It can also be used in integrated marketing and promotional campaigns utilizing GPS tracking, two-way communication with customers, text messaging and phone tie-ins. In addition, newly developed materials make the airship less vulnerable to UV damage and helium leaks making what has previously been an almost cost prohibitive investment into the most cost-effective way to reach a mass audience or select demographic.

This is the only ship of its kind in the world and its potential for advertising and brand identity is almost limitless. It can be changed in real time so an advertiser could promote a breakfast product in the morning and a lunch or dinner entree in the afternoon or evening on the same LED sign without having to land to change the data.

It also allows outdoor ad agencies to sell the same real estate to more than one advertiser -- generating more money for the agency, while lowering the cost per ad for individual advertisers.

"The key aspect of the Video Lightsign airship is that it revolutionizes outdoor and blimp advertising. It enables us to offer the holy grail of Total Integrated Marketing utilizing a single medium," said Toby Page, marketing director, The Lightship Group.

"In other words, outdoor, TV, Radio, Internet, Print, PR, Event and Promotional marketing are all potential media avenues that can be accessed by the Lightsign airship. We have changed the traditional blimp media platform into a technologically advanced tool for the 21st century. The possibilities are endless, and the Sky really is the limit."

This new Lightship/Lightsign debuted at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas last week and was a HUGE success!

"Sanyo North America Corporation has partnered with The Lightship Group for nine years on its highly successful blimp program. The new A-170 Video Lightsign airship is the natural next step in the development of airships as a media tool, enabling true interaction with customers, and the activation of any marketing campaign.

"The Lightship Group has succeeded in taking airship marketing to a higher level to further deliver a positive Return on Investment for Sanyo in an increasingly competitive media environment. It is rare to discover an advertising medium that has never been tried before, but The Lightship Group has invented such a medium, and reinvented an industry." -- Alan Foster, Vice President of Corporate Communications, Sanyo North America Corporation.

The Lightship Group has recently completed testing and FAA approval for the new ship and already has significant interest from a number of high-profile brands. Initial response to the new lightship has been nothing short of amazing!

The Lightship Group

In 1987 Jim Thiele, founded the American Blimp Corporation having devised the Lightship concept, subsequently building the prototype Lightship A-50 in 1988. Virgin Lightships Inc., a subsidiary of the Virgin Group of Companies, was formed in 1989 as an airship operator, purchasing the first of four Lightships in 1990. In 1990, the first production Lightship, the A-60, was manufactured by American Blimp in its new Hillsboro, Oregon facility, FAA certified the same year, and sold to Virgin Lightships.

The A-60 was upgraded in 1991 to an A-60+ with an increase in envelope volume to 68,000 cubic feet, increasing the lift capabilities of the airship. In 1993, Lightship America was formed as an airship operator affiliate of American Blimp, operating the first of three A-60+ Lightships.

The Lightship Group was formed in 1995 as a partnership between Virgin Lightships and Lightship America, operating a total of seven A60+ Lightships through offices in Orlando, FL, USA and Telford, U.K. The first A-150 nine-passenger Lightship was built and FAA certified in 1997 and was commissioned as the flagship of Sanyo North America Corporation.

As TLG expanded its global operations in the late 1990s, an office was opened in Rio de Janeiro in 1998 and Singapore in 1999. In 2000, TLG teamed with an aerial film and video camera company, Flying Pictures Ltd. of the U.K. to form a joint venture company, Flying Pictures Live Ltd. to provide aerial television coverage of sporting events from TLG's global airship fleet.

By 2001, TLG operated 16 Lightships on five continents for such major corporations as Anheuser-Busch, Mazda, Sanyo, Monster.com, Natwest Bank, StarHub, Goodyear, Orange, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, and HP Hood. In 2002, Virgin Lightships was purchased by an affiliate of American Blimp, giving American Blimp effective control of TLG.

Today, TLG is the world's largest airship operator, providing an integrated, full-service Airship advertising and promotion programs for such esteemed companies as MetLife, Sanyo North America, Goodyear, Bell Canada, Goodyear, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and HP Hood.

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