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Why
Aerial Advertising?
The True Case Study/Story Of
An Advertising Campaign So Effective, Competitors Petitioned The Government To Ban It!
Can
aerial advertising with a blimp really be that much more effective than
traditional forms of advertising?
New
York, NY Humans are
fascinated with things that fly.
Airplanes,
Blimps and Hot Air Balloons have always caught the hearts and
imaginations of people everywhere.
Aerial
advertising is so effective because it is mobile, it is flexible, and it
is highly visible.
The
most effective "flying advertising medium" is an airship - a
BLIMP!
Years
ago, Advertising Age surveyed thirteen thousand people and asked them to
recall a single ad.
The
top two ads mentioned were for Coca Cola and Pepsi respectively and
COMBINED they only accounted for 10% of the responses.
Compare
that with a recent survey asking about giant airships (blimps).
An
amazing 75% of those surveyed recalled seeing the ship and a full 60% of
them could identify the company using it.
Can aerial
advertising with a blimp really be that much more effective than
traditional forms of advertising?
Well,
ask yourself these questions:
-
What is the last newspaper
ad you saw?
-
The last TV commercial you
can recall?
-
The last billboard you
passed on the highway?
-
The last blimp you saw
flying in the sky?
Could
you answer them all?
Even
if you could, now ask yourself this: how long ago did you see or hear
them?
Chances
are your answers for TV, print, radio and billboards range from a
few minutes or hours, to a few days ago and you still had trouble
remembering them.
The
last time you saw a blimp may have been months or even years ago, but
you probably remember where you saw it and what it said.
That,
in a nutshell, is advertising
effectiveness!
Advertising Value
Research
reveals that statistics on the aerial effectiveness of blimps is quite
impressive.
Here
are just a few examples:
1.
In 1984, Fuji Film increased their market 7%, taking market share
from Kodak in only a two-month period as a result of their aerial
advertising campaign covering the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The campaign was so successful that Fuji is still using BLIMP
advertising today - twenty years later!
Fuji continued it’s program and in 1986 purchased their own
airship.
2.
In 1992, Kraft increased it’s sales by 87% in Germany alone
during the Kraft Blimp promotion tour.
Based on this success, Kraft renewed it’s airship program for
'93 and '94.
3.
The Family Channel Blimp generated $5 million of spin-off media value
during it’s first year.
Family Channel studies show the total media value outweighs
total cost of blimp operation by 3 to 1.
4.
Coverage of nineteen TV events by the Blockbuster Blimp resulted in $1
million worth of on-air time and $45,000 of spin-off local media.
5.
In 2006, the world's first video airship, Holden's Lightsign Airship*
was flown throughout Australia, as the centerpiece to General Motor's
new car launch.
The aerial campaign was so effective, grabbing everyone's
attention, that anxious competitors petitioned the Australian government
to ban it.
6.
The following results of independent and in-house studies reveal a high
percentage of both airship (recalled seeing blimp) and product (recalled
message) awareness:
Advertiser
Locale Airship
<Awareness> Product
Swan
Beer Australia
82.0%
73.0%
Novo
Snacks London
72.5%
86.2%
Miller
Lite Texas
63.1%
72.6%
7.
Studies indicate that in a typical city of about one million
people, during a 5-day flight period, 65% recall the message presented
on the airship.
As
the effectiveness of the traditional advertising media continues to
erode, advertisers need to explore innovative solutions to make an
impact on the public consciousness.
Blimp
participation at nationally televised sporting events and other high
traffic venues guarantees advertisers audience attention.
With
that kind of success rate the obvious question is:
Why
isn't everyone using airship advertising?
The
even more obvious answer is: COST.
Full
sized airships cost several million dollars to purchase and several
hundred thousand dollars per month to operate and typically have crews
of 20 to 40 people.
The
average cost to an advertiser on the world's preeminent airship, The
Goodyear Blimp, is upwards of $400,000 per night for lighted pixel board
advertising!
Bob
Weinstein, Director of Advertising for Metropolitan Life says: "The
cost of running the blimp for a whole month is equal to the cost of just
one or two prime time commercials."
He
still thinks that's a bargain even though one prime time commercial can
cost well over $400,000!
This
type of advertising is just too expensive for even most Fortune 500
companies but that's where the Video
Airships Marketing Group comes in.
Up
until recently, this medium was limited to mostly indoor venues - but
not anymore.
Blimp
technology is ever evolving and now outdoor video airships are being
built specifically for the Video
Airships Marketing Group that are large enough for effective
advertising, that will cut through the clutter of traditional media.
The
Video Airships Marketing Group’s outdoor video airships will now
provide a unique advertising platform at very competitive costs.
The Bottom Line
The
company plans to offer video airship advertising services throughout
North America to selected clients.
All
of the details will be provided for and include everything from flying
the airships, to providing the marketing and promotional strategies.
They will
design and produce reusable banner graphics to drive anxious consumers
to web sites, audio sites, call centers and individual store locations.
Every
last detail in planning and implementing a successful nationwide
advertising airship campaign that will get results will be handled by
the firm.
"We
will be the definitive source in advertising airships for our clients,
agencies and principals alike.”
Unlike
the brand awareness campaigns that traditional large scale airships like
Goodyear, Fuji and Metropolitan Life have promoted, we're going to test
the results of flying advertising airships that promote companies,
brands, products, and special events for a select group of high profile
national companies.
