At SW14 Group, we pay close attention to shifts that affect travel, tourism, hospitality, and major events. A newly proposed CBP rule has surfaced with the potential to reshape inbound travel to the United States. The rule would require nearly all foreign tourists, including those from visa-waiver countries like the UK, to submit five years…
The reasons people travel to Las Vegas today are more intentional, more varied, and more specific than you might think. Traditional leisure is still here, of course, but tens of thousands of visitors now choose Las Vegas for reasons that didn’t exist a decade ago. And while Las Vegas is the most visible example of…
Over the past few weeks, three disparate news items caught my attention. These stories come from different industries, with different budgets and instincts. To me, they point in the same direction. Brand building isn’t suddenly becoming important again. It’s always been a competitive advantage. What changed was the industry’s focus. As digital channels became more…
Parmigiano Reggiano has signed with UTA for film and TV placement. Yes, cheese now has an agent. At first glance it feels like a quirky headline, but it points to a bigger shift that’s been underway for years. Many Americans call it Parmesan, plenty think of the green can, and even when the real thing…
Yesterday Apple pushed us a step closer to something that not so long ago felt like science fiction: a post wallet world. It began rolling out US passport support in Apple Wallet, joining the digital drivers’ licenses already supported in more than a dozen states. We’re at the inflection point where for many, a physical…
Chief Hedonist invited me to contribute a guest column on Las Vegas’s food and drink landscape. While I’ve written about the Vegas restaurant scene before, I took a different spin this time: organizing three dozen of the city’s best spots by appetite, mood, and personality. Read the post here: Vegas Eats: Choose Your Own Adventure.
A LinkedIn post by Carolene Meli this week imagined helping Celine Dumont, the impeccably ruthless executive from The Morning Show, reshape her public image. Carolene’s idea was elegant and powerful: help a leader tell her story through consistent writing and speaking that reveals her dimension and credibility. Done well, it benefits both the leader and…
Earlier this month I attended the Las Vegas Women’s Marketing Collective quarterly meetup, which featured a panel discussion titled “Hard Truths & Honest Wins: Navigating Advice That Stuck.” During the audience Q&A one of the speakers, LVCVA’s VP of PR and Communications Molly Castano, responded to a question from a UNLV student with a line…
The Strategist’s Edge This is an occasional series about how to lead with intent, nuance, and purpose, whether you’re building brands, guiding teams, or making decisions that matter. When was the last time you cut through complexity so effectively that everyone in the room understood what to do next? Complexity Is the Starting Point, Not…
An agency executive reached out to me after reading my recent RFP Clarity series. They wanted to understand why their team’s RFP efforts were falling short of expectations. Our conversation reminded me that the classic 4 Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) don’t explain much about who wins or loses in a competitive agency…
Every agency knows the thrill of a new RFP landing in the inbox. The scope looks compelling, the brand name has impact, and the team’s first instinct is to say YES. But just as clients should be intentional about what they ask in RFPs, agencies should be intentional about which opportunities they pursue. Not every…
To close the RFP Clarity series, let’s return to where it all begins: the RFP itself. Over the course of this series, we’ve explored the quiet forces that shape how agencies respond to RFPs and why brands might not get the proposals they hoped for. It’s not necessarily about the caliber of the agencies. It…
When you issue an RFP, you’re not simply looking for a vendor. You’re setting the tone for the kind of partnership you want to build and signaling your organization’s approach to integrity. That signal starts well before any contract is signed. Whether consciously or not, your RFP integrity sets the tone for a future working…
From wasted hours to missed opportunities, here’s what a poorly constructed RFP really costs you. Not all RFPs are created equal, and not all of them are worth answering. By this point in the series, we’ve looked at how to make RFPs clearer, more strategic, and more effective. But what happens when you don’t? The…
This is the time of year when agencies and brands start thinking about their corporate gifting strategy for the holidays. Some will pass. Some will default to “we’ve made a contribution in your name.” Some will send out the same branded swag as last year. But those who get it will do something else entirely….
Your RFP is complete and you’ve selected a partner – but the relationships you maintain beyond that choice can be just as valuable. Once the RFP process concludes, many brands go quiet. A contract is awarded and the rest of the agencies – which have invested serious time and thinking – are left with a…
Somewhere along the way, “networking” became a dirty word. It started to conjure images of working a room, collecting business cards, or adding people on LinkedIn you’d never actually met. At its best, though, networking has never been about card stacks or contact lists. It’s about relationships: think of it more like networking as a…
Not every project needs a formal proposal. Sometimes, a clear brief and a conversation are the better path. RFPs have their place. When thoughtfully constructed, they bring structure, consistency, and fairness to complex decisions. They help compare options side by side, especially when the stakes are high or the partners are unfamiliar. But not every…
When the Proposal Looks Polished, But Something Feels Off Even a well-written RFP won’t guarantee perfect proposals, although it should make off-base ones less likely. When the responses start coming in, it’s worth reading with two lenses: What does this proposal reveal about the agency? And what might red flags in agency proposals be telling…
When organizations issue an RFP, they often focus most of their energy on the questions. What should we ask? What information do we need? How can we ensure the proposals we receive are apples-to-apples? What gets less attention, but deserves far more, are the RFP evaluation criteria. The scoring model, if you will. Evaluation criteria…
Resource Expectations Shape The Team You’ll Actually Get. When you’re hiring an agency, you’re not just hiring a brand name; you’re hiring the people behind it. And yet, many RFPs focus heavily on services, timelines, and budgets while leaving critical questions about the team itself frustratingly vague. If you want the right team on your…
Respect the Work You’re Asking For There’s a subtle but powerful way to improve the quality of proposals you receive: build a timeline that respects the effort required to deliver great work. Too often, RFPs are issued with aggressive deadlines based on internal pressures that have nothing to do with the agencies you’re soliciting. Your…
Questions Are Already Part of the Process. Are You Using Them Strategically? Most RFPs include a formal opportunity for vendors to ask questions, typically with a deadline for submissions and a promise of shared answers. But how that window is structured – and how those questions are handled – can dramatically influence the quality of…
We’ve always been a city of splurges. Whether an exclusive wine dinner, a Michelin-worthy repast, or a one-night-only chef collab, there’s no shortage of high-impact, big-ticket prix fixe tasting menu experiences in Las Vegas for those seeking them. In the right context, they’re worth every dollar. But in a summer marked by slower tourism, shakier…