A gigantic basketball is emblazoned on the horizon of an evening city scenery: What looks like a bad CGI effect in a movie is actually an amateur shot of the “Las Vegas Sphere”, which went into operation at the beginning of July. With construction costs of 2.3 billion US dollars, this is the most expensive event location that has existed to date. OMR explains why the building could now also set new standards in terms of advertising in public spaces worldwide.
“Welcome NBA Summer League” is the inscription on the giant basketball. But the US Professional Basketball Association’s summer league, which has traditionally been held in Las Vegas for almost 20 years, is not held in the “Las Vegas Sphere” at all, but in the Thomas & Mack Center sports arena. The projection on the Las Vegas Sphere: pure advertising.
Gusts of wind, smells and 1.2 million LED “pucks”
Because the Sphere should be a place for entertainment events. Or, as the operating company Sphere Entertainment Company puts it: “A place where the best artists, creatives and technologists create extraordinary experiences that take storytelling to a new level and take the audience to real and imaginary places”. That’s what it’s supposed to be The 17,835-seat interior is said to have a nearly 50,000-square-foot curved display, 168,000 speakers, ultrasound in the seats for vibration, and technology that can be used to generate wind gusts and odors.
A cross-section of the Las Vegas Sphere (Image: Sphere Entertainment)
All of this cost 2.3 billion US dollars; before construction began in 2019, $1.1 billion had been estimated. The building has not yet been officially opened; the first visitors should be allowed in in September. But on July 4th, at least the “Exosphere” celebrated its premiere, the 170,000 square meter projection surface on the outside of the building. According to the company, it consists of 1.2 million LED “pucks”, each of which contains 48 LED diodes. In keeping with the national holiday, after a “Hello World” greeting, they showed fireworks and the US flag.
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Going viral with advertising thanks to the Sphere?
Presumably, this little show was also a letter of application to brands to use the spectacular projection surface to place advertising – and ideally generate viral reach similar to that of the NBA with their Summer League. Because the original video of the huge basketball alone has accumulated 1.2 million views on Tiktok. From the short video platform, the video spread and multiplied. For example, one of several other uploads of the video on Twitter currently has 11.6 million views.
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“The outer shell of the Sphere is a 360-degree canvas for brand storytelling that will be seen around the world,” said David Hopkinson, head of Sphere’s sister company MSG Sports, which will be responsible for the location’s advertising marketing press release. Until now, the “One Times Square” building on the famous New Yorker Platz of the same name was considered the most valuable advertising space in the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, the sale of this space in 2012 should have already turned over 23 million US dollars; According to rumors, this sum could have risen to 60 million US dollars by now. So the Sphere Entertainment Company may be speculating on similarly high advertising revenues.
Will there be another Sphere in London?
And the Vegas building might not be the only one the company is offering to brands as a “viral advertiser.” Because MSG Sports is also planning to build a sphere in London, and this is also intended to serve as a huge advertising space. This is also shown by a concept document from 2019 available online, in which several advertising spaces and their specifications are described. But after the local authorities first gave their consent to the huge advertising medium, they then withdrew it again. Most recently, Lord Mayor Sadiq Khan spoke out against granting planning permission to the London Sphere because it could cause unacceptable levels of light pollution.
A sketch from 2019 shows how the outer skin of the “London Sphere” could be used as an advertising medium, here for the US airline Delta (source: Populous architects)
So James Dolan, chairman and CEO of Sphere Entertainment, may need staying power. The 68-year-old businessman is the son of Charles Dolan, who became a billionaire when he founded the cable television company Cablevision and the pay-TV broadcaster HBO. James Doland is also CEO of the event group MSG, whose name goes back to what is perhaps New York’s best-known event location: Madison Square Garden. He is also the owner of the New York Knicks basketball team and the New York Rangers ice hockey team, both of which have been chronically unsuccessful for a long time. The 68-year-old is currently on trial for using facial recognition technology to track down and throw out unwanted guests at his locations. It’s quite possible that Dolan will also use this method in the Las Vegas Sphere – especially since he recently defended his approach in an interview.
Up to $8,000 per ticket
A large part of the income of the “Spheres” should probably not come from advertising, but from the event business. For the first real live shows in Las Vegas, the Irish rock band U2 will be guests and present their album “Achtung Baby” in an “out-of-this-world live music experience”. The prices of the tickets, which are already mostly sold out, are said to have been between 140 and 8,000 US dollars.
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2023-07-14 15:03:31
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