We
also see the combination of traditional media and Video
Airships as the centerpiece to a multimedia campaign as a natural
way to add value to any advertising campaign.
“Unlike
most traditional media campaigns, consumers will long remember the name
of the company or product on the banner just like they do now with
Goodyear, Fuji Film, Metropolitan Life, Budweiser and the other larger
airships," says Schmidt.
In
an ever-changing advertising and promotional environment, Video
Airships will be highly effective because they are memorable, they
are mobile, they are flexible and they are highly visible.
Additionally,
they attract news coverage and other forms of free publicity!
“In
short, just like all of the traditional mediums, they combine all the
best attributes of traditional advertising and even more - offering
customers and advertising clients a movable front-page ad in the sky
that just can't be turned off by changing the station, deleted at the
click of a mouse or like all print mediums, simply thrown in the
trash," said Steve Amoroso, Video
Airships Marketing Group's Director of Corporate Communications.
******************************************************
IMPORTANT
UPDATE:
Dateline:
August 2006
The
Place: Melbourne Airport, Tullamarine, Australia
The
Marketing Campaign: The Launching Of Holden’s New Automobile,
The Commodore
The
Results: After one year of flying the Holden Airship throughout
Australia, when questioned consumers reported an unheard of 65%
recognition factor. Consumers were filming the airship, taking
pictures of the airship and setting up blogs to follow the airship
(they even created an online city for the airship called Holdenburg.com).
More importantly, anxious competitors petitioned the
Australian government to ban the Airship after they realized how
powerfully effective it was at literally grabbing every eyeball and capturing the attention of an entire country.
Needless
to say, the campaign was
a smashing success!
There were several quirks and twists to the entire
story. Things
that you would not normally assume about the results and events during the campaign that have startled and even shocked
some. Never-revealed-before secrets to this critically acclaimed
(in some eyes) campaign, you won’t find anywhere else but here, in
this case study/story.
See
actual video footage on this most effective campaign at VideoAirships.com
Here’s
a portion of the original Holden press release, published just
before the official launch of the airship for a one year tour of
Australia.
See
what everyone had to say.
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: TUESDAY 01 AUGUST 2006:
HOLDEN TAKES TO THE SKIES WITH THE HOLDEN
AIRSHIP
Holden
is taking it's message to the skies on a massive airship boasting a
television screen able to be viewed from up to a kilometer away.
The
Holden Airship stretches across 54.3 meters and stands 16.8 meters
tall, making it longer and taller than the current generation of
Boeing 737 airplanes.
The
Airship today set off on it's maiden voyage to Sydney from Melbourne
Airport in Tullamarine, where it was filled with approximately five
million liters of helium.
The
Airship will be used exclusively by Holden for marketing purposes
and will become a regular feature above Australia’s greatest
sporting and cultural events.
GM
Holden Marketing Manager of Large Cars and SUV’s, Philip Brook, said
today that being able to debut the Holden Airship at the launch of
VE Commodore proved perfect timing.
“The
launch of the all new VE
Commodore, our first billion dollar car, is a huge event and we
needed to make an equally huge impression for its launch,” Brook
said.
“Being
the first to secure the Airship worldwide has been a marketing
dream. We’ve broken the rules with the new Commodore in terms of
styling, performance, safety and value. Similarly, with the Airship,
we’re breaking the marketing rules to promote the new Commodore.
“It’s
becoming increasingly difficult to have a groundbreaking concept in
marketing today but the Holden Airship, with it's television screen,
gives us exclusive access to an exciting new medium."
Mr.
Gary Walsh of The
Lightship Group,
developers of the Airship, is confident the technology used on the
ship’s screen will impress the Australian public.
“Until
now Airships and blimps have only been able to screen animation or
basic graphic displays. The Holden Airship is the first to use the
technology that allows television footage to be broadcast on the
Airship screen. We anticipate the response from Australians, who
will be the first audience worldwide, will be very favorable”.
Designed
originally for advertising, and thus kept simple for reliability,
the American Blimp airships have almost 200,000 flight hours. A
large portion of these hours has been flown with various types of
broadcast cameras and data downlinks covering events for media or
security. The airship has also
been adapted as a communications and sensor platform for a
multitude of other missions.
End
of Press Release
About
the author: Ron Schmidt, Founder and CEO of Video Airships Marketing Group of The
Marketing Consultants Group is a veteran “Master Marketer”
with over 40 years of sales management and marketing experience with
Fortune 500 companies such as Fram Corporation, Boise-Cascade, Inc.,
Bausch and Lomb, Inc. Honeywell, Inc., CooperVision, Inc. and
Amstar-Domino Sugar among others.
Ron
and his staffs have been
responsible for over a quarter billion dollars ($252,000,000) in direct
sales during his sales and marketing career.
Contact:
Ron Schmidt 888-574-8257
Ext. 77 Ron.Schmidt@MarketingConsultantsGroup.com
VIDEO
AIRSHIPS MARKETING GROUP
of
THE
MARKETING CONSULTANTS GROUP
Staff@VideoAirships.com
888-574-8257
Ext.57
*Video
Lightsign Airship is a trademark of The Lightship Group.
Video
Airship is a trademark of The
Marketing
Consultants Group
Copyright
2011-2012
All worldwide rights reserved.
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