Hunting for sponsors.(Brief Article).

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Hunting for sponsors.(Brief Article).

Port Discovery has tapped Gilco Sports and Entertainment Marketing LLC in an effort to generate sponsorship revenues from a new attraction opening this spring.

Gilco has been hired to find four companies willing to shell out $100,000 a piece to slap their names and logos on the side of a 10-foot-high, tethered hot air ballon ride.

The consultancy is pitching power and electric utilities, petroleum companies, fast food chains, airlines, retailers and automotive dealers about the sponsorship, trying to sell them on its advertising value. The balloon will be an unorthodox, but highly visible marketing spectacle for its sponsors, said David Cope, director of business development for Bethesda's Gilco.

Each of the sponsors would have their company logo emblazoned across the balloon -- which measures 200 feet in diameter and will be tethered just north of Port Discovery (www.portdiscovery.org) in the courtyard surrounding the Shot Tower/Market Place Metro subway stop.

That location should make it easily visible to thousands of motorists coming off the Jones Falls Expressway and onto President Street daily, along with all those who will see the balloon at its full 450 altitude when in flight.

"This is a very high-traffic, high density area," Cope said.

Potential sponsors are also being offered the exclusive use of Port Discovery for a day, access to the museum's database and the right to use the Port Discovery logo in its own promotions as an added lure.

"Different companies will find different things attractive," Cope said. "But we want them all to feel like this is something that will fit in with their promotional strategies."

Source Citation:Reed, Keith T. "Hunting for sponsors." Baltimore Business Journal 18.42 (March 2, 2001): 7. General OneFile. Gale. Alachua County Library District. 15 Sept. 2009
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