YouTube NFL Sunday Ticket makes first significant ad buy on Vegas Sphere

Since debuting in July, the Exosphere in Las Vegas has wowed onlookers and drawn tons of social media attention with its vibrant displays on the largest LED screen on earth. Those eye-catching displays have been mostly devoid of ad campaigns—until now.

YouTube bought space on the giant structure—which covers the new Sphere concert and event venue just off the Vegas Strip—to plug Sunday Ticket, as part of its aggressive marketing campaign for its debut year for the programming, which allows viewers to watch out-of-market NFL games all season long. 

The Exosphere ad, which began this morning, includes an animation that transforms its exterior into helmets of all 32 NFL teams. YouTube will hype the ad with content from creators such as RDCWorld1, Kurt Tocci, Ayokunle Adewuya, Kelly Wakasa and Jiedel, who are on-site documenting the experience. 

YouTube's marketing team and Google Media Lab worked  YouTube's internal Creative Studio team and agency partner Media Monks on the creative, while GroupM’s EssenceMediacom handled the media buying.

“It’s only fitting that YouTube, one of the most respected and important media platforms in the world, is launching the first-ever brand campaign on the Exosphere to support NFL Sunday Ticket,” said Guy Barnett, Senior VP of brand strategy and creative development at Sphere Entertainment, whose holdings include MSG Networks.

While it's not the Exopshere's first ad—the NBA promoted its Vegas-based Summer League on the structure earlier this summer—a Sphere representative said the Sunday Ticket ad marks the first-ever multi-week campaign on the Exosphere. The ad is expected to run through Sept. 13.

But plenty more campaigns are expected. David Hopkinson, who also oversees global partnerships for Madison Square Garden companies, recently told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that display time on the Exosphere would amount to about half for art and the other half for advertisers, saying that big household brand names have shown interest. One sure bet is that brands will compete for time on the space when Vegas hosts the Super Bowl on Feb. 11.

The Exosphere comprises 580,000 square feet of fully programmable LED lighting capable of displaying 256 million different colors. While it is impossible to ignore on the Strip, its value to advertisers could be the immense social media attention that its displays tend to attract—feeding the need for brands to break through in ways outside of traditional media.

“Brands that choose to advertise here will not just buy ad space; they will buy into a unique, immersive experience that guarantees attention,” wrote out-of-home advertising trade group DPAA in a July blog post.