B.U.S.E. Networking Group Announces Marla Letizia as
Guest Speaker for Tuesday, March 7, Mixer at Stirling Club
LAS VEGAS - February 23, 2006 – B.U.S.E. announced today that Marla Letizia is the guest speaker for its March 7, 2006, mixer. Letizia is a leader in her industry, serving as president and CEO of Mobile Billboards of Las Vegas (MBBLV), a national pioneer in mobile advertising, and is the first in Las Vegas to sell drive time versus advertising space. She will speak on how thinking creatively to make companies more socially responsible.
Marla Letizia has spent the last 20 years being innovative in a variety of industries in Las Vegas. From working her way up the ladder in broadcasting to her latest achievement of transforming the outdoor billboard advertising medium, Letizia discovered that the formula for success is personal service and putting clients' results first.
Letizia's latest venture, Mobile Billboards of Las Vegas, takes billboards off of permanent stilts and onto the streets for direct-line-of-sight advertising. She owns a fleet of eight trucks equipped with 10-foot by 20-foot billboards, which are distributed throughout the valley, delivering clients' messages to target audiences. Letizia oversees daily operations firsthand, and is diligent in implementing her visions for the company's future. She manages a team of 30 employees, divided into the Competitive Intelligence Department and the Traffic Strategist Department. Letizia personally deals with each client, determining their target market and advertising goals, and ensuring that a strategy for success is formulated.
Letizia recently led the charge to develop an alternative lighting method for her fleet as the use of a generator poses not only environmental threats, but is noisy and unsafe. Due to generators running on gasoline or oil, there is a high combustibility rate upon impact, which is a safety concern when dealing in mobile advertising. In conjunction with inventor Toby Kinkaid, MBBLV created an economically and environmentally sound alternative power source. The Friction Drive Power System (SK-2000), patent pending, feeds power to the 400 square feet of billboard space on each of the eight MBBLV vehicles. This is the first such product in history that supplies power to a vehicle's components through regular operation.
B.U.S.E. stands for Business Professionals, Up-and-Comers, Socialites and Entrepreneurs and is a networking group that meets every Tuesday at the Stirling Club inside Turnberry Place. All mixers begin at 6 p.m. and feature special guest speakers. Following the guest speaker is the mixer portion of the evening with light entertainment, complimentary hors d'oeuvres provided by celebrity chef and B.U.S.E. member Charlie Palmer, and no-host cocktails.
Founded in 2003, B.U.S.E. Club is the well-received concept of Jimmy Foster and Richard Femenella. It began as a small networking mixer and has grown into a large network of professionals and up-and-comers that utilize the meeting to make new contacts, start new business relationships, and develop their skills as tomorrow's professionals. The ultimate goal of B.U.S.E. is to become the highest quality networking mixer in Las Vegas. For more information on B.U.S.E., please visit www.buseclub.com . For more information on MBBLV, please visit www.MBBLV.com.
Marla Letizia has spent the last 20 years being innovative in a variety of industries in Las Vegas . From working her way up the ladder in broadcasting to her latest achievement of transforming the outdoor billboard advertising medium, Letizia has found that the formula for success is personal service and putting clients' results first.
Letizia's latest venture, Mobile Billboards of Las Vegas, has taken billboards off of permanent stilts and put them onto the streets, eye-level, right in people's faces. She owns a fleet of eight trucks equipped with 10-foot by 20-foot billboards, and sends them all over the valley, exposing her clients' messages to their target audiences. Letizia oversees the daily operations firsthand, and is constantly implementing the visions for the future of the company. She manages a team of 30, including the Vice President of Operations, Amy Christensen, the Competitive Intelligence Department and the Traffic Strategist Department. Letizia personally deals with each client, determining their target market and advertising goals, and ensuring that a strategy for success is formulated.
Mobile Billboards of Las Vegas has grown at an incredible rate since its inception in 2001. Letizia started with a single truck, selling 30 time slots, and has now seen her fleet grow to eight, with over 720 available time slots sold monthly. This success is due to Letizia's revolutionary idea of selling time instead of space, which puts outdoor advertising in the same media buying patterns as radio and television. She gives her clients the power to determine where they would like their advertisements, and at what time of the day or night based on the competitive intelligence information that is provided to them by MBBLV. This concept has proven effective for MBBLV's clients, which range from local companies such as Findlay Toyota, Lotus Broadcasting, IGT, Mandalay Bay , the LVCVA and R & R Partners, to national organizations like Saks Fifth Avenue and Subway.
Letizia moved to Las Vegas at the age of two, and would be insulted if anybody dared not call her a native. She has been married to Tom Letizia for 24 years, and stayed at home to raise her two children, Harmony and Russell. “These sacrifices make us who we are,“ Letizia says. “A woman can have it all, motherhood and a career, just not at the same time.”
Letizia graduated from Arizona State University in Tempe with a Bachelor of Science in Communications and a Minor in Speech in 1975. She likes to keep that point a secret since both of her children attended the University of Arizona in Tucson , one having just graduated and the other a junior. She was the first female Director in Las Vegas while at KTNV, Channel 13, host of her own community talk show, “Las Vegas Turnaround,” and later became a weather anchor. Letizia ventured into the national television news syndication industry by developing, producing and hosting the Parenting Network News Series, which was eventually bought out by Warner Brothers. Her love for the airwaves led to Letizia's purchase of three radio stations, KPAH 92.7 FM in Tonopah, NV, and KROL 870 AM in Laughlin, NV, and KKJY 100.5 FM in Albuquerque, NM, as well as Reno's first independent television station, KAME-TV 21, a Fox affiliate. Still wanting a challenge, she went to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas to further her education in 1994, and in four years, after taking all 10 graduate level accounting courses, was qualified to sit for the State Certified Public Accountants exam. Letizia's focus has changed with the success of Mobile Billboards of Las Vegas, as her company has doubled in growth in each of the three and a half years of its existence.
Not only is Letizia a successful businesswoman in the Las Vegas community, she is actively involved in an array of professional organizations. She is Vice President of Administration for Congregation Ner Tamid, and has served on the Make-A-Wish Advisory Board since 1995. She is also a board member of the Las Vegas Bowl, and a former member of Women's Division of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas. Letizia is a member at large of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and the Transportation Advertising Council of America. Letizia was a founding member of the Board of Trustees for The Meadows School, and sat on the board for 18 years.
Both Letizia's mother and father are still actively involved in the Las Vegas community.
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