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Advanced Airship Technology Another First for Beijing?

With more than four airship operators in the market in China, competition to provide aerial coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is hotting up. As speculation mounts on which company will bag the top job to be the eye in the sky during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, insiders increasingly point to Beijing Lightship Advertising, a joint venture between CITIC and The Lightship Group (TLG), the world’s largest lightship operator.

The Lightship airship gets its name from its internal lighting and capacity for night sky illumination.

The Orlando-based commercial airship group, which operates 16 of the total 25 commercial airships around the world, are the brains behind the illuminating A-170 “Video Lightsign” Airship, the very latest in advanced airship technology and “floating” visual marketing.

Francis Chiew, managing director of Beijing Lightship Advertising Company, explains why he thinks the A-170 Airship is the one to watch.

 “The 170-feet long A-170 Airship can transmit and broadcast live footage, run highlights and show movies and advertisements via a 30-feet high and 70-feet wide LED display mounted on the ship’s exterior.”

The A-170 Airship was first unveiled in the US in May 2006 by TLG. Beijing is the first city in Asia to launch such a medium that can also carry passengers and give corporate hospitality rides.

TLG is an American Blimp Corporation company, founded in 1995 as a partnership between Virgin Lightships and Lightship America.

An expensive business to be in, advertising airships are worth USD$3-5 million and cost upwards of USD$250,000 a month to hire in China. This sounds expensive but compared to US rates is cheap. At sporting events in the US, an airship will cost USD$300,000 to hire per 30-second slot. The A-170 Airship is more expensive than other airships in China costing USD$450,000 a month for hire.

Combining aerial airship technology with sponsorship makes perfect marketing sense––ask Sony, Sanyo, Microsoft and Goodyear, all highflying airship advertisers––but how cost effective is it?

Ron D. Castro, marketing director of Goodyear Philippines, the tire and rubber company says survey statistics speak volumes: “A 1992 phone survey [from more than 1,000 people across the US] indicated more than 90 percent of the public is familiar with the Goodyear blimp from seeing it on TV, providing aerial coverage of sporting and news events.”

Goodyear has had an 82-year association with the airship that is now an established corporate icon for the company. In September 2006, Goodyear’s “brand ambassador” lightship––The Goodyear Blimp––made its first historic voyage to China.

Danial Zhang, PR Manager Goodyear of China is a fan: “As one of Goodyear’s biggest marketing initiatives for 2006, The Goodyear Blimp enters China primarily to reinforce brand building efforts.”

Goodyear’s long association with the airship, as a “great marketing tool” and observation platform used by military in many parts of the world, is key to the airship’s mainstream popularity, a nostalgic appeal that dates back to the Second World War.

Back in vogue now after nearly 40 years, the airship, also known as a “blimp” because of the sound the taut surface fabric makes when hit, is a helium-filled envelope with manually operated fins and twin engine power. Able to maintain a cruising speed of 40 mph at an altitude of 2,000 feet, the airship has minimal technology. This allows the ship to float without being weighed down by instruments it can in fact do without. Use of primitive technology adds to the airships popular appeal in a world inundated with complex machinery few people understand.

The airship’s appearance in popular films like Black Sunday in 1976, Blade Runner in 1982 and The Aviator in 2004 added to its icon status.

But its capacity to unobtrusively maintain heights at minimum speeds was what grabbed headlines in November 2006 with the announcement on the Internet that the US Army has ordered a “spy” airship at a cost of USD$40 million. The spy ship, reputedly called the High Altitude Airship, is set to be 17 times larger than the average commercial airship and able to float 12 miles above ground. The US Navy is also said to have started flying airships again.

Used increasingly by brands keen to take advantage of a novel medium that can take up position in locations normally off-limits to large-scale billboard advertising, about 25 airships of this type “carry the message” safely round the world. Airships are now common enough sights in built-up urban environments where proximity to tall buildings can reach 100 metres in some areas with absolute safety. The airship is filled with non-flammable helium so association of gas-exploding zeppelins during the World Wars has long since passed.

Chuck Ehrler, CEO of TLG explained to Business Beijing why airships are such a unique and irresistible medium to potential clients eager to catch the limelight. “They are movable billboards that go where crowds gather, often where there are no competing advertising messages, “said Ehrler. They also have increased consumer appeal because they are environmentally friendly.

“They fly slowly, quietly and are intrusive in a very friendly way,” said Ehrler.

This impacts on the sponsorship strength of the medium. In a marketing survey TLG found the recall values of advertisers was significantly higher than with traditional media costing an equivalent amount. “Ranging from 80-90 percent recall,” said Chiew.

The dramatic impact of the medium is not in doubt and why it is an obvious choice for sponsors of the Olympic Games. In a well-documented tour of the west coast of America the Fujifilm company, flew an airship for a nine-month tour during which its market share rose from 7 percent to 22 percent. The first six months of a one-year campaign by Konica, the camera equipment company, created media coverage worth an estimated USD$ 3.4 million on top of the advertising impact the airship created for the company.

The impact of the A-170 with transmission and display capability is likely double that of an airship without such technology. Because of this Chiew is ebullient about the role the A-170 airship could play at the Olympic Games–a lightship going for gold. With live or recorded content streaming from a laptop PC from inside the airship, it is likely that the best images of the city during the Olympic Games will come from the seeing eye of the giant airship as it records and transmits those historic moments in the life of the city.

“TLG and CITIC are bringing a revolutionary new medium to China for use in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.”

The airship has been at an Olympic event before. One was used in Athens throughout the 2004 Summer Olympics for anti-terrorist measures. But nothing as sophisticated as the A-170 has ever made such a spectacular debut.

As well as broadcasting live TV, the A-170 can display Internet sites, stock tickers and advertising slide shows in full-colour.

“Sound can be co-ordinated via a dedicated frequency. So it is possible that a client may broadcast images on the airship and simultaneously broadcast the sound via radio frequency. Consumers just have to ‘tune in’ to listen to the sound,” said Chiew.

A proven integrated medium combining, outdoor billboard, video, aerial filming platform, interactive medium, corporate icon, passenger and hospitality rides floats above the competition: “It simply ‘rises above the clutter’ of traditional mediums.”

Coming to a sky near you.