Aerial Advertising with Balloons
Advertising in the sky (also known as aerial advertising) has become a very successful means of getting a message across to a local group of people quickly. Usually a banner is pulled behind a single engine plane over a beach or sporting event. This huge exposure of a product, service, coming event or the like means more people are likely to investigate further.
Besides a long banner pulled behind a plane, others market their product by making a billboard and hiring a plane to pull that over the crowd. Some even pull a banner behind a billboard. Another option is to use a helicopter to pull a banner. Though more expensive, helicopters can pull much larger banners and billboards than single engine planes can.
Helium filled balloons are used by local shops or stores to attract attention. Seeing the balloon high in the sky attached to a banner and leading to the ground, people will go out of their way to find out where it goes. An even higher form of aerial advertising is by hot air balloon, or blimp. Goodyear has made blimp advertising famous, though this is very expensive and probably cost prohibitive to most companies. Others make hot air balloons with the company logo or product displayed. Perhaps you think of Remax and their use of the balloon.
Another variation of this is remote controlled balloons that either advertise on the side, or carry an advertisement below them. These balloons are not lighter than air vehicles since they have to come down. Being unmanned means they can be much smaller for the balloons don’t have to lift the weight of a pilot.
These large balloons are propelled by a pusher prop attached to the rear of the balloon. The remote control unit determines the angle of the propeller, whether up, down, or turning. It actually resembles a slow moving model plane. When such a balloon displays an ad and is flown over a crowd of people, it will work much like a banner ad. The balloon can then be returned to the operator to be used again.
The size of these balloons varies, some starting at six feet and going to nearly twenty feet long. Because they are not helium filled, preparing and launching them is easy and inexpensive. Of course, wind is always a factor for a light vehicle such as this and if it is too strong, scheduled flying may need to be postponed.
What are the costs of aerial advertising? One company offers six foot balloons displaying a company sign or logo for $1500. Sizes go from thirteen to seventeen feet and prices from $4000 up to $7000. Of course, a pilot is not needed for this type of ad; the owner can fly it any time he wants when the conditions are right. You can be confident that people will remember this type of advertising.
