A native of Brazil who has lived in the United States for about two decades now, Gustavo de Mello is a self-described “sports guy.”
He has worked as a marketing executive for the National Basketball Association—with a lot of his time there devoted to the growth and branding of the WNBA and the NBA’s G-League—and has done work for some of the best-known companies in the world, including McDonald’s, State Farm Insurance and Coca-Cola.
A few months ago, de Mello was recruited away from the NBA to R&R Partners, the Las Vegas-based marketing firm contracted by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to help drive visitation to the city.
He still lives in Miami, but he’s been spending a lot of time in Las Vegas lately as R&R’s executive vice president of strategy.
With tourism leaders in Las Vegas having fully committed to the idea that the city is now an internationally known sports mecca—the advertising campaign revolves around calling the city the “Greatest Arena on Earth”—de Mello is all in on driving that concept forward.
Vegas Inc recently spent some time with de Mello at R&R’s headquarters in Summerlin.
Many NFL fans are likely familiar with the State Farm “Discount Double Check” ad campaign. We hear you were one of the minds behind that.
I was part of the team that did that. I was in the room (laughs). Understanding consumer behaviors is something that I’ve always enjoyed.
Las Vegas now has an NFL team, an NHL team, it will host the Super Bowl in 2024 and it will have a Formula One race in 2023. It’s hard to argue that Las Vegas isn’t one of the top sports cities in the country. Is that what drew you to this position?
Understanding where Las Vegas is going as a destination, this is the greatest arena on Earth. Understanding what the potential is for Las Vegas moving forward, it was a natural fit for me. The opportunity to work for the agency that has helped sell Las Vegas for the past few decades was a great opportunity. Sports is a key element of what Las Vegas is. Just walk around and you’ll see that.
Those of us who live here see what’s happening on the sports side, but what is Las Vegas’ reputation as a sports city outside of Southern Nevada?
It’s fascinating, because Las Vegas has moved from being a gambling destination to being an entertainment destination. The validation of sports in Las Vegas has been dramatic. You see [Allegiant Stadium] now, you see the arenas, you see the professional teams, you have the sportsbooks … it’s all there. When you talk to sports fans today and they talk about where they want to go to see a game, people will say they want to go to Las Vegas to see a Raiders game or that they want to be in Vegas to see a certain event.
The people at the LVCVA and others in this city recognized where they were going about a decade or so ago. Now, we’re harvesting that. The ultimate job for us, and for the LVCVA, is to create incentives for people to travel to Las Vegas. Sports travel is a tremendously big business.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about other sports leagues—Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the NBA—eventually having teams here. Is that realistic?
I can speak about the NBA, but I can’t give you an answer on if the NBA will have a team here. The NBA might come or it might not come. However, the credibility of the destination now makes it completely acceptable.
It’s expected now that Las Vegas, which isn’t the biggest market around, will be in the game moving forward. When you talk about possible NBA expansion, you’re only talking about a handful of places, maybe less than a handful, and Vegas is one of them. [With] the MLS, it’s the same thing.
Is there another big sporting event you’re chasing right now?
As a good Brazilian soccer fan, I know that [earlier this year] we had Real Madrid and FC Barcelona here. The English Premier League, we haven’t had them here yet. I don’t know if that’s a possibility, but we haven’t had them. As a former rugby player, I know that the Rugby World Cup, one of the biggest sporting draws in the world, hasn’t been here. Why can’t we have the Six Nations Championship here? What about cricket? That’s a hugely popular sport in India and Pakistan, that part of the world. … In Las Vegas, it’s rare that the first answer is no, and that’s been the attitude since this city was built.
We have to talk about women’s sports. Is Las Vegas a female pro sports hotbed, too?
What [the Las Vegas Aces] did is going to go far. What they have done has revolutionized the WNBA. In women’s sports, there’s a few elements in recent years that have transformed the way the public looks at women’s sports. Certainly Serena Williams, but also the U.S. women’s national soccer team. The Aces are right up there, too. And here’s the other thing—the Aces behave like they belong. They did that championship celebration big. There were no apologies there. The Aces add a lot to the credibility Las Vegas has as a sports town.
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