning documentary filmmaker and commercial ad director Errol Morris to film ads featuring interviews with tourists in Las Vegas, including an elderly English couple gushing about over-the-top resorts. Morris was intrigued by the assignment and filmed at least seven television spots that year.
Some of those never ran because of 9/11, which forced R&R to switch gears and run more sober ads. The agency surveyed consumers about what they most associated with Las Vegas. The overwhelming answer: entertainment. That led R&R to the Frank Sinatra vault and a song, commissioned by Chrysler, that had never been broadcast. R&R showcased the song, “It’s time for you,” in an ad featuring Las Vegas entertainers including Siegfried & Roy, Wayne Newton and Rita Rudner taking up the song where Sinatra left off.
Over the next several weeks, R&R would extend the Sinatra theme by overlaying Sinatra sayings with images of the entertainer in Las Vegas.
By the summer of 2002, after business had begun to recover, R&R had returned to tongue-in-cheek irreverence to sell Las Vegas. The Sinatra ads gave way to spots by comedian Don Rickles that aired through the remainder of the year.
Behind the scenes, focus groups hired by R&R to watch and comment on the commercials found these ads more memorable than the travelogue ads — but said they still didn’t generate the kind of excitement Las Vegas represented.
Focus group participants started sharing their own Vegas experiences — unique, specific narratives compared with the generic experiences presented in TV commercials to date. R&R decided to bring those ideas to the screen and in 2002, while Rickles was still barking at tourists to experience Las Vegas, the firm started gathering story ideas, using the focus groups and a national contest to generate interesting tales of Vegas getaways.
“We got some toe-curling stuff,” R&R Executive Vice President Rob Dondero said. “It validated our theory that people have their own preconceived notions and perceptions about Vegas and wanted to share them.”
The creative team worked on developing tourist vignettes that hinted at intriguing Las Vegas experiences that would entice a broad cross-section of America.
The campaign would also need a catchphrase to tie all the stories together. A pair of 20-something copywriters, Jeff Candido and Jason Hoff, worked on the assignment for weeks, coming up with a list of possibilities, including “What Happens Here, Stays Here.”
They didn’t know at the time that it would headline Las Vegas advertising for years to come and become ingrained in pop culture.
When they pitched it to their boss, Randy Snow, there were no fireworks or popping champagne corks.
It sounded good but had to be mulled over, said Snow, R&R’s executive creative director. “What Happens Here” went on a best-ideas list that was winnowed down to a handful of phrases.
Dozens of similar tag lines, such as “If you go, you’ll know” and “Get in on the secret” didn’t make the cut, though ad bosses continued to noodle around with variations on the same theme after the campaign’s launch.
“We’re ad guys, so we second-guess ourselves all the time,” Snow said. “Until it’s out there, you never really know.”
Within two years the copywriters, among a team of more than 40 at R&R that has worked on the Las Vegas marketing campaign over the years, had jumped to big agencies in Boston and New York.
The “What Happens Here” campaign would be anchored by three ads — a woman who enters a limo in a slinky dress and gets out at the airport wearing business attire, her hair now in a bun; a woman rushing off to a business meeting after a quickie marriage to a man she just met, and a woman who writes a postcard, has second thoughts and smudges her message with her finger.
“No picture can depict what’s going on in my mind right now,” said one member of a focus group who previewed the ads for R&R.
Focus groups liked most of the ads (one that depicted a mother getting her tattoo removed didn’t generate enough laughs to make the final cut). Still, R&R bosses were nervous.
Days before airing the ads in January 2003 the agency showed them at a San Francisco shopping mall to gauge viewer response.
They especially wanted feedback from women. Were the spots offensive? Uncomfortable? Women, R&R said, viewed the ads as empowering.
Still, R&R CEO Billy Vassiliadis questioned the strategy. The Strip was home to billions of dollars in resorts and not a one was depicted in the commercials, he said. He showed them to hotel executives, thinking they’d want the campaign retooled.
Instead, they gave it a thumbs-up and the campaign hit the airwaves to resounding success. The What Happens Here tag line became a media sensation, a ubiquitous punch line.
In the campaign’s first year, USA Today’s consumer poll Ad Track ranked the Las Vegas ads as the nation’s most effective ad message, ahead of Miller Lite, Campbell’s soup and Coca-Cola. Brandweek named visitors authority CEO Rossi Ralenkotter and Vassiliadis Marketers of the Year in 2004 — beating out travel marketers nationwide.
