Two blimps can look identical in a photograph and behave completely differently in year two.
The material decides everything
Inexpensive advertising balloons are PVC. Ours are polyurethane. That single choice drives almost every other difference.
PVC stiffens, holds creases where it was folded, and goes brittle under ultraviolet light. Polyurethane stays flexible, folds without scarring, and handles sun far better. The PVC balloon wins on the day of purchase and loses every day after it.
Printing on the panels
The blimp is built from white panels and the artwork is printed straight onto them, both sides, inside the $1,526 price.
The process reproduces nearly any graphic or color, which means you send the logo you already use. You do not need a simplified one-color version, and you should not accept a vendor telling you that you do.
Who flies them
- Car and truck dealers — Readable from the road before the lot is. The most common single use.
- Homebuilders — A California company flies more than 100 of our blimps every weekend for builder communities.
- Grand openings — Look established on day one, for the price of a week of radio.
- Trade shows — One fill covers a three-day show. Some exhibitors haul theirs inflated between shows.
- Seasonal retail — Fly it for the sale, box it, bring it back next quarter.
Lift and tethering
Net lift on the 13-foot blimp is about three pounds. That is enough to hold altitude and light enough that a sandbag or a tie-off handles it. You are not anchoring an aircraft.
Every blimp comes with your choice of a 120-foot tether line or a 105-foot metallic pennant line. One or the other. The pennant line is more visible on the ground; the plain tether disappears and lets the blimp do the work.
More at advertisingblimps.com.