The Las Vegas-based marketing agency best known globally for its two decade-old "What happens here, stays here" campaign that transformed the image of Las Vegas is merging with a larger, Kansas City-based firm to create a global presence for the two companies.

R&R Partners, a more than 50-year-old firm whose large client roster includes some of the most recognizable national names — including the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) — is merging with MMGY Global. R&R has deep ties to the Nevada Legislature via its lobbying arm and a client list that includes several tour and travel brands including Brand USA, Allegiant Airlines and Discover Puerto Rico.

The merger agreement closed Sept. 30 and financial terms were not disclosed. The two agencies will come together under the parent company MMGY Global but will retain their separate corporate presences, offices and staff. 

In an interview with The Nevada Independent, R&R CEO Michon Martin said the merger will help diversify both companies. R&R has offices in Las Vegas, Reno, Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C., and Mexico City. R&R maintains an office in Carson City during the legislative session.

"R&R is an advertising agency with all the pieces that come with an advertising agency," Martin said. "But on top of that, what makes us special, unique, maybe a little bit weird, is we have government affairs, community affairs [and] public affairs."

Martin said the vision behind the merger was bringing together "all the best pieces of both, and building something truly that doesn't exist."

Though it has worked with the tourism agency and the Nevada Resort Association, R&R does not currently represent any Strip, Reno or Downtown Las Vegas resorts for advertising or public relations.

As Las Vegas attracts major sports leagues and the city's resorts expand internationally, Martin and other agency leaders said R&R will use its expanded reach to protect and promote its work globally — having a broader effect on the Las Vegas community beyond politicos and those who pay attention to the city's business industry. 

The tourism industry is vital for the Silver State, Martin said, noting that room taxes fund essential services such as schools and infrastructure. She posited that the merger will better allow the company to represent Nevada on a global stage, especially as the state's tourism industry has been harder hit in the last year or so.

When the recession caused Las Vegas tourism to slip by roughly 3 million visitors between 2007 and 2009, R&R launched several advertising campaigns based on the theme of bringing a small town to Las Vegas to experience the destination. Five groups were followed and a webpage was created with videos and a full-length documentary. 

By 2016, the Strip hit an all-time record high of 42.9 million visitors. The agency also rolled out a different type of messaging following the October 2017 shooting on the Strip. Using the Vegas Strong theme, tennis superstar and Las Vegas resident Andre Agassi talked about what real strength was during that moment and how the city rose to the challenge with heart and courage. 

MMGY CEO Katie Briscoe told The Indy that "there was really no grand agenda" when she first met with Martin. But the two women quickly realized there was some appeal about building a "modern agency" utilizing the different services and marketing disciplines.

"It was more of two agency leaders sort of meeting and talking about sort of where the world was going, how our work was changing," Briscoe said, adding that she grew interested in R&R's public affairs component and how it drove influence for their clients. 

"It's something more and more that we're being asked about around our relationships, and so that was something that became a very appealing part [of the discussions]," Briscoe said. 

R&R went through an internal corporate change a year ago when Billy Vassiliadis, who purchased the firm in 1994 from founder Sig Rogich, stepped down from day-to-day management and turned over the operations to Martin, who had been the agency's president for nine years. Martin, an attorney and former prosecutor, served as then-Gov. Brian Sandoval's chief legal counsel for the final two years of his term.

Vassiliadis, who remains R&R chairman, said tying into MMGY's presence and experience gives the agency a lift in creating a worldwide presence for clients, including the LVCVA, which also has offices worldwide. He said the company's clients, including the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, NFL's Las Vegas Raiders and MLB's Athletics, are gaining international presence.

"Our clients are globally focused," Vassiliadis said. "As Vegas has continued to evolve as a global destination, we don't have to now try to figure out who knows something about northeastern Europe. There's an office there. There's an office in Paris. So having on-the-ground intel, real-time intel, resources in those places will greatly benefit [our clients]."

On the global stage

Functionally, the merger won't affect how R&R operates when it comes to the Legislature. 

The politically powerful agency, which also lobbies on behalf of the Nevada Resort Association, has played a critical role in bringing major sports to Nevada. 

Through its lobbying arm, R&R Partners ran a multifaceted campaign to build Allegiant Stadium alongside an integrated public education campaign. As part of its work with the LVCVA and focus on economic development, the team also worked behind the scenes to bring the then-Oakland A's and Formula One to Las Vegas. R&R Partners now has the team and the Las Vegas Grand Prix as clients on the public relations and community affairs side.

In the 2025 legislative session, R&R Partners lobbied, along with a host of others, to bring and expand the film industry in Southern Nevada, but the effort failed by one vote in the state Senate.

It also worked pro bono for Catholic Charities' Meals on Wheels program, Vegas PBS and various school bond issues. In 2023, R&R lobbyists helped with legislation to build Campus for Hope, a massive homeless resource center in Las Vegas on track to open in 2028.

Pete Ernaut, a partner at the agency and its chief government affairs officer, said the merger will scale R&R's approach, not change its Nevada roots.

"The faces that you know won't change. If anything, the team gets bigger, but the folks you know will still be there," Ernaut said.

In the last decade or so, he said that R&R's government affairs work has been increasingly combined with community and public affairs. The merger, he noted, allows them to bring that mix to more places.

Ernaut added that the strategies for the legislative session are portable, and they may work on other issues in other states, though likely not at the same level as in Nevada. 

Since last year, travel from international visitors in Las Vegas has fallen by 5 percent. The international market is down more than 7 percent through August, according to figures from Harry Reid International Airport. Vassiliadis said the expanded network from the merger can help R&R Partners and its clients as these issues continue.

"I think that gives us a leg up in being able to defend and protect travel, or on the alternative, promote travel, grow travel, because that's the lifeblood of us and frankly most of the country," he said.

Martin said partnering with MMGY expands R&R's presence given that Las Vegas is a global icon. 

"Vegas is global and communication is so fractured that we have got to have a much bigger set of resources to reach all of those eyeballs to get that share of wallet," Martin said. "That means we need boots on the ground. So as we were thinking about this, that was one of the number one pieces behind taking care of our people."

Edited at 8:45 a.m. on 10/14/2025 to correct Martin's years as R&R president.