Las Vegas firm chosen for state’s winter marketing effort

For a while, it looked as though the marketing committee of the Nevada Tourism Commission was going to remain deadlocked Friday on its cruicial decision to recommend an ad agency to oversee the state’s winter marketing campaign.

But after more than an hour of debate laced with Old School vs. New Wave marketing strategy and a touch of North vs. South sentiment, the committee found its way to a 4-2 vote to recommend Las Vegas-based B&P Advertising and Public Relations to run the $1.75 million campaign.

But it wasn’t without a painstaking series of arguments that exasperated Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, who heads the committee.

The commission, which generally focuses its winter marketing campaign on the ski season and attractions centered around Lake Tahoe’s winter resorts, received proposals from B&P and Reno-based Creative Concepts.

In a Sept. 5 meeting, the committee deadlocked 2-2 on a recommendation and agreed to reconvene Friday with two members who had been absent.

It turned out that the two absent committee members came out on opposite sides, resulting in a 3-3 vote.

At issue were philosophical differences between the two marketing proposals. B&P recommended working with multiple digital platforms to drive prospective tourists to the state’s Travel Nevada website. They envision an aggressive campaign to lure millennial visitors, young computer-savvy consumers who pay attention to social media and what their friends say about a destination.

Creative Concepts wants to draw the millennials but also wants to pay attention to some of the state’s more traditional visitors who are persuaded more by ads they see on television. Creative Concepts proposed a bigger budget for TV ad buys and production.

The Tourism Commission staff, which is trying to attract a younger adventure-seeking crowd, recommended the B&P plan.

In the committee’s initial vote, Krolicki and Commissioners Lorraine Hunt-Bono and Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, sided with B&P. Commissioners Don Newman of Elko, John Wagnon, an executive with the Heavenly ski resort, and Christopher Baum, president and CEO of the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority, leaned to Creative Concepts.

The B&P backers said they valued the staff’s recommendation to work with the Las Vegas agency. But part of the B&P plan — targeting a large pocket of millennials in the Denver area to ski at Lake Tahoe — didn’t make sense to the Creative Concepts backers who believe they’d be more inclined to ski in Colorado. They preferred to focus more on the traditional markets in California, Oregon and Idaho with a heavier dose of TV ads.

None of the committee members wanted to change their votes, and a deadlock could have further delayed beginning work on the campaign, which the state wants on the street by November.

“If we don’t move this forward,” Tourism Commission Director Claudia Vecchio said, “we’re doomed.”

Krolicki said he would abstain from voting in a revote to break the tie, but the state attorney general’s office recommended he not abstain unless he had a conflict of interest on the vote.

Finally, Wagnon agreed to change his vote to end the deadlock.

Krolicki vowed to appoint a new member to the committee to produce an odd number of representatives to avoid ties.

Tourism officials say work would begin next week on developing the campaign, which is larger than last winter’s $1.5 million budget but less than last summer’s $3.6 million campaign.

Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow

@RickVelotta on Twitter.