Advertising Balloons
Advertising balloon and their role in the advertising business
Advertising balloons are one of those things typically used by small local company to raise awareness of their brand. Or at least they used to be. The last decade saw the advent of custom shaped advertising balloons. Well, this might not sound much, but it worked wonders for the advertising business.
Advertising balloons are never used as an independent form of advertising, that would be stupid, they are rather an exotic extension to the traditional campaigns. The sad fact is that people tend to watch more some nice screens than the sky, this doesn't mean though that don't watch the sky at all. This is why using these items alone would not be very effective.
Of course another question may arise. What sort of people would watch the sky more often and obviously what sort of people would make their buying decisions based on something far up. Advertisers thought of this too and their answer was remarkably smart and simple. You can't make people buy stuff with advertising balloons, but you can affect their habits. For example you might make them choose to change the radio frequency and listen to a different radio station or to make him aware that a new mall was opened. The amount of information passed to the viewer is minimal this is why this technique is only used to create or raise brand awareness.
Brand awareness is the new name of the game and advertising balloons are actually very effective in creating it. This is why you will never see one advertising motor oil or yogurt. This type of advertising is terribly non directional, meaning that you have absolutely no way of controlling the exposure, except for the geographic setting. This is why brands directed towards large masses and which somehow look good floating will always be the ones advertised.
Altogether advertising balloons are an effective and spectacular way of altering the behavioral patterns of a large community. You cannot expect much sales generated by this sort of advertising, but you can expect more traffic and attention towards the advertised brand. Together with traditional advertising, balloon advertising can prove to be quite a killer combo. As for the future, as advertising evolves to new media, this sort of advertising will probably remain high on the priority list for any decent creative director. Their potential simply cannot be overlooked.