Allegiant pursues Raiders fans traveling to Las Vegas
Allegiant Air says its deal to put its name on the Raiders’ $2 billion, 65,000-seat stadium will create travel and marketing opportunities for the low-cost carrier.
Though other companies looked to land the stadium naming rights deal, the Raiders liked what Las Vegas-based Allegiant offered that was mutually beneficial, said Scott DeAngelo, the airline’s chief marketing officer.
“It would surprise no one in this room that there were other companies who were able to offer more for naming rights for this world-class Las Vegas facility,” DeAngelo said Wednesday during the company’s investor day. “But there was no partner that stepped up to the table that could offer the Raiders more in terms of ways our partnership could help them achieve their goals as well.”
With over 50 routes traveling in and out of Las Vegas to places near NFL teams, Allegiant will look to create special packages to entice fans using an allotment of tickets the company will have for each Raiders home game.
“That’s going to be good when football time starts here next year,” said Allegiant CEO Maury Gallagher. “We have 500 seats that we get per game that we can package up and bring people in and out. We’re already doing deals with Fresno, Stockton, Oakland to bring people, Raider fans that are known from that part of the world.”
Mock advertisements contained in the investor day backup material included billboards and web ads displaying fares from Oakland to Las Vegas for as low as $73.
Ultimate fan packages can be created not just around games, but also for concerts and special events at Allegiant Stadium, DeAngelo said.
“While that might be powerful in any market, we would argue that the Raiders and Allegiant Stadium will be the venue and the team that has relied more on travel than any other in the history of the world,” he said. “You have (Los Angeles and Oakland fans of the Raiders) who need to travel, and it’s Vegas. Seventy-five million customers out there said we’re NFL fans, and Vegas is the No. 1 city” fans want to visit.
Additionally, the presentation alluded to game day flight shuttles for fans in Oakland and Los Angeles, away game flyaway contests for Las Vegas fans, charter flights for fans traveling from other NFL cities to Las Vegas for a game and multi-sport/event getaways and staycations.
Flights to away games could also feature special fares and flight schedules to accommodate game times.
Allegiant says having its name attached to the Raiders’ home field will allow it to boost its brand awareness; NFL games accounted for 46 of the top 50 telecasts during the 2018 regular season.
The company expects the stadium naming rights deal to result in 4 billion impressions, or the number of times people see Allegiant though a media format. That would be double what it sees currently and would be the equivalent to a $90 million advertising spend, DeAngelo said, “obviously far exceeding anything we pay for today for advertising.”
Allegiant was able to keep its marketing budget for 2020 flat — despite the naming rights deal, rumored to be worth about $20 million to $25 million per year — by eliminating other marketing that wasn’t effective and increasing efficiency across the board, DeAngelo said.
“In absolute dollars, 2020’s marketing expense will be exactly what it was in 2019,” he said. “We were able to figure out what didn’t work. … We did (figure it out), and we cut the ones that weren’t working, and we were able to fund this (naming rights deal).”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.
