Las Vegas Monorail Shifts

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Las Vegas Monorail Shifts into Gear with General Motors Ad Deal

LAS VEGAS--April 5, 2006--The Las Vegas Monorail will become home to the nation's first "autotainment" experience when General Motors officially opens "The Drive" on April 10.


"The Drive," a hands-on driving experience for consumers, is located on 11 acres at the base of the Sahara Hotel & Casino monorail station. "The Drive" will feature two professionally designed driving courses, including a high-performance loop and an off-road adventure with two trails over a dirt terrain.
"The monorail is rapidly becoming an attraction as well as a convenient and cost-efficient means of traveling throughout the resort corridor of Las Vegas," said Curtis L. Myles III, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Monorail Co. "We're proud to have General Motors as an advertiser and are looking forward to working with them to implement sales and marketing programs that will help us increase ridership and consumer awareness of the monorail."
The General Motors deal is another example of the Las Vegas Monorail's experiential advertising program. Created and implemented for the monorail by Las Vegas-based Promethean Partners, the Total Brand Immersion(TM) experiential advertising program provides high-profile corporations with the opportunity to create unique marketing environments on the trains, stations and adjacent property of the monorail.
"With projects like 'The Drive,' the monorail becomes an exciting and entertaining attraction rather than just a mode of public transit," explained Myles. "If visitors enjoy their experience on the monorail, they will use the monorail more often and that means more eyeballs for advertisers and more fare-box revenues for the Bond holders."
In addition to GM, several other well-known brands have taken advantage of the monorail's Total Brand Immersion advertising program, including Sprint/Nextel, Monster Energy Drink, Paramount Parks, BankWest of Nevada, and the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority.
About Las Vegas Monorail
The Las Vegas Monorail is privately funded and operated, using no tax dollars for its construction or operations. It connects eight major resorts, linking more than 25,000 hotel rooms and about 4.4 million square feet of meeting and convention space, including one of the world's largest convention centers. The 4-mile route stops at the following seven stations: MGM Grand; Bally's/Paris; Flamingo/Caesars Palace; Harrah's/Imperial Palace; Las Vegas Convention Center; Las Vegas Hilton; and the Sahara. The $650 million transportation system runs along the Las Vegas resort corridor, traveling at a top speed of 50 mph. Up to nine trains consisting of four cars each run on a single rail that rises 20 feet high in most areas, its highest point reaching 70 feet above the Las Vegas Convention Center. The system is electric and has improved transit along The Strip without impacting air quality. Each year, it will take more than 4.4 million automobile trips off the major roadways and reduce carbon monoxide by 135 tons. The monorail operates Friday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. and Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. For more information, call 702-699-8200 or visit http://www.lvmonorail.com.
About General Motors Corp.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006 ... 03136.html