R&R Takes Home An OMMA Award

This week, R&R Partners was awarded the 2009 OMMA Award in the Travel category for Online Marketing and Branding with our LVCVA Vegas Bound campaign. In this category, we beat finalists MediaVest for Continental Airlines and MediaCom for JetBlue. This award reflects not only the incredible success of the campaign, but also celebrates the success of the fully integrated effort across departments within R&R, our partner Critical Mass, and the LVCVA.

The economic slowdown in late 2008 began to create a consumer perception that casino properties were shutting their doors and that Vegas was all doom and gloom. More and more, consumers began to believe that Vegas had nothing going on and essentially was “closed for business”. R&R Partners quickly developed a campaign concept to counteract this perception and demonstrate the vitality of Las Vegas and spur travel. This was the Vegas Bound campaign.

R&R Partners invited the entire town of Cranfills Gap, TX to come enjoy a Vegas vacation, on our dime. My agency developed an integrated program to film the people of Cranfills Gap documentary style, capturing their personal stories through interviews and depicting their Vegas adventures. True to life personalities from Cranfills Gaps were identified as our Vegas Bound “characters,” which were hand picked to be representative of Vegas visitor archtypes/targets. The footage that we shot was then edited into webisode series featured on both a custom microsite and the Las Vegas brand channel on YouTube.

The videos that R&R produced are engaging web video content. In this format, we were able to demonstrate the Vegas product through the eyes of everyday Americans. Our viewers can watch these videos and relate to the people of Cranfills Gap, and empathize that they too deserve a Vegas break. The microsite and brand channel further supported the brand experience, providing an rich and engaging web environment. We’re sure that this is a first for a travel industry brand.

Vegas Bound was perhaps the most integrated project that I have ever had the privilege to work on to date. PR had great success in securing over $3 million worth of press coverage before the launch of the campaign. Media developed a fantastic media plan that secured 800+ million impressions and 50% earned media value. Our YouTube media delievered 161 million impressions averaging .31% CTR. Integrations included Jimmy Kimmel Live, Sports Illustrated and The Killers. 


And of course, our interactive partner Critical Mass worked just as hard as anyone at R&R to make Vegas Bound a success. I am personally grateful for the dedication and the perseverance that our team members demonstrated during the crazy rush to deploy the microsite.


Good job to everyone that worked on this campaign. And thank you Cranfills Gap for making it possible.

Chinchillas invade YouTube

I have to admit, I was skeptical when I read the script for the first Chinchilli Day spot, La Revolution. I didn’t think that chinchillas really made sense for a Vegas commercial. I know it’s not about the chinchillas, it’s about having an excuse to get to Vegas. Maybe I just missed the What Happens Here Stays Here campaign too much to give this new What’s Your Excuse campaign a chance.

Of course, actually seeing the spot is a lot different than just reading the script. It’s funny, and our YouTube audience loves it. Chinchilli Day has been our #2 most watched video of all time. Viewers rave about it. Someone even re-edited the video with a healthy dose of heavy metal.

So the chinchillas won me over, and I was very excited to post the sequel, Les Trois Chinchillas last week to our client’s brand channel.  In less than a week the new spot has reached 20,000 views. Les Trois was selected as Ad of the Day and featured in AdFreak before it even hit broadcast.

Today, our YouTube masthead unit is live and featuring both spots. Check it out on the homepage, below is a screenshot. We’ve used this placement in the past for our Vegas Bound campaign with great results. So I’m expecting a big spike in views for the two Chinchilla spots, plus pick up on our other videos, including two interviews with the chinchilla star. In just a few hours, we’ve receive loads of comments on the videos and on the channel, and a decent increase in subscribers and friends.

Viva las chinchillas!