R&R Partners hires new chief creative officer amid new era for Las Vegas

R&R Partners in Las Vegas has recruited a longtime TBWA\Media Arts Lab creative director on Apple to be its next chief creative officer as it celebrates its 50th anniversary—and looks to the future in the Nevada city. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Chuck Monn, who started as R&R’s CCO in April, spent more than 15 years at Media Arts Lab as a key architect of Apple campaigns including “Get a Mac” and “Shot on iPhone.” In his new role, Monn is based in Los Angeles but is visiting Las Vegas regularly. Guto Araki, R&R’s most recent creative chief, left the agency in February. What drew him to R&R, Monn said, was the agency’s skill set beyond traditional advertising. Best known for the long-running “What happens here, stays here” tourism campaign for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, R&R quietly operates in other areas, including government affairs, crisis communications and digital innovation (through its House of V unit, specializing in AR/VR). R&R has also been central to Vegas’ growth as a sports town, having worked behind the scenes to bring the NFL’s Raiders as well as a major Formula 1 race to town. “I was looking for bigger problems to solve than just advertising, and I found this place to be fascinating,” Monn said. “It surrounds problems with weird minds that come from wildly diverse backgrounds, like presidential advisers, behavioral PhDs, community organizers and data analysts—all these strange minds in one place. That allows us to come up with solutions that can’t happen anywhere else.” Michon Martin, R&R’s president since 2016—and onetime chief counsel to Nevada’s former governor—said the agency is always on the hunt for “one-of-a-kind thinkers” and that Monn’s work on iPhone showed him to be a singular talent. “He taught us to love this thing,” she said, motioning to her own iPhone. “‘Shot on iPhone’ was one of the places where he found the personal connection. He taught the world to personally love this thing. That’s the kind of thinker we need.” Building a sports town Martin and agency CEO Billy Vassiliadis—an adman and longtime political operative who has served as an adviser to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama—both said the efforts to bring Formula 1 and the Raiders to Vegas show the agency’s problem solving in action. Cannes Lions coverage See all of the Grand Prix winners here Top 5 Grand Prix campaigns With COVID stunting international travel, R&R and its tourism and civic partners devised the F1 plan to get more global visitors—and eyeballs. Data released last month shows international travel to Vegas is up 17% year over year, the agency said. “That’s insane,” said Monn. “They helped bring F1 to Vegas and built a course so they could race on the streets. Usually at an agency, you make an app to bring in tourism. This is the next-level thinking that I just love.” Bringing the WNBA’s Aces to town in 2017 and the NFL’s Raiders in 2020 were also critical moves for the city in building “not just the entertainment capital of the world, but the sports capital of the world,” said Martin. (The Las Vegas Sphere has also injected more energy in the entertainment department.) R&R’s recent Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority campaign involving the Aces made headlines for going beyond advertising as well. It included a $100,000 annual sponsorship for each Aces player—more than many of the team’s players make in salary. The WNBA is now investigating whether those deals are acceptable under the league’s salary structure. “The amount of heat and renewal in Vegas going on right now is just amazing,” Monn said. “It’s an adult playground, but the the playground is more expansive than it than it ever was.” Going after the Chucks COVID was actually very helpful to R&R in the end, just in terms of recruiting. Vegas has often been a tough market to recruit into, but remote work allows R&R to “go after the Chucks of the world,” Vassiliadis said. The agency’s 300-plus employees now includes workers in 29 states, he added. After interviewing some 30 candidates for the CCO job, Vassiliadis said Monn immediately felt like a kindred spirit. “One thing we found with Chuck is the idea that the solution isn’t always—and maybe not even often—an ad,” Vassiliadis said. “It’s not always a video. It’s not always a social post. We’ve always gone in with that notion. We’ve now learned that the rest of the world wants it, too. Everyone says this, but it really is about solving your business problem.” Monn’s hire follows several other top arrivals at R&R over the past 18 months, including Matt Matzen as chief marketing officer, David Panzarasa as head of talent, Kat Urban as head of integrated production and Richard Oldfield as head of strategy. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here

R&R Partners hires new chief creative officer amid new era for Las Vegas

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