“These are stories — and people love stories,” said former Brandweek reporter Mike Beirne. “They manage to appeal to someone’s emotions in 30 seconds, which a lot of ads fail to do.”
R&R has run out of wall and desk space for all of its industry accolades, instead using awards as door handles and office decorations. Dozens of obelisk-shaped ADDYs — the Oscars of the American Advertising Foundation — form the base of a water fountain that flows in the company’s atrium.
But while the major Las Vegas resorts were happy with the success of “What Happens Here,” the desire to show off their assets remained strong. And there was concern, too, that Las Vegas’ rapid transformation into a luxury destination brimming with high-end shopping and gourmet dining hadn’t permeated the nation’s psyche. Research also unveiled that many consumers were intrigued by Las Vegas but wanted some pointers on how to experience it.
In 2005 R&R launched the first of several ads, with different slogans, that were intended to complement “What Happens Here” with subtle references to shopping, dining and entertainment. The first ads, called “Vegas Alibi,” included a spot in which a woman guiltily tells her significant other how she “got wild” with her girlfriends in Vegas, then shows off Ferragamo shoes and Tiffany earrings as evidence. The ad concludes: “Our fabulous shopping can be your alibi.”
In 2008 R&R launched a new set of ads with the slogan, “Your Vegas is showing,” including a spot with a man, acting out his fantasy spy life, who buys alligator shoes in Las Vegas — only to draw suspicious looks back home.
As business worsened in early 2008, the resorts and the LVCVA made more distress calls to R&R.
Brand-building could wait. They wanted their ads to sell rooms.
For many locals, the What Happens Here theme now seemed inappropriate, much as Bud Light’s “real American heroes” campaign seemed shallow and callous after 9/11, forcing the beer company to change its message.
R&R put What Happens Here on ice even though consumers seemed to like the cheeky campaign, but with the intention of returning to it when the economic panic subsided.
“We walked away from it reluctantly,” Snow, the creative director, said.
Just as the events of 9/11 had forced R&R to pull its brand ads and adopt a different approach, the agency would, in response to a downturn in business, shelve already-shot television spots. In one, a gatekeeper in heaven asks a man why the record of his life shows missing information for several weekends in Vegas. In several parodies, people in mundane situations mockingly cite the “What Happens Here” line.
Within days of convening a meeting on how to boost tourism, the agency wrote, filmed and aired no-frills ads featuring a spokesman urging consumers to take a quick trip to Vegas with the message “Vegas right now.” Regrouping in the agency’s camouflage-painted “war room” — an homage to a similar room in former office digs used for lengthy strategy meetings after 9/11 — the agency created humorous, more elaborate renditions of that message. In these spots, a narrator tells viewers that “crazy times call for crazy fun” while people run from bizarre situations.
But the challenge to Las Vegas was far greater than everyone here believed: New focus group research revealed a perception that Las Vegas hotels were closing up shop or virtually empty. Hotel executives were horrified.
Within weeks R&R crafted a publicity stunt, flying 100 residents from the tiny town of Cranfills Gap, Texas, to Las Vegas for an all-expenses-paid vacation. By showing blue-collar folks enjoying high-end shopping and dining, the message was that hotels were still busy and that it was OK for average Americans to take a break in Las Vegas. The agency created mini-documentaries of the residents and their activities on the Las Vegas tourism Web site, visitlasvegas.com, pairing the videos with links to hotels and activities. The Cranfills Gap stunt became local and national news, generating the equivalent of about $5 million in publicity, by some measures.
But further polling showed that people missed the “What Happens Here” ads. And they remembered them well, often relaying the scenes from the old spots in greater detail than ad bosses could.
“They had crisis fatigue,” Snow said.
And so R&R rolled out the pre-recession ads in May. A newer spot is a nod to the economy, depicting a television reporter walking past empty cabanas for a story on the poor economy, then flinging off her jacket, revealing a bikini, and joining a crowd of people partying in a nearby pool.
As with past Las Vegas ads, local critics — including businesspeople whose livelihoods depend on the health of Strip tourism — worry that Las Vegas’ naughty image might not play as well in a downturn.
While some locals worry, R&R’s research indicates that consumers — for all of the country’s problems — appreciate the opportunity to escape and the adults-only message.
As one focus group participant recently put it, “Even though things are crappy, you can still afford to have fun.” “It’s still OK to sin,” another said.
