South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa is going all out to promote its entitlement of Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s first ever NASCAR playoff race in September, already starting the rollout of activation at its property near The Strip more than a month before the event. LVMS this year is hosting a second Monster Energy Cup Series race for the first time after SMI shifted a date from New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Financial terms of the three-year deal were not released, but Cup Series entitlements typically go for mid-to-high six figures. South Point GM Ryan Growney said that the hotel decided to entitle the race both to show support to a local sporting venue and event and to try to grow its brand recognition and loyalty to potential Vegas-goers watching the race on TV or attending in person. The hotel is already fully booked for race weekend. South Point, which is a longtime sponsor of Richard Childress Racing, handles its marketing in-house.
ALL IN: To activate the deal, South Point is extending the race theme and using its logo at every part of its facility. The hotel lobby bar was recently rebranded to the South Point 400 bar, featuring branded cocktail napkins, coffee sleeves, water bottles, wine bottles and a specialty drink menu. At the casino, South Point has rebranded all of its blackjack tables and $5 gambling chips with the race logo and is rolling out a slot promotion and poker promotion involving South Point 400-branded prizes. The hotel has also already put out betting lines for the race at its sports book, something it would not typically do this early. South Point’s spa will have themed specials like a 50-Minute Start Your Engines Massage. Closer to race weekend, South Point will roll out branded room keys for guests, branded table placemats at all of its restaurants printed with race week schedules, a dedicated South Point 400 area at its gift shop and a branded valet area. At LVMS on race weekend, South Point will have a 6,000-square-foot booth on the midway, where it will bring out the Budweiser Clydesdales and PBR bull Bushwacker, among other attractions. At retail, South Point has partnered with Budweiser and several Vegas-based convenience stores and grocery stores to feature text-to-win sweepstakes packages for the race. South Point was also going to have Brent Musburger serve as grand marshall of the race, but that was scrapped because Musburger now has a conflict due to his new job with the Raiders.
MEASURING SUCCESS: Growney said of the activation, “This is a big deal. ... If we were going to do it, we all said, 'In order to justify this, we have to go all out,' and that’s kind of what’s spawned this. We got our arena team, slot team and operations team and said, ‘Hey guys, what can we do?’ It started out with two or three things, then four things, then five things -- it’s kind of snowballed and everyone has bought into it.” In terms of judging success of the entitlement, Growney said key performance indicators will be attendance and TV viewership of the race, as well as whether South Point sees an increase in hotel booking inquiries.
