You know how maddening it is when someone says their target audience is “everyone”? Or when someone tasks marketing with doing the impossible?
Well, the Goodyear Blimp’s target audience IS literally everyone. (Whether you’re 10 or 100, we want you to love the Blimp!) And our job is to use an airborne vehicle to make people buy tires.
The Blimp has been an icon in the sky for 100 years, and in 2024, we set out to make it an icon on social media. At the time, its social handles had cultivated a dedicated group of “helium head” fans, but reach was limited and growth had stagnated.
Our goal was to fully leverage this unique marketing asset in the digital space, with objectives including massively expanding reach and followers; developing a unique and memorable voice; connecting with younger audiences; bringing the Blimp to places it doesn’t physically visit; and building brand love and cultural relevance.
Most importantly, we needed to re-establish the connection between the Goodyear Blimp – a vehicle commonly, if erroneously, thought to have no tires - and tires.
With no paid media budget and no agency resources, we turned to humor. Because if your audience is everyone, what is more universal than humor?
Blimps are cool. Buy tires.
This wry call-to-action, born as a social media caption, grew into a full external campaign slogan after its strong resonance with followers. But it’s not only a message for consumers; it sums up the strategy behind our social media evolution.
Step one: Blimps are cool.
Aviation enthusiasts know blimps are cool, but the average consumer isn’t interested in our helium capacity or unparalleled maneuverability. In the social space, being cool means being relevant, witty and funny. So we joined trends in unexpected ways, making the Blimp dance and stitching transition videos. We were scrappy and quick, often capturing and posting social content same-day. We weighed in on hot topics, like viral UFO sightings. And we engaged frequently in comments and DMs, with one admin answering nearly 800 messages in 2024. (Fun fact: the name of our entry is taken from a recent social comment.)
True to our 100-year legacy of covering the biggest events in sports – “if it’s a big game, the Goodyear Blimp is there” – if it was a big trend on social, the Blimp was “there” to surprise and delight users.
All the while, we used the trends to showcase unique aspects of the airship and its operations, share fun facts, and build “blimp lore” into recurring themes. For example, each of our blimps now has a unique name and personality. Some of our pilots have even become beloved characters!
It didn’t happen overnight. Tire companies are not traditionally known for their edgy, social first-content. But through several months of testing and learning, internal education, partnering with internal stakeholders and showcasing the small wins, we were able to take the creative risks that led to big wins.
We wanted to be mentioned in the same breath as Duolingo, Scrub Daddy, Nutter Butter and Wendy’s. Over time, the comment section confirmed we succeeded.
Step two: Buy tires.
Everyone knows it’s the Goodyear Blimp, but do people actually think of tires when they see us? We set out to make sure they do.
Poking fun at the absurdity of using a blimp to sell tires, we embraced the mantra “Blimps are cool, buy tires”. This overt and self-aware promotion resonated with followers, solidifying our strategy to be direct in making the connection. The honesty of the slogan is unexpected and refreshing, especially for Gen Z consumers who far prefer authenticity to a sneaky sales pitch, and can laugh right along with us.
From T-shirts bearing the slogan to nonsense AI videos simply repeating “blimps cool tires cool”, the content continually and sometimes bizarrely returns the focus to tires.
This culminated in a post in which “the boss” told the social media admin s/he needed to sell more tires. After offering free Blimp merch in exchange for every tire purchase, we received hundreds of verified receipts.
Anecdotally, we now receive comments about tires on nearly every post – proving that now, people do think of tires when they see the Blimp.
With $0 in paid ad or boosting spend, in 2024 we tripled our metrics from the previous year:
On Instagram in particular, we saw rapid growth with a 2,334% increase in Instagram followers gained vs. 2023, and our earned media value skyrocketed.
Positive sentiment and audience demographics also reflect a successful campaign. Our Instagram views are almost entirely from users 34 and younger, with an emphasis on 18-24 – cultivating the next generation’s brand loyalty before they’ve become tire customers. Conversely, our Facebook audience is 35 and older, reflecting our ability to tailor content and leverage different channels strategically.
Social media also facilitated a successful launch of Blimp merchandise, with the “Blimps are cool. Buy tires” shirt as the top-selling item.
