New CD-ROM promotes Las Vegas

Friday, May 29, 1998 | 10:54 a.m.

Thousands of CD-ROM discs promoting Las Vegas will flood the market this summer in one of the largest high-tech advertising promotions ever attempted.

The company that developed the World Wide Web site for MGM's "City of Entertainment" is developing the CD-ROM, which will be distributed to consumers at local resorts and through a promotional partnership with luggage giant Samsonite.

Additional advertising and promotion for the CD-ROM, which will offer viewers a virtual tour of Las Vegas, is planned through Microsoft, which is offering technical support for the project, in-flight magazines and through other outlets that have not been finalized.

ReserVision, a tiny Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company headed by Chris Schroeder, is coordinating the project, which is receiving content for the CD-ROM from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The company will attempt to sell pages on the CD-ROM to local advertisers and will introduce the concept at an open house on Tuesday at the Alexis Park Resort.

CD-ROM technology, which stands for "compact disc read-only memory," is a computer program using a 4 5/8-inch silver platter with data that is permanently stamped on it during manufacturing. CD-ROMs can be read by computers with CD-ROM disc drives.

Because the presentation is in a multimedia format, the disc will include text, photographs, maps, graphic elements as well as audio and video clips. ReserVision will sell space on the disc using any of those formats, although audio and video presentations are more expensive.

A ReserVision price list offers packages that range from $8,000 to $20,000, but the basic costs are $2,500 for a full page, $1,500 for each additional linked sub-page and $1,500 for 10 seconds of video or 30 seconds of audio and $3,000 for 30 seconds of video or a minute of audio.

The Las Vegas CD-ROM also will be capable of serving as link to existing World Wide Web pages. Users would only need to click on a specially marked phrase to activate a World Wide Web browser that would link the user to the advertiser's site. A uniform resource locator link to a home page will cost advertisers $5,000 to set up.

Schroeder said the Las Vegas CD-ROM is scheduled for release on Aug. 25. That means he's operating with a very tight window of time to complete the production. He said he hopes to create the finished copy by the end of July and begin a major advertising promotion leading up to the CD's release.

Because the information needs to be submitted within a month, ReserVision is taking preapproved and already-produced material for the CD, which he expects to have a shelf life of about 1 1/2 years. Initially, about 1.5 million CDs will be pressed.

"It will contain a lot of information, some 360-(degree) virtual reality shots, with hotels, urban trivia and folklore," Schroeder said of the CD.

Jeff Langmark, who is coordinating local sales of advertising for ReserVision, said the CD also will have gaming instructions and a randomly appearing slot machine game that may use property logos in the reels and offer promotional gifts to "players" who win.

Schroeder said he has been planning the CD for nearly two years and has developed a niche in Las Vegas with work on two Web sites, the "City of Entertainment" for the MGM Grand and Bally's new Web site, which will debut within the next two weeks. Schroeder also said he has worked on promotions for Mirage Resorts properties.

"We decided to do this with Las Vegas first because it is such a visual city," Schroeder said.

If the project is a success, he plans to work on an Orlando, Fla., CD-ROM next.

The Las Vegas CD will be available in resort gift shops for about $5. Most CD-ROMs sell for about $19 each. ReserVision's partners also plan to distribute and promote the CD-ROM through special promotions.

Microsoft plans to do an independent study of the CD and will advertise it with rotating banners on its home page and its travel page.

The promotional tie with Samsonite, the leading luggage producer with an estimated 50 percent market share, will make the Las Vegas CD-ROM a part of the company's "Travel the World with Samsonite" passport promotion. The TWS passport includes the Las Vegas CD, a contest entry to win a trip for two to Las Vegas, $50 in airfare savings on nearly every airline, free Microsoft software, a $100 Samsonite voucher and discounts on Scenic Airlines tours over the Grand Canyon, Bruce and Zion national parks, Monument Valley and Lake Mead. Samsonite customers will be able to get a passport for the cost of postage and handling, $5.

America West Airlines has a separate discount promotion through its Las Vegas vacation package program. Both America West and Southwest Airlines will have advertising in their in-flight magazines.

Langmark said the company is in negotiations with a food outlet to promote the CD to its customers.

The LVCVA also plans to promote the CD on its Web site, www.lasvegas24hours.com. Between the various promotions, ReserVision has estimated the potential of 74 million promotional impressions based on circulation and Web site visitation statistics.

Jim Gentleman, director of brand development for R&R Advertising, which is coordinating the CD project for the LVCVA, said the CD represents a high-tech method of communicating with visitors.

"The rationale is that this is an effective way to get Las Vegas before leisure travelers," Gentleman said. "We will continue to do traditional print and broadcast advertising, but this reaches customers in their homes and they look at a CD because they want to see it."

Gentleman said the CD is a method of partnering with some of the biggest names in the travel industry.

"Microsoft is a very credible name and Samsonite is a leading organization in the travel industry," Gentleman said.

In addition to supplying content for the CD, the LVCVA invested $27,000 in the project and will advertise it on its Web site.

While the CD project will be the first effort at introducing a mass consumer audience through the medium, it isn't the LVCVA's first foray into the use of CD-ROM technology.

Gentleman said CCNI, a Reno company, produced a CD-ROM distributed to meeting planners and travel agents. In addition to providing information useful to agents and planners, that CD offered a number of casino games on the program making it a hit with them.

Rob Powers, a spokesman for the LVCVA, said the travel planning guide CD drew a good reaction from delegates at the Travel Industry Association Pow Wow, a trade show conducted recently in Chicago.

"We're very excited about the potential of getting our message out to consumers in this way," Powers said. "The CD-ROM technology of getting information to people is growing in importance. The fact that it was such a hit at the TIA Pow Wow shows that."

If the CD flies as marketers expect, Schroeder said his company would consider developing foreign-language versions of it.

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