Selling Nevada: Officials soliciting branding ideas to promote tourism

By Richard N. Velotta

Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010 | 11:26 a.m.

The Nevada Commission on Tourism is considering taking a page from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority playbook to establish and develop a brand for the state.

Larry Friedman, acting director of the commission that promotes tourism in Nevada, said over the next two months commission staff would develop a request for proposals to select brand research and brand development vendors to work with the commission to come up with how Nevada tourism should be marketed to customers.

The LVCVA, which gathers research to help it make decisions on how to market and advertise Las Vegas, has gone through a similar process over the years.

Brand researchers determined that Las Vegas stood for adult freedom and that information led to the development of the highly successful “What happens here, stays here” marketing and advertising campaign.

Rossi Ralenkotter, the president and CEO of the LVCVA, is a member of the Tourism Commission and has been an advocate for making ad and marketing decisions based on thorough research. Critics say the exercise is expensive, time-consuming and results in too much money being paid to consultants instead of for ads.

Friedman said Ralenkotter is well-respected among tourism experts and he believes researching branding would give Nevada the best return on investment for its shrinking ad budget, which could be reduced even more when the Legislature convenes in February, searching for more places to make budget cuts.

The state tourism board has had some successful ad campaigns. In the 1990s, it encouraged customers to “discover both sides of Nevada” with a logo of a playing card with a folded corner resembling the shape of the state on the map. Painted fingernails were on the card showing the exotic side of the state while the rest of the message showed some of Nevada’s rugged outdoor scenery.

The campaign led to efforts to focus on adventure travel and outdoor recreation popular in the rural parts of the state.

State officials are hoping to develop the request for proposals by mid-January, revise and tweak it by early February, seek out the research and development proposals by mid-February and evaluate submitted proposals by early March.

“We’re trying to determine what is the essence of Nevada,” Friedman said. “What is it about Nevada that appeals to people as a place to visit?”