Foley city leaders are betting big on hot air balloons as a marketing tool, approving a $110,000 sponsorship agreement that will put the city’s logo on the side of a brand-new balloon flying at festivals across the region.
The deal, finalized this week, follows a separate three-year, $150,000 agreement Foley’s city council struck earlier this month with the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce to help keep the long-running Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival alive after the chamber briefly dropped the event over the summer. Together, the two agreements represent a significant financial commitment from the city to an event that has become one of south Baldwin County’s signature annual attractions.
Under the new sponsorship contract, the city is partnering directly with the festival’s founding balloonmeister, who runs a Foley-based hot air balloon company and organizes the flights each year. Of the $110,000 total, $60,000 will go toward purchasing a new balloon that will be owned by the balloon company but will carry Foley’s logo on its envelope, giving the city visibility at events well beyond its own borders. The remaining $50,000 will be paid out in $10,000 installments spread over five years.
As part of the agreement, the balloon operator has committed to flying the branded balloon at hot air balloon festivals in Louisiana and Mississippi each year specifically to market Foley to out-of-state audiences, in addition to serving as balloonmeister for Foley’s own festival and providing two balloon glow events annually for city-selected occasions.
City council members who backed the deal called it a creative and cost-effective way to promote the city. One councilman described the arrangement as an unbelievable marketing tool that strengthens the partnership between the city and festival organizers while doubling as free advertising every time the balloon takes flight at out-of-town events.
Foley’s mayor said the branded balloon gives the city a distinctive form of exposure that other municipalities simply cannot replicate, and it reinforces the city’s renewed commitment to the festival after its uncertain status earlier in the year. City officials also confirmed that chamber organizers have decided to move the festival from its traditional Father’s Day weekend slot in June to the first weekend in May going forward, citing more favorable weather conditions for the outdoor event.
The two-day festival, held at the Foley Soccer Complex along U.S. 98, has drawn as many as 65,000 visitors in past years as balloonists from around the country converge on south Baldwin County, making it one of the area’s biggest tourism draws and a major economic driver for local businesses during festival weekend.