Tag Archives: airplane banners

Expand your marketing mix into the sky

From time to time marketing and advertising executives change up their marketing mix. Whether it’s due to a new budget, a tired message, or a response to marketing data, it’s always a good idea to reconsider the ways in which a brand promotes its products and services. That’s why the timing has never been better to expand your marketing mix into the sky.

By showcasing your brand in the sky, your audience expands to entire communities, major event attendees, and even social media. Instinctively we look up when we hear the engine of a low flying plane, helicopter, and yes, even a blimp! And in today’s fast moving, ultra sharing world, these methods of advertisement are more likely to be photographed and shared on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook than the more traditional and expected forms of advertising like billboards and newspaper ads.

“But aren’t airplane banners a beach thing? Or a way to propose?”

Airplane banners can be used numerous ways and in various geographies. Whether it’s at the beach or the mountains, during the Super Bowl or weekday rush hour traffic, airplane banners get noticed. In fact, a recent survey showed…

88% of respondents remembered seeing airplane banners 30 minutes after they had passed,
79% remembered the product or service that was advertised, and
67% remembered at least half of the banner content.

Can you say the same about your quarter-page newspaper ad?

“Plane, helicopter, blimp… what does it matter?”

First of all, Heli-Banners are not for the faint of heart. These banners are so big an airplane cannot successfully pull them through the sky. We’re talking about a HUGE space for your brand to be featured, ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 square feet!

If that’s not big enough, try an air ship that’s actually environmentally friendly like the Eco Blimp. Eco Blimps do not utilize helium like most other blimps you may be familiar with, making them more environmentally and budget friendly.

So while you’re considering making changes to your marketing and advertising spend in 2016, remember to expand your marketing mix into the sky with other brands such as Ford, Google, and Virgin Atlantic. Contact Airsign for a free quote.

Advertise to the Hungry

The late, great copywriting expert, Gary Halbert, enjoyed helping his audiences dramatically change the way they thought about their advertising by using this illustration…

He would ask the people in attendance what they would choose as their biggest advantage if they had a hot dog cart full of hot dogs which they had to sell by the end of the day.

Before reading on, what would you choose?

Typical audience responses ranged from big advertising budgets to fancy meats or toppings to lower prices.

Gary would respond…

Wrong, wrong, WRONG!

Because all of the above depend on creating desire in the target audience when you could simply use something else, something much more powerful that would be much more successful:

A Hungry Crowd!

And this is exactly what I propose you do for your business.

Think of the impact parading your hot dog cart into the middle of a starving crowd would make. The only thing that would matter was…

How fast you can fill the orders.

That is exactly what aerial advertising provides. Rather than trying to yell above the noise of all the other TV ads or go bigger and bolder in print, AirSign flies airplane banners with your unique message directly above targeted audiences who are hungry for exactly what you provide. Your banner gets massive attention and the beautiful thing is – there’s distracting no competition.

Stand out from the noise. Have AirSign fly your message over your hungry audience.

– Patrick

P.S. If you don’t know where the crowds are gathering, that’s something we specialize in. Just contact us to get a list of potential venues.

Watch AirSign Aerial Advertising at Work With Walt Disney World Entertainment

We now have a great video here of the Disney Dream welcome home celebration. AirSign Aerial Advertising met the quality standards in which Walt Disney World Entertainment had to pull off this great welcome. Please enjoy the video!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eSqMhVAkE

She’s a beauty, isn’t she?

What Is An Airplane Banner?

An airplane banner is a long strip of material about seven feet tall and as long as a hundred feet. A message is written on the banner. It may invite people to a new restaurant, or tell of a local service or a special sale.

The airplane takes off and then passes over the field containing the banner. A tow hook catches the banner and pulls it into the air. The airplane banner is then flown over a large gather of people so they can read it as they watch a sporting event, sit on the beach, or wait in traffic. It often makes multiple passes over the crowd so that they can’t miss reading the message.

How We Fly An Airplane Banner

Have you ever been at a large gathering somewhere, like a sporting event or a beach, and seen an airplane fly by pulling an announcement or an advertisement of some type? These ads or messages are called airplane banners, and have proven to be an effective way to get a message out to a large group quickly.

So how do we get such a huge banner into the sky? If the banner were attached to the plane before it took off, this would cause two problems. First, the banner would drag across the runway and get damaged. Second, The drag of the huge banner would make it more difficult to get off the ground and this means the banner would drag even longer.

Getting the airplane banner into the sky takes a great deal of skill. But the huge success of aerial advertising makes it worth the trouble. First, the airplane takes off with a device called a “grapnel hook” hanging in the window. The other end is attached to the tail of the airplane by either rope or cable.

When the airplane is safely off the ground, the pilot unhooks the device from the window, letting it trail behind the plane. On the ground the banner or billboard is folded up with a lead pole in front. A harness is attached to the lead pole. Then a pick up rope is attached to a loop of rope that is attached between two poles about five or six feet off the ground.

Now the plane circles around and, with the hook dragging below the plane and flying at 80 miles an hour, the pilot heads straight for the two poles. As he reaches them, he throttles the engine and pulls back on the stick, causing the plane to soar upward at a steep angle. The hook snags the loop of rope, which pulls the banner up, off the ground and into the sky. What if he misses? Then he circles around and tries it again.

But how does the banner stay upright and not, like a kite, spiraling in the wind? First, the tail end of heavy billboards or banners has tiny parachutes that catch the wind and keep it straight. Then the bottom has weights that keep that edge closest to the ground. The letters are usually seven feet tall and the banner might be up to fifty letters long. So everything must be planned just right so that the drag is not too great or too little.

When our pilot has completed his mission over the designated area, he will fly the banner back to the drop off place, fly low again, and, release the hook so the banner falls to the ground unharmed. This way it is reusable if that is desired.

All this may seem like a lot of trouble, but the result is worth the effort. Thousands will see the banner, both at the event and on the way to and from it. The message will get out and people will be influenced by the message. But not all aerial advertising is provided equally. Some companies simply take an order and contract it out. Since 1996, AirSign has been leaders in the industry by taking personal care of their customers using the best pilots, sharpest looking planes, and providing accountability for their work through free GPS tracking. Give us a call at (888) 645-3442 and find out what we can do for you!