Doritos is first Super Bowl sponsor to wrap a Vegas building. What’s next?

It’s easy to see how one of the first Super Bowl-related advertisements to land in Las Vegas appeared at Luxor.

Frito Lay’s triangular Doritos corn chip is the perfect shape for the south Strip resort’s pyramid structure.

Triangles … a pyramid … get it?

Luxor won’t be the last Las Vegas property to get a Super Bowl makeover in the weeks ahead, as the city readies for the commercialization of the biggest football game ever played here.

“It is interesting to see the return of advertising wraps, which seemed to first make their appearance in the early 2000s on hotels like the Luxor and the Rio,” said Amanda Belarmino, an assistant professor at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality. “I would expect to see more of this type of advertising for the Super Bowl and for other high-profile sports events.”

Imagery in the form of building wraps and buildings that are built with exterior LED screens will take on different Super Bowl messaging themes, and the game’s brand sponsors will seek out innovative ways to produce messaging when all eyes are on Las Vegas.

Pepsi ad coming to Delano

Doritos at Luxor was first, and work will be underway at the Delano to promote another Super Bowl sponsor, Pepsi.

The Sphere is expected to join the game in the weeks ahead. Representatives of Sphere Entertainment Co. aren’t tipping their hands about what brands will appear on the city’s newest big-screen advertising venue, but company executives said in calls with investors that they’ve received “a ton of interest” in developing advertising content for Super Bowl 58.

Caesars Entertainment Inc. and MGM Resorts International representatives aren’t saying what buildings, if any, are going to be wrapped with sponsor messaging. But Caesars Palace, the host hotel for the National Football League, is expected to include some NFL content in the form of a projection show in the weeks leading up to the Feb. 11 game.

Tempe, Arizona-based Bluemedia has designed and built graphic elements for the last 10 Super Bowls and will continue its streak this year in Las Vegas.

Next up for Bluemedia: building wraps for Allegiant Stadium.

“We’ll be doing graphics on the side of the stadium and some graphics throughout the city just mainly on Caesars properties, mainly Caesars Palace, because that’s the headquarters hotel,” said R.J. Orr, an executive vice president and partner with Bluemedia.

“We are going to be doing a lot of activations,” he said. “We’re going to be executing some stuff on the pedestrian bridges over Las Vegas Boulevard, but for all of those, it’s all Super Bowl messaging (not sponsor ads).”

League and team-centered ads

The imagery at Allegiant Stadium will be league- and team-centered.

“A lot of it is kind of Super Bowl themed,” Orr explained. “On the side of the stadium, we’re doing a big graphic on the north exterior, and then a huge one on the south exterior. The north one will just be Super Bowl branding with the Roman numerals and the one on the south will be team specific.”

That means his team won’t be able to plan specific details until two weeks before the game, when the two Super Bowl competitors will be known. Orr said his company will build team logos and marks when the playoffs get down to the final four teams, then wait for the outcome of the NFC and AFC championship games.

To prepare for the final building wraps, Orr said Bluemedia does advanced scanning to determine how the graphics will fit on the buildings that are being used as canvases for the company’s work.

“We’ve done the same thing at some of the different stadiums where the game has been played: Minneapolis (U.S. Bank Stadium), SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and now Las Vegas.”

UNLV’s Belarmino said it was a wise decision for casino companies to become advertising platforms because it’s uncertain whether gaming revenue will be as high this year as in past Super Bowls.

“I think it is a wise move on the part of the casinos, as Super Bowl is normally busy for us and we may actually see a slight decrease in gaming revenue as the Super Bowl will attract football fans who may not ordinarily bet on games or bet the same amount as those who normally come to Las Vegas for that weekend,” Belarmino said. “We may very well see more advertising on the Sphere, but I think its value as an advertising venue would actually decrease if it became primarily an advertising vehicle because visitors would be less likely to seek it out.”

Marketing game to cities

It’s unclear just how the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will market to the cities from which the final two teams will come.

Among the 14 playoff teams, three play in cities that already are among the top 10 feeder markets for Las Vegas.

Still in contention for Super Bowl berths are the Los Angeles Rams (Las Vegas’ top market), the San Francisco 49ers (No. 2 market) and the Dallas Cowboys (No. 5) — and the Cowboys enjoy a global fan base as one of the world’s most popular sports franchises.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.