Even If You Don’t “Leave Your Stiff Upper Lip At Home, What Happens In Vegas Stays in Vegas“

Extraordinary moments at Vision Expo West in Las Vegas this year left everyone with a bag of experiences and a basket of food for thought in an unprecedented way. To many, the slogan “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” refers to nefarious activities that a person or a group of people encounter when traveling and don’t want to talk about later; a kept secret among two or more that no one should talk about anywhere under any circumstances. The reality of this slogan is more related to advertising a niche product than anything else. Advertisement company, R&R Partners, were in Las Vegas on an ad campaign to promote the city with a previously unexplored theme; a concept to counterpoint to Las Vegas’ ill-suited effort to promote itself as a family destination. That was in 2001 and during that time, many companies were allergic-to-gambling and refused to air anything that even gave a sniff of gambling or Las Vegas resorts built on such. Jeff Candido, a young advertising writer at R&R was on a vacation trip to Arizona, Lake Havasu where he saw this T-shirt, “What Happens in Lake Havasu, Stays in Lake Havasu”. What happened in Lake Havasu, did stay in Lake Havasu, but what will come for decades later now is remembered as “What happens here, stays here”. And so it went, R&R adopted Candido’s slogan which became Sin City’s famous slogan. From that moment, The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) invested around $10 million into television advertising for the slogan. In 2011, the slogan was voted by the Madison Avenue as the most iconic slogan in history. There were two winners Sin City’s “What Happens Here Stays Here” and Capital One‘s “What’s In Your Wallet?”. Among the other 14 iconic slogans that were competing for a spot on the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame in New York were familiar slogans as Nike’s “Just Do It,” Folgers’ “The Best Part of Waking Up Is Folgers in Your Cup,” and American Express’ “Don’t Leave Home Without It.”

“What Happens Here Stays Here” and its sister slogan, “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” have become two of the most powerful marketing phrases in the history of advertising. The slogan Candido’s brought to R&R and LVCVA who had a well define customer segment in their mind that they wanted to target is very simple yet hits the right audience. LVCVA mission and unique goal was to transform Las Vegas into a family destination. They invested tens of millions in transforming the city into becoming the best family destination. Management guru, Peter Drucker most important question that every business should ask after knowing its mission is knowing “who is its customer?” Knowing who your customer is reminds you that you cannot build a strategy based on being everything for everyone. In a previous article we detailed the three conditions that you need to have when you choose your niche market: What am I passionate about? Who do I want to treat? and Who is my ideal patient? There is a beautiful quote by Bobbie Barrett portrayed by Melinda McGraw in the TV series Mad Men Season 2 Episode 5: “The New Girl” that says “This is America. Pick a job and then become the person that does it”. This literally applies to every niche business: find out what’s you’re most passionate about, build your mission around it, who do you want to treat, who is your customer, who is your ideal patient, and what is the unique value proposition that you will offer?