How the Goodyear Blimp Became America’s Greatest Marketing Invention
Who doesn’t like a blimp? The soft, pillowy things just look friendly whether looking down on a sporting event, or just slowly flying around with an advertising message plastered on the sides. For that reason alone, blimps may be the best marketing tool ever devised.
The archetype, of course, is the Goodyear blimp. The first Goodyear blimp took to the skies in 1925 and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GY) now owns a U.S. fleet of three which the company hangars in California, Ohio, and Florida. A fourth is based in China.
Another familiar blimp fleet is owned by MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET), which also has a permanent U.S. fleet of three.
Blimps, which are inflatable, helium-filled bags, only cost about $5 million to make. Of course, Goodyear also employs three crews of 16 to fly and maintain them. And that does not include storage facilities or the trucks and other ground support vehicles to move the blimp and its crew to different locations.
Goodyear’s 87-year history of using blimps to market the company would seem to suggest that the company considers it a good investment. Goodyear and its original blimp maker, German firm Luftschifftbau Zeppelin, planned to use the first blimps as advertising vehicles, as well as offering them for rent or sale. (By the way, that’s the same company that built the Hindenburg.) These days, Goodyear is only used for advertising.
http://247wallst.com/investing/2013/08/08/how-the-goodyear-blimp-became-the-greatest-marketing-invention/
= new reply since forum marked as read
