Inside the Ad Agency Helping Vegas Mourn — and Plot Its Comeback
Posted in: Uncategorized
Since 2003, Las Vegas has been defined by a five-word tagline encapsulating the mischievous mystique of the nation’s adult playground: “What Happens Here Stays Here.” But within minutes of hearing about the mass shooting that terrorized the city on Oct. 1, the man who runs the ad agency behind the slogan knew it had to come down. Immediately.
It was “completely inappropriate,” says Billy Vassiliadis, CEO of R&R Partners, the longtime agency for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. So he and more than a dozen agency staffers rushed to the agency’s suburban Las Vegas office that Sunday night, pulling the campaign and formulating a more appropriate message to capture the city’s grief and resolve.
The quick media, advertising and PR moves made by the agency by no means compare to the heroic actions taken by police officers and first responders who jumped into harm’s way amid what turned out to be the worst mass-shooting in modern U.S history. But from a business perspective, the agency’s actions spared the city’s tourism industry from potential embarrassment and created emotional bonds bridging locals and the millions of tourists who fuel the Vegas economy.
Post a Comment