TikTok stars get tax money, free airfare to promote Las Vegas

It was a typical bros’ trip to Vegas. Right?

A group of friends calling themselves The Hockey Guys posted a 48-second clip on TikTok that chronicled them flying to town, attending a Golden Knights game, toasting drinks, driving dune buggies, riding zip lines and taking a helicopter ride.

“I’ll admit it, we were acting like it was our Sweet 16,” a narrator says during their limo ride.

But this wasn’t a normal Vegas vacation. Their video, marked “sponsored,” was part of a $2 million marketing campaign by Las Vegas’ taxpayer-funded government tourism agency with hundreds of social media personalities, whose ability to actually drive visitors to America’s casino capital may be difficult to measure.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority struck 264 deals with influencers and paid them more than $2.2 million combined in “talent fees,” according to data the agency released in response to a public records request from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The agency also provided copies of influencers’ contracts to promote Las Vegas, totaling some 1,500 pages. But it redacted individual payment totals, with President and CEO Steve Hill calling those figures a trade secret — a decision that Review-Journal Chief Legal Officer Ben Lipman said has no basis in Nevada’s open-records law.

In the past, the LVCVA’s spending of tax money has been questioned, including by a Review-Journal investigation that led to an audit and criminal charges against former executives at the agency.

‘It is effective’

Hill told the Review-Journal on Wednesday that officials track social media impressions, engagement and other data.

“They show it is effective,” he said.

Hill revealed in May, when he announced that the LVCVA was giving the Las Vegas Aces $100,000 each to represent the city, that the agency was regularly paying more than 100 influencers. The next day, the WNBA confirmed it was investigating the deal with the basketball players.

Of course, just because a TikTok video about fun times in Las Vegas garners 20,000 “likes” doesn’t mean those 20,000 viewers will take a trip here.

The tourism authority, however, contends that its influencer program “has delivered a substantial amount of coverage highlighting all aspects of the destination and reaching new audiences.”

The program has generated more than 6,400 pieces of published content on Instagram, TikTok and other sites. It also has resulted in more than a billion “organic” impressions — those without paid amplification — and a 4.2 percent “engagement rate” that includes likes and comments and is above the travel industry average of 2.5 percent, according to LVCVA spokeswoman Molly Castano.

UNLV business professor Marla Royne Stafford said influencers are soaking up big marketing budgets in numerous industries, as the digital-age celebrities can command huge audiences who pay attention to what they say and do.

It’s difficult to gauge how many people end up visiting Las Vegas as a result of influencers’ videos, similar to measuring the exact impact of traditional forms of marketing, she said.

But in general, advertising campaigns seek to remind, inform or persuade consumers, Stafford said, and awareness of Las Vegas can ultimately prompt someone to visit.

“You have to start somewhere,” she said.

Jenna Drenten, associate professor of marketing at Loyola University Chicago, said the use of 200-plus influencers pushes content to different corners of the internet and, as a result, to different sets of consumers.

But in general, it’s hard to document a return-on-investment from influencer campaigns, she said.

It’s unclear who all sees the content, she noted, and it could be months before social media viewers visit Las Vegas after seeing videos about the destination.

“There’s a long tail to the measurement process,” Drenten said.

‘The easiest product to sell’

The LVCVA is funded by hotel room taxes and runs marketing programs, including the “What happens here, stays here” campaign of years past, to draw visitors to Southern Nevada.

It also owns and operates the 4.6-million-square-foot Las Vegas Convention Center, which finished a $1 billion expansion project a few years ago.

“I often say I have the best job you can have, and I also say it’s the easiest product to sell,” Hill told the LVCVA board last year. “It’s the only product where all you have to do is mention the name and everyone’s eyes light up.”

Among the 260-plus influencers identified by the convention authority, the majority were signed up by marketing agency Ykone, records indicate.

The tourism authority’s board voted in 2021 to hire advertising firm Grey Global for its social media marketing efforts in a deal valued at up to $160 million, and Grey subcontracted with Ykone in 2022, Castano said.

The LVCVA, Grey and Ykone collectively approve the influencers and review their content to “ensure it aligns with LVCVA brand standards,” she said.

Influencers were contracted to promote Las Vegas through Instagram posts, TikTok videos and specified hashtags. They were provided flights, hotel stays and other accommodations, including, at times, Super Bowl tickets and helicopter rides, records show.

Three influencers and two Ykone representatives also received LVCVA-purchased tickets to Las Vegas’ Formula One racing event last November, agency records show.

Expenses beyond the talent fees can vary, Castano said, noting outside companies sometimes provide complimentary services or experiences, while in other cases the LVCVA covers the costs.

Inanna Sarkis, an actress with 17.7 million followers on Instagram, was granted three days in a “premium” room at an “Influencer-approved” hotel such as Bellagio or Wynn Las Vegas, according to her contract dated Feb. 8.

She also was given first-class ground transportation, two tickets for a luxury suite at the Super Bowl at Allegiant Stadium, and up to $1,700 for a return flight to Los Angeles.

The Hockey Guys’ contract, dated Oct. 8, 2022, called for two TikTok videos and several Instagram posts and stated that all content must “be approved by the client before posting.”

Their pay was blacked out, but the contract indicated they received five round-trip flights, two rooms at the Aria, five tickets to a Golden Knights game, and experiences including a helicopter tour and dune-buggy racing.

@thehockeyguys Our @vegas experience couldn’t have been better! #vegas #meanwhileinvegas #sponsored ♬ original sound - The Hockey Guys

A video of their trip, posted on TikTok on Oct. 24, 2022, showed them at a Knights game and drinking at NoMad, where “things just got a little bit crazy,” a narrator said. The clip garnered almost 11,000 likes.

A second video of their trip, posted to TikTok the next day, garnered almost 4,900 likes.

@thehockeyguys Replying to @Allison and that wraps up the best 3 days in @vegas. #Vegas #meanwhileinvegas #sponsored ♬ original sound - The Hockey Guys

“Vegas, you sure were good to us,” a narrator said.

Both videos featured contractually obligated hashtags, including #meanwhileinvegas, and were marked #sponsored.

‘Invented being gay’

The roster of influencers hired to promote Las Vegas included R&B star Jason Derulo, who has more than 60 million followers on TikTok, and social-media celebrities such as TikTok sensation Alix Earle, a self-described “hot mess” with 7.1 million followers on the platform.

Derulo was given tickets to a luxury suite at Super Bowl 58, and Earle’s contract called for a TikTok video recapping her experiences in Las Vegas and at the football game, according to LVCVA records.

Social media personalities Lele Pons, Liza Koshy and Hannah Stocking, all of whom have tens of millions of followers on Instagram alone, were also given tickets for a luxury suite at the Super Bowl.

Earle posted roughly a dozen TikTok videos of her time in Las Vegas, including one from the Super Bowl that showed football action, half-time performances, and hot dogs and drinks with her boyfriend, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Braxton Berrios, in their suite at Allegiant Stadium.

The 24-second video was liked more than 824,000 times.

@alixearle No one does it like @Las Vegas 🏈😅🫡 #SBinLV ♬ OMG (feat. will.i.am) - Usher

The LVCVA also contracted with a group called The Old Gays — who “invented being gay,” as a member of the troupe quips online — and Andy Benavides, who has 1.3 million followers on Instagram and chronicles her life as a mother of four young daughters.

She also runs Instagram accounts for her girls — who collectively have more than 180,000 followers.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Contact Callie Lawson-Freeman at clawsonfreeman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.