Big Idea Turns Balloons Into New Ad Vehicle
Driving along the San Diego Freeway or any other freeway in Orange County, chances are that if you look up you’ll see one of Scott Zimmer’s creations.
Unlike other small businesses hard hit by the recession, Zimmer’s balloon manufacturing company, Giant Advertising, is in demand by retailers hard pressed for customers. Like his balloons, his 2-year-old business is ascending.
From a 4,000-square-foot Costa Mesa warehouse, Zimmer creates from yards of urethane-coated nylon the red-and-white, blimplike balloons that float above some Southern California Pizza Hut restaurants. He and his team of eight tailors and artists also craft 40-foot-long balloons in the shape of hoagies for the Subway sandwich chain.
Giant Advertising sells and leases two basic balloons: free-floating balloons and those anchored to the ground. The helium-filled, floating balloons are most sought after by car dealers and other retailers located near freeways, while the anchored, cold-air balloons are more in demand by inner-city retailers, Zimmer said.
A 20-foot blimp with a company’s name emblazoned on its belly costs $1,600 to $2,000. Those 30 feet or longer sell for $3,500 to $6,000.
Just eight years ago, the 31-year-old entrepreneur dropped out of college to be with his terminally ill mother in Corona del Mar. In his spare time, Zimmer tinkered with retailing.
He opened an ice cream shop in Newport Beach and sold pizzas on the side. Business was good, but he felt that he wasn’t cut out to be a shopkeeper. After five years, he sold his business and moved to Pennsylvania to run his father’s company, which makes navigational equipment for the aerospace industry. That didn’t work out either.
Zimmer eventually met two entrepreneurs who convinced him that there was money to be made in gigantic balloons. He learned enough about marketing to know what retailers desperately wanted was low-cost advertising.
When Zimmer started his balloon business in May, 1989, he went through the phone book and contacted all sorts of retailers. Despite the effort, his results by year’s end--$80,000 in sales--didn’t reach his expectations.
“There was no focus on the type of business that would need my kind of advertising services,” he said.
Zimmer then drove endlessly around the Southland, scouting for the types of businesses that could benefit from his young company’s colorful advertising products.
His first targets were car dealers and fast-food restaurants lining the freeways which could barely be recognized by rushing motorists. Zimmer’s sales pitch was simple: Spend $1,600 on a 20-foot flying blimp with artwork that would last for months rather than spending $10,000 on a full-page ad in a local paper for a day.
“I can save them tons of money on advertising costs,” Zimmer said. “I found many businesses were hard hit by the recession and they were looking for alternative and cheaper ways to advertise,” Zimmer said.
Initially, several Nissan, Chrysler and BMW dealers rented his 20- and 40-foot balloons for a week or so as an advertising gimmick.
When weekend balloon rentals boosted sales for some retailers, purchase orders from companies such as Pizza Hut, Blockbuster Video and Subway began trickling in.
An avalanche of orders came beginning last fall, helped largely by a plunge in retail sales as America prepared for war in the Middle East and as the souring U.S. economy dipped into a recession.
Kevin D. Taylor, Radio Shack’s district sales manager for Orange and Los Angeles counties, last month bought a 20-foot floating blimp for $2,000 and had a one-week test at the company’s Garden Grove store, near the Garden Grove Freeway. Sales for that week soared 100% over the corresponding week last year, he said, and for the month sales were up 53% contrasted with the same period a year earlier.
Taylor said he liked Zimmer’s no-nonsense but amicable approach to business. He especially appreciated his efficiency in delivering the balloons early.
Giant Advertising’s revenue reached $350,000 after its first full year in operation. Sales for the first five months of this year were $170,000 and are expected to continue to grow even though 10 regular rental clients have gone out of business.
