A sphere and a blimp are not the same product at different prices. The shape does a different job, and the difference decides which you should buy.
Two flat sides you can read
A sphere is curved everywhere, so lettering wraps and distorts and only a narrow band faces the viewer at any moment.
A blimp has two large flat panels. On a 13-foot blimp the print area is 30 by 60 inches per side, which is enough for a business name in bold type that a driver can actually read.
That is the whole reason the shape exists in advertising.
It points into the wind
A tethered blimp weathervanes: the nose turns into the wind and the fins keep it there. That means it presents its narrow profile to a gust rather than its full side.
A sphere has no such behaviour. It simply pushes. In practice the blimp rides more steadily on the tether, which matters both for how it looks and for how it handles a breezy afternoon.
Neither is exempt from the rule: over 25 miles per hour in the forecast, bring it in.
When the sphere is the better buy
When you need to be **noticed**, not read.
Marking an event field, a car park entrance, a temporary site people are already looking for. A 4.5-foot sphere at $301 blank does that completely, and it uses 65 cubic feet of helium against 170 for a 13-foot blimp.
Buying a blimp to mark a location you are already being driven to is spending money on a message nobody needed.
The blimp range
Ten to thirty feet. A 13-foot blimp at $975 blank is where most buyers land, because it is the smallest size whose lettering reads reliably from a road.
Below that, at 10 feet, you have a print area of 18 by 36 inches, which is fine for a short name at closer range. Above it the sizes are for long sight lines and large sites.
Ask for a quote. Call 1-800-791-1445 or email sales@arizonaballoon.com and tell us the size and whether you want it printed.
More at marketingblimps.com.