Web Gambling Ads in Vegas Make Sense to a Gaming Site
By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: April 24, 2006
The expression "carrying coals to Newcastle" is losing some of its resonance, as the coal-mining heritage of the English town of Newcastle passes from common memory. So how about this as a replacement: "advertising a gambling Web site in Las Vegas."
That is what the Bodog Entertainment Group, which operates gambling and gaming Web sites, is doing. The company has signed a deal with InterAir Media, a media broker specializing in the airline industry, to sponsor branded airplanes flying from Las Vegas McCarran International Airport.
The airplanes belong to Allegiant Air, a low-fare carrier based in Las Vegas that offers service to 32 American cities. The first branded aircraft went into service last week, and five others are scheduled to join it tomorrow.
The six planes are being wrapped with the Web address for one Bodog Entertainment site, bodog.com, which offers online sports betting, poker and casino games. (At another site, bodog.net, computer users can play poker free.)
Bodog Entertainment joins a lengthy list of marketers that have sent campaigns aloft. Among the best-known examples are the Sea World airplanes flown by Southwest Airlines, painted with images of Shamu the killer whale.
The Bodog Entertainment deal is scheduled to run three months and cost the company an estimated $500,000. In will also include in-flight announcements about Bodog.com, said Drew Stoddard, chief executive at InterAir Media in Miami, and brochures about the Web site will be inserted into seat pockets.
And when a tray table on an airplane is folded down, "it looks like a blackjack table, with 'Bodog' on it," Mr. Stoddard said.
Calvin Ayre, chief executive at Bodog Entertainment, said that "knowing the psychology of people who like gambling" would explain why there is nothing superfluous or redundant about promoting virtual gambling in the real-world capital of gambling.
The typical tourists who fly a discount airline like Allegiant visit Las Vegas only "one or two times a year," Mr. Ayre said, and the rest of the time gamble at Indian casinos or on Web sites.
"I personally believe our product is synergistic to land-based casinos, so we don't consider them competition," he added. "We hope when they're playing online in the future, they'll think of us."
To further remind gamblers offline of their online opportunities, Mr. Ayre said, a billboard bearing a photograph of a branded Bodog plane is planned to go up next month on East Tropicana Avenue in Las Vegas.
By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: April 24, 2006
The expression "carrying coals to Newcastle" is losing some of its resonance, as the coal-mining heritage of the English town of Newcastle passes from common memory. So how about this as a replacement: "advertising a gambling Web site in Las Vegas."
That is what the Bodog Entertainment Group, which operates gambling and gaming Web sites, is doing. The company has signed a deal with InterAir Media, a media broker specializing in the airline industry, to sponsor branded airplanes flying from Las Vegas McCarran International Airport.
The airplanes belong to Allegiant Air, a low-fare carrier based in Las Vegas that offers service to 32 American cities. The first branded aircraft went into service last week, and five others are scheduled to join it tomorrow.
The six planes are being wrapped with the Web address for one Bodog Entertainment site, bodog.com, which offers online sports betting, poker and casino games. (At another site, bodog.net, computer users can play poker free.)
Bodog Entertainment joins a lengthy list of marketers that have sent campaigns aloft. Among the best-known examples are the Sea World airplanes flown by Southwest Airlines, painted with images of Shamu the killer whale.
The Bodog Entertainment deal is scheduled to run three months and cost the company an estimated $500,000. In will also include in-flight announcements about Bodog.com, said Drew Stoddard, chief executive at InterAir Media in Miami, and brochures about the Web site will be inserted into seat pockets.
And when a tray table on an airplane is folded down, "it looks like a blackjack table, with 'Bodog' on it," Mr. Stoddard said.
Calvin Ayre, chief executive at Bodog Entertainment, said that "knowing the psychology of people who like gambling" would explain why there is nothing superfluous or redundant about promoting virtual gambling in the real-world capital of gambling.
The typical tourists who fly a discount airline like Allegiant visit Las Vegas only "one or two times a year," Mr. Ayre said, and the rest of the time gamble at Indian casinos or on Web sites.
"I personally believe our product is synergistic to land-based casinos, so we don't consider them competition," he added. "We hope when they're playing online in the future, they'll think of us."
To further remind gamblers offline of their online opportunities, Mr. Ayre said, a billboard bearing a photograph of a branded Bodog plane is planned to go up next month on East Tropicana Avenue in Las Vegas.