Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Monorail branding express makes another stop

Nextel will brand train, station in deal estimated to be worth $60 million

Confetti is shot into the air Tuesday morning as the Nextel Monorail pulls into the Las Vegas Convention Center station. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

The great corporate branding express cemented a depot in Las Vegas on Tuesday as Nextel Communications signed a 12-year deal to advertise on a train and a stop for the Las Vegas monorail.

In a press conference Tuesday morning outside the Las Vegas Convention Center's South Hall, Nextel announced it would brand a four-car train and create a 15,000-square-foot branded station by the convention center in a deal estimated at $60 million.

Nextel is the first company to agree to brand one of the monorail's seven stations.

Patrick Pharris, chief executive of Promethean Partners, the company selling advertising on the monorail, said the nonprofit Las Vegas Monorail company has been asking $4 million a year to advertise at the Convention Center station and $2 million a year for other stops. He also confirmed that the asking price for a train sponsorship was $1 million a year.

Reston, Va.-based Nextel joins Corona, Calif.-based Hansen Natural Corp., which branded a train for its Monster Energy drink, as train sponsors. The Monster Energy deal, announced June 24, was estimated at 10 years and $10 million.

Pharris said Bacardi and Motorola have signed letters of intent to sponsor trains. He added that a train-branding deal is nearly finished with Paramount Parks.

Also, he said, Coca-Cola is negotiating to co-brand a train with Bacardi.

The new Nextel monorail station will offer a place to see, sample and buy Nextel technology and products. Miguel Lecuona, the monorail station general manager for Nextel, said the communications company will build a "Center of Excellence" at the station that will include interactive video displays offering information about products and services; a wireless lounge allowing use of wi-fi enabled computers; a business theater; concierge services and an open-air balcony with views of the Strip.

In addition, Nextel representatives, which the company has dubbed Nexperts, will staff the station to answer questions about Nextel services for both customers and potential customers, Lecuona said.

The train, which is expected to begin serving customers in next year, is yellow and blue, Nextel's colors. One train car, unveiled at the press conference in a shower of confetti, read: "Vegas The City Of I Do." Another read: "Nextel. Done."

Mark Angelino, Nextel's senior vice president for sales operations, said the train and the station will help bring "transportainmment" to Las Vegas and fulfill the catch phrase "enjoy the ride." He said the deal will also give his company access to legions of business people, both executives and conventioneers.

"Las Vegas is a great place to focus a brand and make contact with business contacts and industry executives," he said. "It's the perfect place to do this."

Lecuona said the new station will link to Nextel's Center of Excellence in Virginia, giving the company bicoastal hubs enabling transcontinental business communication and dealmaking.

"Now an executive in Reston can walk downstairs and link up with an executive on the West Coast who may not be able to make the trip to Dulles Airport and Washington, D.C.," he said. "It will put us in position to serve these (West Coast) clients the way they expect to be serviced."

Pharris said advertising deals with Nextel and other sponsors will help pay off the $650 million in tax-exempt state-issued revenue bonds that financed the monorail project. The bonds are expected to be paid off in 20 years from rider fares and advertising revenue.

Under the Las Vegas Monorail company bond payback agreement, Pharris said at least $6.5 million annually will have to come from advertising. The ad deals in place and under negotiation will easily fulfill that requirement, he said.

Pharris said "immersive experiential advertising" in train cars from Nextel and other sponsors will encourage people to ride the trains whether or not they're going someplace specific. More riders mean the bonds will get paid off faster, he said. In all, officials project 19 million people will ride the monorail next year.

"When they're walking down the Strip, or driving down the street, and look up and see the train coming, people will say, `Hey, there's the Nextel train, I just rode that. That was so much fun.' " Pharris said. "And they'll say, `Now I want to ride in the Coke train, or the Bacardi train."

The first leg of the monorail, which will run between Sahara and Tropicana avenues, is slated to begin operating in January.