Client: Goodyear

The Goodyear Blimp: Round #2

Turns out, folks in the UK really like blimps. We like them so much, in fact, that after floating it over the South Coast for a visit in 2021, Goodyear decided to bring their iconic airship back for another round in 2022.

The Goodyear blimp flying over the white cliffs of Dover

In 2021, the Goodyear Blimp couldn’t touchdown in the UK.

For various Covid/Brexit-related reasons, it had to cross the Channel each morning, complete its route and then return to Calais at the end of the day, passenger free. Despite this, we still achieved high-flying results managing the PR and social media.

This is where, in 2022, we had an edge. Because this time the Goodyear Blimp could land. To put it blimply, it was a big deal.

Point of view video looking out the window of the Goodyear blimp down on london landmarks.

#LookUp: The social media strategy

We ran a comprehensive ad campaign on Facebook and Twitter to Goodyear’s target audiences in London, Kent and Essex for when the Goodyear Blimp flew overhead.

We also ran ads for fans of BTCC (the British Touring Car Championship), to make as much noise as possible about the Goodyear Blimp’s appearance over a major race at Brands Hatch racetrack.

Tweets from the Goodyear account. Images of a cornish pasty flying like a blimp, The innocent halo logo turned into a blimp and Heinz baked blimpz

Building hype on Twitter

Twitter was key, too. Ahead of the Goodyear Blimp’s arrival, we tweeted at some of the UK’s cheekiest brands to suggest a selection of fantasy merch collaborations. It was a gamble, relying entirely on the live responses of those brands. But it took off, with the likes of Innocent, Specsavers and Heinz all reacting within minutes.

GIF of the Goodyear blimp flying past the Shard

We followed that up with a second thread while the Goodyear Blimp made its way through London, tweeting the city’s most iconic landmarks, encouraging them to drop us a reply too.

And we ran several competitions on Facebook, building the hype amongst consumers by giving away tyres, merch, and – the big one – two tickets aboard a flight over London.

The PR strategy

With the green light to invite media aboard, we hit the phones, securing journalists from national news titles like Mashable, the FT and the Telegraph. Plus automotive magazines Top Gear and Auto Express. And a major broadcast opportunity with This Morning. We lined up a race with YouTube channel CarThrottle, with a team on the ground racing the Goodyear Blimp from central London back to its temporary home at Damyns Hall.

But then, disaster struck. The Goodyear Blimp made it across the channel as planned, but after touching down on UK soil, the weather turned, and we received word from the pilots that it was too unsafe to take off.

Mashable coverage headline for Goodyear 'This is what it's like to fly over London in a giant Zeppelin'

With journalists on-site, we salvaged what we could, quickly arranging interviews with the pilots and an impromptu photoshoot. For those who could rearrange, we shimmied the schedule to fit them onto a new flight two days later, when the wind speed was due to drop.

The coverage started to land, with highlights including features on Mashable and Auto Express. By keeping the local media informed of when we were in town, we even managed to secure coverage on the day itself, with the likes of Metro and Evening Standard sharing the news.

Crisis averted; client delighted. Bring on round three.

The results

980K total facebook reach
25 pieces of coverage
502K total twitter impressions
5.8 million estimated coverage views
67 average domain authority

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