The creative brilliance in the smirkinducing "What Happens Here, Stays Here" commercials has generated all the buzz, but the real genius behind the campaign goes back to the kind of researchdriven business decision that doesn't ignite much media attention.
In 1997, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority was marketing the city to tourists through its products think commercials flashing images of hotel properties and attractions. Visitor numbers were hitting all-time highs, but LVCVA veteran Rossi Ralenkotter anticipated the increasing competition for the travel dollar. He and ad agency R&R Partners (led by another alumnus, Billy Vassiliadis) pushed for a change. They believed the time was ripe for a branding campaign, one that would cut through the cluttered destination travel market by connecting with tourists' emotions.
"Whenever you shift to a branding campaign, there's a chance you'll miss the mark and not quite connect with customers," said Ralenkotter, who was then vice president of marketing at the LVCVA. "Fortunately for us, Las Vegas means a lot of things to a lot of people."
But being all things to all people can make a product not much of anything to anyone. The city was adding celebrity chef restaurants and designer boutiques to its smorgasbord of cheap buffets and stripmall properties. To flesh out just what the city promises its visitors, the authority and the ad agency used their sophisticated market-research resources, including exhaustive surveys and focus groups. Whether visitors were taking advantage of the gaming, golf, or the variety of entertainment choices, their experiences all boiled down to two words: adult freedom.
A few advertising campaigns including the "Las Vegas Freedom Party," which played upon the 2000 presidential election, and the "Open 24 Hours" ads eventually led to the "Vegas Stories" campaign, along with its now infamous tag line. The campaign helped the city regain its pre-Sept. 11 occupancy rates, and it garnered Ralenkotter and Vassiliadis the brand marketing industry's top award, Brandweek magazine's Grand Marketer of the Year.
"We knew we had achieved our goal when First Lady (Laura) Bush used the tagline during an interview with Jay Leno," says Ralenkotter, who's since been promoted to president and CEO of the authority. "It's become part of our pop culture that's the ultimate success for a branding campaign."
The reason the campaign resonates with visitors, if not with residents, is because it represents what Las Vegas has always delivered, Ralenkotter says. And he's quick to point out that, though the city has always been friendly for visitors who bring their families, it's never been a family destination.
"The media put that label on us," he says. "As the product was evolving with many more choices in shopping, dining, golf, and outdoor experiences the media picked up that the focus wasn't solely on gaming. We were never going to compete directly with Disney theme parks."
Research-backed campaigns will help the city maintain its industry-leading occupancy rates even as new properties open, Ralenkotter says. In the next five years, the number of rooms is slated to grow from 133,000 to more than 155,000. That will require 43 million annual visitors, up 15 percent from last year's 37.4 million.
Such numbers were probably hard to imagine some 33 years ago when Ralenkotter took a job as the authority's only market analyst and was charged with building its research program. "I can remember it like it was yesterday I had been working at Central Telephone, and our days started at 9 o'clock," Ralenkotter says. "Well, I was an hour late for my first day because the workday at the LVCVA started at 8.
"But the day got much better and still stands out as one of my most memorable. Paul Titus, who was in charge of marketing at the time, asked if I wanted to go to lunch. Turns out he was lunching with the people from Sports Illustrated and (football star and sportscaster) Frank Gifford. I figured, It can't get any better than this.' That's still true to me, there's no greater job than to be able to market and sell my hometown."
The job doesn't come without challenges in a competition-rich environment, but the authority will draw upon its traditional strength as a flexible, researchdriven organization to stay ahead. "Even when things are phenomenal, you can't just sit back," Ralenkotter says. "You could look at CNN today and find six or seven things going on in the world that affect tourism. As a global destination, we have to be ready to adapt."
The authority's five-year plan is focusing on international markets in Canada, Mexico, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan. The convention center's 3.2 million square feet will be remodeled to incorporate more breakout rooms and updated technology, and the authority is analyzing vehicle and pedestrian traffic flow to enhance the visitor experience.
A challenge Ralenkotter foresees is the same one he faced three decades ago: gasoline prices and availability. "I had been here a very short period of time when the energy crisis of the '70s hit. All of a sudden, we had to have information on the number of airline seats, how many people traveled here by car versus plane, how much of our market was from California all the basics.
"Now the authority is facing that issue once again. This time, we have a phenomenal research program in place that lets us adapt very quickly."
The authority was able to respond soon after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. It pulled its adult freedom ads and "did what we do with any change in the market; we did research," Ralenkotter says. "Las Vegas already had a very high safety image with people. Then we learned that people were seeking permission to travel again."
Within a month, the authority gave them that with the "It's Time for You" campaign featuring Frank Sinatra music and images of the past to reinforce the feeling of comfort people already had with Las Vegas. That campaign ran for 18 months and, when the time was right, the authority renewed the adult freedom message with the "Vegas Stories" campaign.
As for the future of the campaign? That, not surprisingly, will be determined by ongoing research. When the destination travel market shifts, when Las Vegas' brand promise needs a tweak, when the numbers show that the campaign no longer resonates, the LVCVA will move on.
But Ralenkotter doesn't expect that to happen soon. "The beauty of Vegas Stories' is that there is no end to them."