Life, and pool parties, go on in Las Vegas despite the economy, said Todd Gillins, R&R’s research director.
Other What Happens Here ads are yet to come, along with companion spots that offer fake excuses to visit Las Vegas — including “Chinchilli Day,” in which an office worker tells his tightfisted boss about his “cultural obligation” to spend three days in Vegas commemorating a town’s victory in beating back an uprising of pet chinchillas.
These ads are built on additional research that consumers want a get-away from work but are nervous about doing so because of the economy.
Although there’s no firm cause-and-effect relationship between the popularity of Las Vegas and the What Happens Here campaign, there is this correlation: While the campaign ran, tourism swelled and the Strip resorts posted record profits. And R&R’s twice-annual polling of up to 20,000 Americans in major cities has showed that consumers know more about Las Vegas’ high-end offerings, have more positive feelings toward Las Vegas and are more likely to visit.
And while the ad campaign is cheap compared with the hundreds of millions big consumer brands spend on advertising every year, selling Las Vegas is a big bucks effort that reflects the visitor-funded 12 percent tax on hotel rooms that pays for it.
The LVCVA’s post-recession budget of $86 million for fiscal year 2010 is still larger than Las Vegas’ top competitors combined.
The official Las Vegas Web site mentioned in the ads attracts about 570,000 visits per month and generates about 330,000 hotel referrals per month. Between 2 percent and 3 percent of those referrals result in booked business for Las Vegas hotels, according to the visitors authority.
“No city in America has marketed itself as well as Las Vegas,” said Matt Scheckner, executive director of Advertising Week, a nonprofit industry group that this year nominated the slogan for an award. “The slogan transcends the recession. The Yankees are all about winning championships and FedEx is all about trust. People go to Las Vegas to have a good time. It’s on message.”
As long as “What Happens Here” tests well and motivates consumers, R&R says the campaign could last indefinitely.
These are carefully weighed decisions, Beirne said. “Sometimes you don’t want to change something that’s been successful in the past. But you don’t want to wear it out, either.”
Building the Las Vegas brand is a work in progress and can’t be put on hold because of the poor economy, though the ads should produce long-term results, Vassiliadis said.
“We get to sell a great product,” he said. “Can great advertising sell a crappy product? Yeah — once. We’re creating demand for Las Vegas — it’s up to the hotels to bring them back.”
Discussion: 45 comments so far…
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for those who visited vegas its a stretch to return. why waste what you dont have? the allure of bright lights and 24 hour gaming doesnt have the attraction it once had. the compulsive gambler will always be there but he now finds that his rewards are few and far between. vegas isnt worth the bother anymore.
the big problems with vegas are
1) It is advertised as sin city - why?
It is illegal to bathe topless by pools
The place is too prudish
Europeans are used to being able to swim in public pools topless, same in parts of canada, we have friends who come from England and are shocked by how strict it is, they as a couple want to visit a brothel but they are too far out for them to bother
2) Food and drink is too expensive on strip people feel conned
There is nothing to sin about... it is I agree too prudish and quite stayed.
anyone ever been to Ibiza? well you can sin 24 hrs a day lol
"vegas come here to be conned by high prices and don't sin?"
After just reading the article about how many Nevadans are having such deep financial problems and can barely feed their families - this article is joke. It's obvious the City nor State cannot depend on gaming as their only source of employment and income any longer.
You can literally bring back the " sin" in "Sin City" (and really - what DOES that mean?)ie make prostitution legal, have every pool be topless and buy what ever your pleasure is in a casino and/or club, but until people have discretionary money to throw away in Las Vegas - these Advertising folks are wasting their time.
come to vegas! we have more bebe stores per square mile than any other city!
Thanks, stevem! That was a LOL moment!!!
We were down on Fremont St Friday night and it never ceases to amaze us on how excited people are to be here. They were lin ing up to buy that saxophone guy's CD! We don't k now why either. Probably because it's "Vegas" and there is probably someone just like him in their own cities who is even better, but it's Vegas!
I guess Vegas will always have that draw for people and they will come here even though they don't have a pot to **** in - they will comne here and act stupid because it's Vegas!
Here's a slogan" "No money? No Job? Hey, We're Here To Make You Feel Better - Forget Your Problems and Live A Dream - Come to Vegas!"
