The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will roll out more advertisements that are a departure from its 16-year-old award-winning “What happens here, stays here” national campaign, but will continue to emphasis the adult freedom theme as the market seeks new ways to woo millennials.
Kevin Bagger, vice president of research for the LVCVA, said the group is still conducting research, but is “evolving our ads right now.” A year ago, the LVCVA rolled out national ads cut from YouTube movies about adult freedom that were a departure from the “What happens here” campaign.
Bagger discussed sample ads recently completed that show Las Vegas is a different way to a broader audience. He showed one ad with an end message – “Reinvention happens here” – during a discussion at the at the 17th International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking at Caesars Palace and produced by UNLV’s International Gaming Institute.
“We’re looking at a new campaign that will be coming up shortly that evolves the Vegas’ tagline to a different place,” Bagger said. “What happens here will be kept in certain tactical efforts, but we’re evolving to a broader message that’s still being defined.”
Bagger said their research is showing the need to focus on people’s desire “to express a truer version of themselves and who they want to be back home but aren’t allowed for whatever reason. The research insights said to us we need to paint the picture of the adult freedom and desire to be and unleash whoever they are in a way you can’t enjoy it in other destinations.”
Bagger spoke on the day the LVCVA announced its April visitor statistics. More than 3.54 million visitors came to Las Vegas during the month, a decline of 0.2 percent from April 2018. Convention attendance declined 6.1 percent while revenue per available room was $118.66 during the month, an increase of 1.2 percent.
The “What happens here” campaign that was launched in 2003 was guided by research as a follow up on the 1990s’ advertising campaign that focused on adult freedom. That campaign replaced ads that showed casino, dining and golf, Bagger said.
That theme of adult freedom helped sell Las Vegas as an emotional promise that stood out as other casinos were being built across the country, Bagger said. The theme means 100 different things to 100 people, but it unifies them and led to the “What happens,” that became the most successful tourism marketing campaign in history, he said.
They still test that tagline today, and people say it still works and that it would be “stupid to get rid of it,” Bagger said. Baby boomers and Generation X love it the most because it was launched during their adulthood. Millennials like it but doesn’t resonate with them the same way as it does other groups, Bagger said.
“It’s meant as tongue-in-cheek, but it takes millennials to a literal place and because social media is there, they say not really,” Bagger said.
Bagger said their research shows there are many millennials in California who haven’t visited Las Vegas. They don’t see the urgency because it’s close by. He suggested some targeted ads are needed to show an urgency to visit among that group who may be more willing to travel to other places around the world.
“The world is so much smaller, and the competitive landscape is bigger,” Bagger said.
