'Adventure Place' brand helps attract sports event

"Reno-Tahoe America's Adventure Place" continues to build success as a brand, as evidenced by the recent announcement that the country's first Collegiate Nationals will be held in Reno April 22-23.

The college championships will feature more than 2,000 top young athletes competing in a series of high endurance sporting events that includes triathlon, snowboarding, kayaking, boxing and beach volleyball.

The event is a partnership involving CSTV Networks, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Burton Snowboards and the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority.

The brand helped bring the games, and the games will help build the brand.

"I'd say it was the awareness of the adventure orientation of Reno and Tahoe that first attracted us to the place," said Brian Bedol, chief executive officer of CSTV Networks.

"Looking at the time and at the venues and discussing the potential really came to not only agreeing with the label, but also feeling that it was the best location for this kind of festival of championships.

It's the only place in the country that time of the year where we could have both sun and snow games."

The importance of a brand cannot be overemphasized,though there always may be debate on whether a brand is the right one, said Tim Hall, vice president and general manager at Reno-based Innerwest Advertising and Public Relations.

"It's important that RSCVA has done a good job in putting a stake in the ground on America's Adventure Place,"Hall said.

The CSTV Networks will televise the events.

CSTV anticipates about 10 to 12 hours of daily original programming from Reno and Lake Tahoe some of it live and some of it as pre-taped presented as live, Bedol added.

The company will publicize the event on its more than 200 athletic Web sites.

And with the recent announcement that CBS will acquire CSTV Networks, more marketing opportunities may develop across platforms, including radio and broadcast channels such as UPN.

In addition to the college population, demographically the event should appeal to college alumni, Bedol said.

"Sports are the way alumni stay connected to their institutions and sort of re-live their great experience over and over again," he said.

And college graduates earn higher incomes, which will help draw advertisers.

By virtue of CSTV Network's reach across its Web sites and other platforms, including CBS, RSCVA is optimistic that Reno-Tahoe will get significant coverage.

"Not only in absolutely leveraging the America's Adventure Place brand, but it's going to do that at a cost that's invaluable to our marketing program," said Deanna Ashby, RSCVA's executive marketing director."We couldn't afford the kind of programming that we're going to get out of this."

In fact, the region has been incorporated into the event's logo, and it's called "Collegiate Nationals in Reno-Tahoe," she said.

"It's part of the big message,"Ashby added.