May 22, 2007

SUMMARY: Look up in the sky. It's a blimp with your marketing message on it! If this is something you've always dreamed of doing for a campaign, then check out our latest tutorial. Although it's an extravagance, blimp advertising can show more ROI than what you might think.

We have all the bases covered -- costs, planning steps and how to incorporate blimp advertising into your overall marketing message. Plus, blimp blogging. Yes, blimp blogging.

Summer is coming, and so are the blimps. If you’ve attended a major sporting event or gazed into the sky around a major city, you’ve probably seen one floating overhead, boldly branded with a company name and logo. Just because everyone has seen a blimp doesn’t mean that everyone understands their marketing role.

“I think there’s a bit of a view in the advertising world that these ships are purely aerial billboards. There is certainly a value to a client putting their logo and name on the side of blimp, but if you’re flying around just doing that, you’re not availing yourself of the opportunities that a blimp provides,” says Toby Page, Marketing Director, The Lightship Group, which operates 17 blimps worldwide...

Tactic #3. Measure your ROI

The impact of a blimp campaign isn’t the easiest thing to measure, and, like the event marketing industry, blimp operators have worked hard to develop metrics for marketers. Ways to calculate ROI include:

- Audience reach. By tracking where and when your blimp is flying, you can estimate the number of people who have been exposed to your brand or message. A study by the sponsorship research firm Joyce Julius & Associates estimates that a major brand’s blimp marketing campaign generated 126 million impressions worth $2.5 million in the course of a month by visiting a major golf tournament, a four-day baseball series at Dodgers Stadium and a drag race in Las Vegas.

- The value of broadcast time in exchange for aerial filming. Compare the cost of an advertising spot during a major sporting event with the amount of free air time and mentions you receive in exchange for providing aerial footage.

- Results of sales promotions. Compare the results from markets where the blimp flew with those from areas that didn’t have blimp support. Lightship Group found that a client’s bottled water promotion delivered a 9% sales lift in markets where its blimp flew compared with non-blimp markets.

- Anecdotal evidence. Marketers who use blimps say they hear from consumers around the country who noticed their brand flying overhead. “I get emails from people wherever it goes,” Foster says. “Most of the time, they indicate they’d like to go for ride.”