Maxim Gambles on a Lads Mag Hotel in Las Vegas
A theme hotel built around the brand of a lads mag might strike the more refined traveller as somehow tacky. But context is everything: the new Maxim Hotel and Casino, costing $1.2bn (£638m), will open in Las Vegas, where no hotel worthy of the name does not boast a replica of the Great Temple of Ramses, a half-sized Eiffel Tower, animated model dinosaurs, sequin-studded lion tamers or an artificial volcano.In such a setting, the latest venture by Felix Dennis, the maverick British publisher, may end up looking positively restrained. Even so, it will take the trend for "brand extension" into relatively uncharted territory - an effort to turn Maxim's self-declared ethos of "girls, entertainment, sports and stupid jokes" into a commercially viable 2,300-room hotel.Scheduled to open in 2010, the hotel would be "upscale, aspirational but at the same time accessible", with a "kickass pool area" and a vast casino, said Barry Pincus, the publishing firm's director of brand development.Under Maxim's licensing arrangement with the developers, Concord Wilshire, Dennis Publishing will receive an undisclosed sum of several million dollars, along with an annual fee and a percentage of the income from the hotel, but not the casino."Vegas is part-Disneyworld, which we're not. In our vision this will be a home away from home," he said - featuring celebrity chefs, luxury spas and rooms presumably furnished with the Maxim-branded sheets and duvet covers already for sale at the Macy's department store chain. That line of bedding, with names such as Hollywood, Wall Street, Houston and Rex, has proved commercially successful, but Maxim's earlier brand-extension efforts have encountered mixed results. A licensing deal with the cosmetics manufacturers Combe, offering hair frostings with names such as Beach Blond and Red Rum, was recently terminated. It was named the second-worst example of brand extension in a survey by the New York consultants Tipping Sprung.The worst example, according to that survey, was the ailing charter company Hooters Air, which sought to bring the ethos of Hooters restaurants - essentially, men in their 20s and 30s getting drunk and leering at waitresses - to the rather more serious business of flying aeroplanes. A Jeep-branded buggy was declared the winner. "Extensions can go too far, raising the eyebrows of consumers or even weakening the core brand," the consultants wrote.Lads mags, a British import to the United States, have come to dominate the market in magazines aimed at men. After its American launch in 1998, Maxim quickly became the best-selling title in its category, with a circulation of 1.3m, outstripping its rival FHM, which has predominated in the UK. The US market is discernably more restrained than in Britain, and much-criticised titles such as Zoo and Nuts, featuring partial nudity, have no close equivalent. None the less, Maxim is considered too controversial to appear amid the hunting rifles and ammunition on the shelves of Wal-Mart.Magazines face a particular challenge in launching brand extension efforts since they rely on income from advertisers who may offer similar products and services. Mr Pincus said this explained the absence of Maxim-branded clothing or alcohol.Viva excessThe Luxor Features a life-size replica of the Great Temple of Ramses II and of King Tut's tomb. Many of the 4,400 rooms are contained within a giant hollow pyramid topped by a spotlight that is said to emit the brightest beam in the worldThe Paris A half-scale Eiffel Tower and a two-thirds scale Arc de Triomphe adorn the facade, while inside, restaurants and shops line replica French streetsThe Bellagio Renowned for its 32,000 sq metre lake, modelled on Lake Como in Italy, the Bellagio was the most expensive hotel ever built when it opened in 1998, costing more than $1.5bnThe Stratosphere Guests are whisked to the top of the 1,149ft-high Stratosphere Tower in elevators travelling three floors a secondHooters Casino Hotel Waitresses at the hotel are asked to sign an agreement accepting that "the [Hooters] work environment is one in which joking and sexual innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace"
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