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A company image seven
stories tall. Multiply that times about 90 and you have the largest fleet of hot
air balloons in the world. Across North America and now increasingly around the
globe, the red, white, and blue balloons emblazoned with the RE/MAX logo
participate in balloon meets, highlight charitable and business promotions, and
drift above athletic events.
And as the size of the
actual fleet continues to grow, images of the tricolor RE/MAX Balloon logo
multiply through every visual form of advertising and promotion. The RE/MAX
Balloon, its logo form, and the accompanying "Above the Crowd!®"
slogan are all increasingly equated in the public mind with the RE/MAX
organization itself.
The most eye-catching member of the
fleet is the Soaring Home special-shape balloon. Children and pets peek from the
windows of this whimsical house, which has wide eyes, a button nose and a big
grin. A RE/MAX "Sold" sign stands out front and small RE/MAX Balloons fly
overhead.
Light as houses go but heavy for a balloon, the special-shape
envelope weighs nearly 800 pounds. Inflated, it is almost 60 feet high and 55
feet wide. Soaring Home appears at sporting events and balloon festivals across
North America.
New Mexico Regional Directors invested
in a hot-air balloon as advertising and flew it at the 1978 Albuquerque Hot Air
Balloon Fiesta. The RE/MAX ground crew wore jackets with patches that read,
"Above the Crowd!" a phrase devised by an Affiliate.
At International
Headquarters, in Denver, RE/MAX executives immediately recognized that a hot-air
balloon flying free "Above the Crowd" represented independence, freedom, and
professionalism – everything the organization had set out to be. They
enthusiastically adopted the balloon image as the corporate logo.
- The first gathering
of RE/MAX Balloons was at the 1982 RE/MAX Great Balloon Race in Toronto. Six
balloons participated.
- Only six years later,
18 RE/MAX Hot Air Balloons were brought together outside Fenton, Michigan.
Spectacular helicopter footage of their morning flight over misty Midwestern
countryside provided the basis of the RE/MAX "Take a Step Above the Crowd!"
advertising campaign.
- The third and thus
far the largest mass ascension of RE/MAX Balloons took place in the foothills
outside Denver in 1989, when 54 RE/MAX Balloons launched and were filmed in
flight for yet another RE/MAX commercial.
The grand RE/MAX
ascension took place a day before the opening of the RE/MAX Balloon Festival,
the largest charity balloon event ever held. Attracting 223 hot-air balloons
from across North America, the festival was a fun-flying meet designed on a
grand scale. Proceeds from the sale of tickets were shared between children's
charities.
Besides highlighting promotional events,
RE/MAX Balloons fly at all the major - and many minor - hot-air balloon meets
across North America. RE/MAX Balloon pilots introduce school classes to
ballooning, and couples ask to be married in the balloon.
The average RE/MAX
Balloon makes 65 appearances a year, each event averaging more than an hour, for
a fleet total of about 6,400 hours of advertising - equal to nearly nine months
of 24-hour flying. RE/MAX expects to pass the 100-balloon fleet milestone in the
near future.
The network's major
graphic symbol, the RE/MAX Balloon image appears on "for sale" signs, bus
benches, billboards, in print advertising and television commercials. It is one
of the most widespread and recognizable images in business marketing.
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