Vegas was always a naughty get-away, right from the 40's...people came here to do things they could not do at home. As the destination grew, so did the image and then the facilites to support and take advantage of the demand. The clever advertising supported the image, it did not develop it. It was the investors, builders and visionaries who built the destintion - advertising just came along for the ride. Even if all advertising were to be curtailed, millions of people from around the world would still want to come here because of the long term word of mouth experiences that the resorts have delivered. And as long as they get a good, fun expereince, at a good price, they will come back - clever advertising or not.
What made Las Vegas famous, fabulous and so rich was cheap food, cheap entertainment, cheap lodging, respect for customers. What has brought about an abrupt decline of all this is: Greed via high priced, lousy food, lousy service, no respect for customers, and still more greed where every hotel employee has their hand out for a toke and little or nothing in return.
In the old days profits from gaming were sufficient but today's MBA executives think only of the bottom line...greed, profit and how to get more out of the poor sucker that wanders into their place....and more greed and profit for themselves than snot running out of noses of kids with bad colds.
I hope R & R is not trying to take the credit, based on an ad slogan, for the phenomenal growth of Las Vegas. R & R is covering their bases, as they have an $86 Million budget that is not working...be honest. How much is spent on business travel as it is known this travel leads to business growth. We used to sell what we have...abundant air service, the weather, moderately priced rooms and restaurants, moderately priced shows, the entertainment capital of the world, magnificent five star hotels, golf courses, etc.,...does anyone not remember the most successful campaign..."The American Way To Play"...Replace R & R.
That ad campaign emphasized Vegas as a mecca for fools and totally turned me off. I don't want to go to a place where people think it's OK to do everything stupid and risky that they wouldn't do elsewhere. Yeah, that's attractive. That's what I want to be surrounded by when I'm on vacation, not nice sights, gambling excitement, great food, good shopping, and freebies (a thing of the past now). Wouldn't everyone want to vacation with people drinking too much, lying about who they are, being loud, obnoxious and lewd? Why, it's advertising genius!
Everyone knows Vegas has a seedy side. That's not the thing to emphasize. There's a reason Steve Wynn was the catalyst for making Vegas what it is today and that reason wasn't focusing on fratboy-style stupidity as a marketing point. He brought a resort feel and emphasized a set of experiences that normally are not found in one place - spas, great shopping, great service, exciting gambling, award-winning restaurants, attractive sights in and around the hotels, and a general feel of order, beauty and class.
"Crazy times call for crazy fun,"
Uhm, you don't want to call attention to the fact that wagering in a casino is crazy... ;^)
-- found a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth
The Next Anasazi ruin.
R&R is a one-trick pony that is waaaaaay overpaid. First of all, it didn't even come up with the "What Happens Here, Stays Here" slogan. At best, R&R "repurposed" it from another campaign. Then, the "your Vegas is showing" campaign began. Too bad Tide detergent has an ad, "Your Tide is Showing," feauturing Kelly Rippa. If R&R is going to get all that money from the tax-funded LVCVA, then R&R should at least be coming up with original material. It's an agency full of hacks.
Discosis;
Agreed, R&R has held the monopoly way to long and is way to tight with LVCVA. Billy's made his money and gotten lazy with the client. NEXT!
Or at the very least, for the money, hire some of the Ad guys who are out of work all over the country. Even in Cranfills Gap! I'd like to know who threw out the free publicity figure on that ad campaign? I'm guessing R&R made a cut on the plane and all billed incidentals on that deal.
R & R should be given some R & R. Let's get rid of the Mormons, and legalize prostitution and pot. gambling is passe.
When we started first comng out here before becomng residents, we LOVED the Rio. It had it all: the good gambling, the fun and exciting atmosphere, incredibl rooms,a great Mexican restaurant, that Ipanema Bar = great place! And last but not least - the pool area! It was relaxing and fun at the same time. Where elses could you find a place with 4 pools, great drinks (and reasonable at the time)? Once in awhile you saw stuff happening (like the pervert that one year) but it was a good atmosphere all the time. dNothing beat hanging in the pool all afternoon with a nice cold beer or two (or 3 or 4); no one was ever distasteful, met a lot of nice people, sometimes everyone got a little wild ( usually by 4:00 in the afternoon!) but everyone had fun. Haven't been there in awhile, and frankly, don't think I ever want to go there again. Considering what I've read this past summer about the place - sounds like it's one big "club scene" with a bunch of drunken (and screaming) visitors. I don't want to even bring up the Voodoo Lounge - another nice place ruined by "bottle service" and "reserved tables".
