During this year’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas, fans were stunned to see hotel rates skyrocket, with budget properties charging ultra-luxury prices. The following month, I received my own surprise: A night at some of the same lodgings on the Strip cost less than a stadium beer and pretzel.

During this year’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas, fans were stunned to see hotel rates skyrocket, with budget properties charging ultraluxury prices. The following month, I received my own surprise: A night at some of the same lodgings on the Strip cost less than a stadium beer and pretzel.

Turn on the TV or take a look online, and you might already be seeing new ads from companies like Apple and Doritos.

UNLV marketing professor Marla Royne Stafford said that the Strip is an “ideal place for advertising during the Super Bowl because many have large scale visibility for a campaign without paying the price of a 30-second Super Bowl ad,” averaging $7M this year.

Super Bowl Sunday caps a messy, months-long process of piecing together scripts, signing on camera-fronting talent and lining up sign-offs from agents, lawyers and National Football League officials for the spots that cost about $7 million for 30 seconds of air alone. But the aim is to have a long-lasting impact.

If the Super Bowl is the advertising event of the year, the Strip’s iconic skyline makes a memorable billboard.