PlayStation and Xbox found themselves in an expensive advertising war on the ‘Sphere’ in Las Vegas over the weekend. The latter took over Sin City’s newest viral attraction on Thursday night. The former got in on the action two days later.
The Sphere, located at the Venetian Resort, first lit up on the 4th of July and a giant glowing ball of LED lights immediately took over both Sin City and social media. It opened its doors for the first-ever event inside the Sphere with a U2 concert on the last weekend of September and POV videos from the first few nights were truly remarkable with visuals that will blow your mind.
The outside of the Sphere, known as the exosphere, is where advertising comes into the equation. That is the part of the venue that most people will see— when wandering the streets in Vegas and on social media.
Approximately 1.2 million LED pucks make up the exosphere. Each puck contains 48 individual LED diodes that are capable of displaying 256 million different colors. The technology behind it is insane.
As is the cost!
The Sphere’s advertising deck includes the following details:
- One week flight: $650,000
- Includes 276 feature appearances and 4 | 4+ minutes of airtime per week
- Features a four-hour, 50% SOV takeover on one chosen date
- One day flight: $450,000
- Comprised of a four-hour 50% SOV takeover
Pricing includes the development of one 90-second creative spot. Estimated daily impressions include 300,000 physical people at the Sphere and 4.4 million on social media.
Two major players in the video game space ran their own campaigns within days of each other last week. One has to wonder whether the two companies knew that their advertisements would be displayed so close to each other.
It started with XBox.
Less than 48 hours later, it was PlayStation’s turn.
The timing of both spots was intentional. Xbox and PlayStation ran their visuals on the Sphere as thousands of people descended upon Las Vegas for Twitchcon.
It just so happened to create an advertising war!