The MSG Sphere is the hottest new venue in Las Vegas right now, maybe the world. It is home U2's Las Vegas residency and a technology-centric show called "The Sphere Experience", and was the ultimate fan experience center during the recent Las Vegas Gran Prix, giving T-Mobile Zone at Sphere attendees views of five turns of the track as they noshed on treats by Wolfgang Puck Catering.
That's inside. Sphere's outside is even more eye-catching. What was perceived by some as a gimmicky attraction at America's gambling oasis has become the country's largest billboard.
Automakers foreign and domestic are taking advantage, buying up spots on the exterior, which is covered in 1.2 million hockey puck-sized LEDs totaling 580,000 square feet of display space, dwarfing the largest billboard in Times Square (a 125,000-square-foot screen). Those LEDs, part of 16,000 connected screens, can be programed to show a static or dynamic image or video.
According to X, formerly Twitter, user PitchDeckGuy, advertising on the screen gets a brand in front of 300,000 in-person and 4.4 million social platform users per day. The user also says that advertising on the Sphere costs $450,000 per day and $650,000 for a week. There can be multiple advertisers per day and week.
Sphere Entertainment Co. declined to comment on this story when approached by Newsweek.
Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, Lexus, and MINI are among the automakers that have been featured on the Sphere.
Mercedes-Benz and Aston Martin each had time during the Las Vegas Gran Prix weekend. Aston Martin included its Sphere appearance as part of the company's largest Formula 1-linked marketing activation to date.
Aston's illumination could be seen from the circuit and repeated multiple times daily. The 90-second sequence featured an illumination of Aston Martin's iconic wing emblem that transitioned into the Scarab Beetle.
Further animation makes the Sphere appear to be shattered by the beetle before the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team's AMR23 racecar completes a burn out. Smoke clears and the Aston Martin DBX707 high-performance SUV and DB12 super tourer appear. The automaker says that the images represent "what is considered the largest-ever digital display of a car".
Lexus recently launched its "December to Remember" campaign, featuring the 2024 Lexus GX, on the Sphere.
MINI sought out the Sphere to advertise its 2025 MINI Countryman Electric. The fresh crossover is showcased alongside the company's Intelligent Personal Assistant technology and digital companion, Spike, as part of a takeover on the 336-feet high and 516-feet wide screen.
"The creative spirit of MINI has always reached far beyond the distinctive silhouette of our vehicles, " Helen Ray, communications manager at MINI USA told Newsweek. "Creating content for Sphere is a statement all on its own, showing that MINI can think big with industry-first activations showcasing the brand's forward-thinking product strategy with the same challenger's swagger that put us on the map decades ago."
The brand's presence on the Sphere will run through December 1. A four-hour exclusive block of advertising will be featured on December 2.
"Sphere presented us with a new kind of creative challenge. Both in a physical sense, and a contextual one. We wanted to think of this campaign as an art piece, not as an ad. People are coming to Sphere to have fun and be entertained, so we needed to integrate MINI in the least intrusive way possible," said Rob Lambrechts, Chief Creative Officer at Pereira O'Dell, an independent creative agency that worked with MINI on the campaign, in a press release.
Despite all the advertising, no automaker has debuted a vehicle on Sphere. Look for that to happen in 2024.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Eileen Falkenberg-Hull leads the Autos team at Newsweek. She has written extensively about the auto industry for U.S. News & ... Read more
