In the mid-nineties, investors sparked a Vegas renaissance by pouring money into refurbishing and rebranding old casinos while new luxury casinos sprouted up and down the strip, attracting a higher caliber of entertainer and visitor. This economic shot in the arm helped Las Vegas ascend to one of the nation's fastest-growing cities.

Las Vegas still evokes reckless abandon and thrill seeking. The gamblers, bachelors and impulse wedding parties still descend. It’s just more expensive thrill seeking. With its flexible morality and close proximity to LA, Vegas is today an upscale playground for high rollers, and the rich and famous, complete with world class spas, a vibrant club scene, art galleries and high-end retailers to absorb the abundance of money and misbehavior. The Las Vegas brand message captures it all: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority recently launched a campaign focused around a series of humorous American TV ads to promote the Vegas brand and accompanying website, vegasfreedom.com. The spots depict various scenarios of all types of people who come to Vegas to let their freak flag fly. One features a group of somber women in a limo, obviously returning from a bachelorette party. One by one, they begin laughing hysterically at one bridesmaid who seems embarrassed at an offscreen indiscretion until she joins them in laughing at herself. The spot concludes with the tagline, “What happens in Vegas… Stays in Vegas.” The campaign makes the thrill of Vegas seem accessible to everyone. We recently visited vegasfreedom.com to see if it too drove us wild.

The home page operates from a Flash virtual suitcase, laid open on a wrinkled bedsheet. Each item in the suitcase has an embedded rollover link that leads visitors to rich content areas, augmented with a campy audible riff.

Clicking on the tickets redirects users to an event search page and invitation to register with the site—a good way to collect information on site visitors for further promotional contact.

The site provides information and enticements to visit Las Vegas, including a current listing of Vegas nightclubs and their contact information; a shopping section where users can download a PDF for redeemable gifts at popular Vegas shopping destinations; information about New Year celebrations, as well as specials promoting the upcoming 100th anniversary of Vegas; and a Great Deals page where users can enter their preferences and obtain information on specials or link to the casino resorts in alphabetical order.

One strong community area can be found by following the T-shirt icon to a Vegas Stories contest community page. Here users can compare notes on their Vegas insanity and win prizes ranging from a T-shirt (natch) to a visit on the set of Las Vegas, the NBC TV show. The best contest on the site capitalizes on the branding campaign, featuring a special web-only commercial. More practical information abounds as well—users can download maps of all areas of Vegas including golf courses, the strip, the city and downtown. They can also register online to receive a free visitor information packet.

Chef statistics and detailed restaurant information offers an opportunity to highlight the recent influx of world-class restaurants that Vegas now has on offer.

Certain areas are frivolous and don’t provide much information or entertainment value, like the useless Printable Outfits page. By clicking on a virtual vending machine, users can download a zip file containing full-size printable images of shades and chops, an Elvis jumpsuit, a showgirl bikini, etc. It’s likely this idea sounded a lot more appealing in concept than it turned out to be in practice.

Like the city itself, Vegasfreedom.com puts on a good show to retain users and build a sense of community among its converts. Full of clever gimmicks and engaging visitor retention ploys, visitors can find plenty of cheeky content to keep them interested in the wacky world that could only be Vegas. Online it costs nothing but time.