Small company, Samsung bag big Vegas strip project

June 4, 2008 by Dave Haynes

This deal has been at play for a while now, but finally got announced this week: big fella screens installed into bus shelters along Las Vegas Boulevard.

Now, the idea is not to market to bus passengers in that city – given it is often faster to walk that strip than to ride in a bus, and given the public transit system is a little spotty along there anyway. BUT, there is huge foot traffic and a near 24-hour traffic jam, so it is a very solid out of home advertising environment and there is no shortage of potential advertisers to tap.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world’s largest provider of thin-film transistor, liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels, and Outdoor Promotions, LLC, announced that they are collaborating to line the Las Vegas strip with the most advanced digital displays in the world.

The two companies will provide eighteen 70-inch diagonal, sunlight-readable Digital Information Displays (DID) beginning in October on prominent bus shelters spanning the Vegas strip from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino on the south side of the Strip to the Rivera Hotel and Casino at the north end. Each LCD sign, which will deploy localized audio as well as full video, will be seen by an estimated 1.5 million pedestrians and 1.8 million cars every month.

“The launch of our digital curbside billboard network of LCD screens blanketing bus shelters along the Las Vegas strip will mark the most comprehensive advertising opportunity yet in the 24-hour city to make use of high resolution digital signage,” said Gary Young, President and CEO, Outdoor Promotions, LLC. “The Las Vegas Strip is unique because visitors come from all over the world staying on average just four days, therefore every four days, our curbside billboard screens essentially will be reaching a new audience,” he added.

Outdoor Promotions has a 20-year agreement with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) to supply digital signage for bus shelter curbside billboards on the Las Vegas strip, maintain the signs and manage the advertising placed on display.

The screens are actually juiced up units using Samsung components but with LEDs for the backlights, instead of conventional tubes. Less heat. Less energy consumption. And the brightness of a tanning bed.

Outdoor Promotions is a Fort Collins, Colorado company and appears to have pulled off the mighty task of beating out the outdoor majors on what is no doubt coveted real estate.