Monday, Nov. 26, 2001 | 10:52 a.m.
Like nearly everything else associated with the tourism industry, the way Las Vegas is portrayed in advertising was changed by September's terrorist attacks.
Just ask Randy Snow, a vice president and creative director for R&R Partners, the advertising and public relations agency that coordinates the city's promotional campaign for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
"Nineteen terrorists and four airplanes changed all the rules," Snow told members of the Las Vegas Advertising Federation in a recent luncheon.
Before the Sept. 11 attacks, R&R coordinated a freewheeling 15-month campaign that took a lighthearted look at how people celebrate their freedom when they vacation in Las Vegas.
It started as the public turned its attention to the presidential political campaign with a fictional character called Brock Wilder running for office. While candidates were pitching their political agendas, the Wilder character was espousing the merits of the "Freedom Party," which was dedicated to having fun in Las Vegas.
Snow said the Wilder campaign got even more mileage than R&R executives expected when the presidential campaign ran longer than anticipated with ballot-counting difficulties in Florida.
R&R followed up the Wilder ads with a series of television spots using unusual creative techniques and short story lines.
In one, the silhouettes of women whose profiles are depicted on mud flaps come to life, jump off their rigs and hitch a ride to Las Vegas on another truck. In another, a trail of discarded clothing, a briefcase and a cellular telephone ends with a necktie hanging from the famous "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign on the Strip.
Snow said Las Vegas was thriving, though the economy was softening and midweek visits were declining because of weakening business travel nationwide.
"Life was good and the numbers were up," Snow said. "The campaigns were getting noticed by the trade press and there were stories in Adweek and the Wall Street Journal."
But then, disaster struck.
In the two weeks following the terrorist attacks, Las Vegas did what every other tourism destination did: watched and waited in uncertainty.
"For the first two weeks, we did nothing," Snow said. "Then, we did what we did before the first campaign, get a lot of research."
Snow explained that focus groups and interviews with Las Vegas tourists helped develop the freedom campaign.
"At that time, people told us that they knew what Las Vegas was, so they didn't need a campaign that educated them about what the destination was about," Snow said. "They needed something a little lighter.
"It's like when you're on a plane coming into Las Vegas on a Friday afternoon. You get that kind of crowd that's ready for a party."
So R&R reasoned that going to the public for guidance following the crisis was a logical step to take.
"They told us that the best thing Las Vegas could be was a place for 'crisis fatigue,' " Snow said. "We became a freedom from the new reality."
Snow said it then became R&R's job to convince potential tourists that it wasn't un-American to consider a break from the stress of everyday life and to think about going to Las Vegas. Tourists interviewed by R&R consultants indicated that the city's best escape is its entertainment. That's what led to the city's newest ad campaign.
He explained that the family of Las Vegas icon Frank Sinatra donated a previously unreleased song called "It's Time for You" that seemed to work perfectly with the message the city was trying to communicate.
The first ads unveiled in the $13.5 million campaign showed people enjoying themselves in Las Vegas with the Sinatra music accompanying. Then, a new series of ads featuring Las Vegas celebrities singing along with Sinatra was introduced. The celebrities donated their time and the Sinatra family donated fees for the rights to the song to charitable organizations benefiting New York attack victims.
Snow said the new campaign, which carries the tag "Freedom to get away from it all," will be shown over the next six months and has been targeted in markets that are within driving distance or a short flight away from Las Vegas -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Dallas and Denver.
Snow said a new campaign hasn't been developed yet for next summer, but he does have a few ideas for a contingency plan he wouldn't disclose if another disaster were to shock the nation. He indicated that one thing that Sept. 11 has shown him is how quickly strategies must evolve in a crisis.
"We've been told that our market has probably rebounded faster than just about any other," Snow said.
That was evidenced by the weekend's visitation to the city. There were early indications that visitation was off only slightly compared to last year and much of the traffic came by car.
A spokeswoman said hotel occupancy was strong at the five Park Place Entertainment Corp. properties over the weekend, with sold-out status at most of them Friday and Saturday night. Restaurant business was brisk over the weekend at all restaurants at Caesars Palace, Bally's, Paris-Las Vegas, the Flamingo and the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casinos.
Highways between Las Vegas and Southern California were busy Sunday afternoon, but a spokeswoman at McCarran International Airport said lines and congestion were about normal for a weekend.
Rob Powers, a spokesman for the LVCVA, said Friday that about 265,000 people were projected to be in Las Vegas over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. The hotel occupancy rate was projected at 92 percent, off only about 2 percentage points from last year.
Powers said the city's rebound got an additional boost from the opening of the Palms hotel-casino earlier this month.
"They've done a great job positioning the property and because it's the first new hotel to open in quite awhile here, it's gotten a lot of national press," Powers said.
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