We always stay at the Las Vegas Hilton. Prices are very reasonable and the service is exceptional. Their buffet is to die for.
Las Vegas casino's have lost touch with customers especially the local market.
Go somewhere where you are appreciated. Las Vegas is not it.
Go to Hawaii if you can spend the extra money for airfare. Hawaiian don't treat you bad and steal your money at the tables.
NEW TAG LINE FOR VEGAS:
"Come here for the Crappy $39.50 fried Chicken Buffets"
OR
"Why pay $39.00 for a room when you can get gouged for $219.00 + $34% tax""
NEW, NEW TAG LINES FOR VEGAS:
"Take a break, USA and pretend you will win"
"Take a break, USA and take a tour of all those empty condo's"
"Take a break, USA and pay $316 for a cool cabana"
"Take a break, USA, its only 10x more than home"
"Take a break, USA, buy a $23,900 purse at Ceasars forum before they file"
Put some atmosphere back into the casino.When I ran the casino I had A great band in the lounge next to the pit.When the music stopped the gambling stopped.I hired two bands and the casino stayed busy all night.Old Vegas!
MarkP nailed it!
"the big problems with vegas are
1) It is advertised as sin city - why?
It is illegal to bathe topless by pools
The place is too prudish
Europeans are used to being able to swim in public pools topless, same in parts of canada, we have friends who come from England and are shocked by how strict it is, they as a couple want to visit a brothel but they are too far out for them to bother
2) Food and drink is too expensive on strip people feel conned
There is nothing to sin about... it is I agree too prudish and quite stayed.
anyone ever been to Ibiza? well you can sin 24 hrs a day lol
"vegas come here to be conned by high prices and don't sin?"
Let's try.......
"Spend, spend...it's your tail-end. And we'll kiss it!"
Las Vegas
Without gaming this place would be Barstow II. Think about it.
Great thread. I agree with everybody. But if I had to pick two points I especially think are important, they'd be: "The City nor State cannot depend on gaming as their only source of employment and income any longer." (from DetMunch).
and
"What made Las Vegas famous, fabulous and so rich was cheap food, cheap entertainment, cheap lodging, respect for customers. What has brought about an abrupt decline of all this is: Greed via high priced, lousy food, lousy service, no respect for customers, and still more greed where every hotel employee has their hand out for a toke and little or nothing in return." (from Vsestini).
Legalize the girls. Make "What happens..." a legal option. There's no sin in Sin City.
Will Vegas advertising that worked before, work again?
No it will not work, because all the moral idiots in our government are ruining Vegas. Read article blow.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/sep...
its pretty simple...perfect example..me and my girl were thinking of going to vegas we had a certain anount of money...but since the room and food were so much we just went to an indian casino had a good time won some cash and played at the beach...... we would of dropped our cash in vegas if we could of gotten a decent room for cheap and we knew our food was going to be reasonbale........plus the slots are now as tight in vegas so why drive
Here's my contribution to the brainstorming meeting:
Voluptuous blonde in bikini shouts over techno beats at poolside: "My HELOC stayed in Vegas, then the bank took my house. So, LET'S PARTY!!!"
Whaddya think LVCVA? Can I get a piece of that $86 million??
I wanna come to vegas and spend a couple hundred on a room,pay for over priced lousy food,get fleeced at the gift shop,my pockets picked by the slots!Start reading the notes in the suggestion box idiots!!!
No, the crackdown Metro is doing with the club scene and the adult playground Las Vegas is no longer what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. The tourists come to Vegas to gamble and fulfill their wild sexual fantasies and the politicians along with Metro are cracking down on what this town was founded upon.
Get Metro off their high horse and let the tourists and locals have their fun and then the old slogan will work and Vegas will prosper. Until then, Vegas has becoming another California. Overrun by liberals who want nothing more that to destroy communities from within to further people's codependency with the government.
its2hot,
Here is a clue Einstein, if you are going to open your ignorant piehole and complain about liberals with every breath you can muster, perhaps you should do a better job of understanding the platforms on each side.
Cracking down and enforcing the letter of the law? That's a republican platform, genius. Liberals are the ones pushing for decriminalization. Oh and another news flash for you, the Sheriff and DA responsible....yeah, republicans.
