Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, and it isn’t Superman, either. Farmers’ Insurance has something that no other insurance company can match. They have their very own zeppelin. You might see it in the sky, floating over your city, someday. The insurance company also lets people go for a zeppelin ride.
Farmers’ Insurance has a tendency to do things that are a little bit out of the ordinary in order to get people’s attention. They recently did a commercial that featured one the characters from the latest X-Men movies. Apparently, Beast decided to become an insurance agent.
A while ago, Farmers’ Insurance got connected with the super popular Zynga game called “Farmville”. This is a game that has attracted tons of Facebook users. Every once in a while, Zynga will put advertisements into their games, in a way that is interesting, and sort of makes sense within the game.
In this case, Farmers’ Insurance was represented in Farmville in the form of a virtual airship. Players who placed the Farmers’ Insurance blimp onto their virtual farms enjoyed the advantage of having crops that would not wither before the player got back to them. So, basically, Farmers’ Insurance was right there where people needed them to be, protecting their virtual crops.
Did you know that Farmers’ Insurance actually has a zeppelin “in real life”? Perhaps you saw it floating in the sky above your town or city. The Farmers’ Insurance Zeppelin is 246 feet long. This means it is actually fifteen feet longer than a Boeing 747. It is the largest blimp that is in operation today, and is at least fifty feet longer than any of the others.
The airship itself has been given the name of “Eureka”. It is one of the only two commercially flying Zeppelin in the Americas. “Eureka” is owned and operated by a company called Airship Ventures.
People tend to stop, and stare, at unfamiliar objects that they see unexpectedly floating in the sky. What better way to get a whole bunch of people to remember the name of Farmers’ Insurance than to put it on a zeppelin, and float it over a well populated area? No other insurance company is doing this particular form of advertising.
Would you like to go for a ride in this zeppelin? You can! Go to the Airship Ventures website to get started. You can find out where “Eureka” is flying right now, and were the ship is scheduled to be in the near future.
You can also book a tour. There are three different tours to choose from, (each with a different price). The least expensive one is the “Discover Zeppelin Tour”, which lasts for 45 minutes. It costs $375.00 per person. The flight is offered from Moffett Field, Long Beach, and San Diego, California. It has been said that the experience of floating through the sky inside of a zeppelin is very serene, peaceful, and relaxing.
Image by Mike Baird on Flickr