After 10-month delay, LVCVA renews effort for new ad agency contract

The process to award one of the most-coveted local government contracts will be renewed next month when the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority restarts efforts to select an advertising agency of record.

The LVCVA has reissued a request for information to begin the process of selecting a contractor.

Over the life of the contract, its value can be hundreds of millions of dollars.

The LVCVA issued its request for information Jan. 21 with a deadline for submission of noon Feb. 4.

The contract term is expected to be five years with optional extensions.

Respondents to the RFI will be reviewed and scored by an evaluation committee, and the top-scoring firms will be short-listed and invited to move forward to participate in the request for proposal process. Only firms that submit a response to the RFI will be considered for the request for proposal process.

The LVCVA was in the process of selecting an advertising agency about a year ago. When the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Nevada in March, the LVCVA opted to maintain its relationship with its existing contractor, R&R Partners.

The LVCVA board approved a multimillion-dollar, one-year contract with a possible six-month extension to R&R to continue as the organization’s advertising consultant.

The board opted to approve the deal, valued at $110 million, in a unanimous vote. The contract includes an agency service fee of $475,000 a month, content creation at $600,000 a month, and a media commission of 6.5 percent of the gross amount billed.

At the time, LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill said R&R reduced its usual agency service fee by 24 percent and its content creation fee by 21 percent. He said the media commission remained the same at 6.5 percent, but the amount of media purchased was expected to be far less than in the past, so those costs also would be reduced.

R&R has had a decadeslong grip on the LVCVA advertising contract, winning bid after bid with optional contract extensions over the years.

R&R was the creator of the award-winning “What Happens Here, Stays Here” campaign that was updated years later to “What Happens Here Only Happens Here.”

The LVCVA advertising contract covers Las Vegas and four rural Nevada communities in Clark County. The new contract will include advertising opportunities for some new LVCVA assets.

Ad placements are expected in the months ahead at stations for Elon Musk’s people-mover project, stations for the Las Vegas Monorail, locations within the new Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall and possible vehicle-wrap advertising on the people mover’s Teslas and on monorail trains.

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