Further, your laughably juvenile declaration that Vegas is infested with liberal tourists kind of doesn't fit with the general neoCON theory that all liberals are jobless, lazy and looking for handouts...which would sorta make paying $400-night at the Wynn or Bellagio out of the question.
Being an ignant loudmouth that has no clue of what they speak, seems to be some sort of prerequisite for the teabaggers-nutters-birthers-deather crowd. Exhibit A. Congrats!
JahReb, So true. He has completely forgotten that Repubs claimed sole exclusive rights to 'Family Values', even though a certain member of their party likes to hang out in men's bathroom stalls. How does 'Family Values' aquare with 'What Happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas'?
Comment removed by staff. Comment contained an advertisement.
My last comment was removed because it "contained an advertisement", so I'll re-post it in a way that will surely make sense:
Maybe <insert big ad agency that the article is about> should take a lesson from <somebody doing something clever in Las Vegas advertising>.
There. Better?
How to get more people to come here. Hum. My guess is that the type of people who enjoy Vegas would come IF THEY HAD ENOUGH DIGRESSIONARY MONEY. So then, how does one entice people with money to blow to visit Vegas? Great deals. Specials. Free this and that. Make them an offer they can't refuse. Hey, there's an ad theme, a mafioso sending joe schmuck an invitation to vegas with a free night stay, this and that. Come, or else. Then here's the kicker. If they don't come, send someone to break their legs!
Kidding aside, I have a degree in economics and marketing and will throw the marketers a few bones in hopes they follow my suggestions. 1) Buy the rights to that "waking up in vegas" song and use that in an ad, get Hugh Hefner and some of his ladies to appear in the ad, some of the poker stars, etc. Make Vegas look hip and the place to be. 2) Create a website for "whales" and high rollers from around the world. I know the casino's already have a staff to target these types of degenerates, but creating a website so that the ones who are unknown to the gaming establishments could make contact and create a profile and then hear back bids form the top places as to what they can get comped. Multi-millionaires need only reply. www.lvcomps.com for instance. Then advertise that with one of these ads, show someone being picked up, flown to Vegas, then whined and dined. Millionaire doctor types could get a free visit also, but on Southwest air and a regular room, not a high roller suite. We have enough empty rooms, fill them up with rich, comped people!
Sergio the Silly,
I swear, always teachin'-and-a-preachin'. So tell us, what in the world is "DIGRESSIONARY MONEY?" Marketing grads should be know their words, and econ grads should be accurate.
"Discretionary" is what you meant.
I still like the tagline I came up with. "Get your Vegas on!' However I agree that getting the rights to Katy Perry's song Waking Up in Vegas would work too. The only way to get Vegas back to the way it was a few years ago is getting the conventions back. All of them. So that will take awhile.
JahReb:
We love the ignorance of liberals. Keep speaking and responding to posts; it just reaffirms why not to vote lunatics into office.
Fogcity:
Don't throw stones in a glass house. It is you lunatics that support male/male -- female/Female openly gay rights and you all like it, SICK. You lunatics have ruined family values and practice really sick sexual tendencies. Bottom line, it is you and your lunatic democrats that have destroyed America's values and are now trying to cram their sick policies down our throats.
So $86 million dollars buys some old, rehashed, and overused slogan for 2010? R&R Advertising must have some pretty important people running the company to continuously "win" this lucrative contract from the LVCVA year after year.
Gosh, I'm just glad the agency or it's owners aren't involved in our state's political process--or the sheriff's race--or even our ambulance service. That would give them WAY too much influence.
Now, where did I put that Freedom Train schedule??
If you want to make Las Vegas more profitable I have one word. Bullfighting! Afterwards a Barbecue! Yahooooooo!
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please no more sleazy ads promoting vegas as cheap thrill city. When I went to Vegas for first time, it was the excitement of going to casinos and feeling like million bucks.
It wasn't because what goes around stays there.
Come on!
Just show the fun people will have not about the sleazy ads like the last one. We all know the bad side of vegas then why promote that?
How about
"Come to Vegas and feel like million bucks"
How about
"Come to Vegas and feel like million bucks"
...all green and wrinkled?
Add campaign's won't make much difference me and my girlfriend had talked about going to vegas next month but changed our mind's...we've gone 2 yrs. in a row
There's plently of casino's near us in Ohio we can go to...... enjoy Vegas but the way the economey is now it's just not fessiable right now... i'm sure there are 10's thousand's of other's who came to the same conculision