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Despite the current economic realities that have left companies downsizing and households cutting back on spending, one of the state’s premier summertime attractions – the New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning – is still getting off the ground.

Though it’s becoming more challenging for large-scale events to draw corporate sponsorships, the annual festival’s longtime executive director, Howard Freeman, is keeping his eyes to the sky — making sure the three-day extravaganza can give a lift to New Jersey’s business community.

With sponsors ranging from New Jersey Devils to Wawa to Ghirardelli, the high-flying festival marked its 40th anniversary in July, bringing 155,000 attendees to Solberg Airport in Readington for music, rides, food, games and about 100 gigantic, colorful balloons.

Founded in 1983, the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning was purchased 10 years later by Freeman and his business partner John Korff, who were looking for a showcase event to build around the Garden State.

Under his leadership, the event has grown to become the largest summertime balloon and music festival in North America. While the balloons that take flight twice a day are the main draw, the festival delivers a range of activities aimed at different age groups, from amusement rides to headlining concerts by Grammy Award-winning artists to a 5K race – making it a truly family-friendly outing.

The festival gives businesses an opportunity to connect with the attractive demographic of families, as well as be part of a months-long public relations campaign and year-round social media effort.

Though a recently released survey by Deloitte, the American Marketing Association and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business found marketing executives are starting to feel more optimistic when it comes to their budgets, they’re still very cautious when it comes to spending on promotional efforts due to ongoing inflationary pressures. That’s why Freeman said it’s more important than ever to show company leadership that sponsorship is “an investment and not necessarily an expense.”

“There’s a lot more analysis and justification than there was when we first started in 1993 when we took over the festival,” Freeman said. “People are very much more into data and analytics and need to either get a return or be able to show their boss why they did it.”

Weatherproofing

Festivals and concerts also must contend with Mother Nature, which, in recent years, has been especially unpredictable.

While summer is known for wild weather, the increased frequency and intensity of heatwaves, as well as extreme rainfall, is disrupting more and more outdoor events. For example, torrential rains at this year’s Burning Man gathering in Nevada left tens of thousands of people stranded for days amid dwindling water and food supplies.

Since wipeouts can be costly, organizers are left trying to find a way to remain financially viable while also ensuring the safety of attendees. And, in some cases, that may mean moving to a different location or switching the event date from the summer to shoulder seasons.

On July 29 – the second day of the New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning – forecasters’ predictions that it would be one of the hottest days of 2023 came true, with temperatures soaring to around 90 degrees.

There was also the threat of severe storms in and around Hunterdon County, which, fortunately, Freeman said, didn’t affect Solberg Airport. “Climate change and global warming is a real thing that affects outdoor festivals. Before we even started the festival, we did a 40-year weather analysis and found that the last weekend in July was the best in terms of inclement weather, rain, that sort of thing. And if it did rain, it would be hard for a little while and then it would move on. But now that’s changed,” Freeman said.

In advance of this year’s forecast, organizers came up with plans for sheltering-in-place, as well as evacuating the site, which, Freeman said, did not have to be used.

“You can’t guarantee the weather, it’s just the fact of life. You have to hope for the best, but plan for the worst,” he said. “It’s an ongoing challenge and that is why with both our festivals [New Jersey Festival of Ballooning in July and Rock, Robs & Ridges Festival in June] we do a lot of weatherproof events. It’s also why we give partners and sponsors so much benefit in advance through social, through digital, through online on the web and email … so that they can get the value,” he said.

“Any responsible promoter is going to have to look at that in order to help a partner get their value — not only before the event but after the event,” he explained. “You have to take the three-day event and make it into more of a three- or four-month event.”

Making magic

Freeman also pointed to a changing media landscape that has upended how businesses try to reach their audiences. With the popularity of streaming platforms and social media, radio, print and television are no longer the go-to ways to create buzz, which means companies have to become more creative to make a splash.

“So how do you reach those people? Those eyeballs are getting harder and harder to reach. You do it experientially,” said Freeman, who went on to say he always tells companies not to have any “preconceived notions” when it comes to what a sponsorship could look like.

“We just come in with an open mind and if it is a festival, if it’s music, if it’s the arts, if it’s ballet, if it’s magic, it doesn’t matter,” he said.

“And a lot of times the most difficult things is a lot of brands we meet with haven’t thought it through enough to know what their goals should be. And that’s when with our experience, we can say, ‘Have you thought about what this can do at retail? Have you thought about what this can do for human resources?’” Freeman explained. “So many companies are laying so many people off and the people remaining are probably scared about their job and they’re doing the job of two and three people … Why not reward those people – whether it’s with front row tickets to a great concert or a balloon ride?”

For instance, this past summer, the festival crafted a promotion for title sponsor New Jersey Lottery highlighting a new lotto game themed around the ongoing debate of whether the state’s most popular breakfast meat is called Taylor ham or pork roll. It included the introduction of a 65-foot-tall, 750-pound Lucky Pig lottery balloon, which Freeman said, “People absolutely loved.”

A survey also determined that 58% of attendees visited the New Jersey Lottery area of the festival, up from 43% the prior year. It also found that 95% of the people “had an awareness of the lottery and a positive reaction as the title sponsor of the festival, which of all the events I’ve done of or 40 something years in the business, we’ve never gotten anything that high,” Freeman said.

“NJM again sponsored, partnering with us on our parking lots,” he said. “Obviously auto insurance is very important to NJM. So, the first thing you saw when you came into the festival by car and the last thing when you left was the NJM logo.”

“Also, if you showed the personnel at the lots as you came I that you had insurance by NJM, the first 50 people in each of the three lots that did that each day got free parking,” Freeman explained. “In past years, we didn’t always get 50 people to be absolutely honest, but this year we got those 50 people in each lot within the first hour or two. So, as more word got out through social and digital – through our channels and their channels – that really became a nice perk of theirs and a surprise and delight type of thing that they gave people.”

This year also marked the debut of a drone show held in collaboration with Progressive.

“We asked Progressive what their goal is, which was generating leads for their RV, boat and motorcycle insurance products. So, there was a QR code in the sky that was done with 300 drones,” said Freeman.

In addition to Progressive and NJM Insurance Group, the festival’s other marketing partners were premium water brand Icelandic Glacial and soft drink company Jarritos.

Participating sponsors included I Love NY, New Jersey Devils, New Jersey Division of Tourism, Trinity Solar, Wyndham, Seashore Amusements, National Pools & Spas, Miller Lite, DoubleTree by Hilton, T Mobile, Stella Rose Wines, Defender, Volkswagen and Unique Photo, while the roster of marquee partners featured companies like Bath Fitter, Leaf Filter, Wawa, Renewal by Anderson, Rutgers Law School, Dogfish Head Distilling Co., Ghirardelli, Spinnaker Resorts and KitchenSaver.

Alexander Sweetwood, president of longtime festival sponsor Unique Photo, said, “I think a lot of businesses make a mistake when they say ‘Oh, we’re in tough times, what can I cut?’ And I’m sure most businesses look at the budget and see staff and advertising as the top two expenses.’”

“I think that there’s always going to be challenges – each year has a different challenge … although it ebbs and flows, so we kind of just try and stay our course. You still have to advertise and you still have to engage the customers in tough times,” said Sweetwood.

For Unique – a camera shop in Fairfield and Philadelphia – its package with the festival includes offering photography lessons during hot air balloon rides, showing participants tips and tricks for capturing the many Instagram-worthy moments of the weekend. It also has a branded balloon, which, for this year’s festival, was a giant penguin dressed as a tourist, complete with a camera hung around his neck.

“When it comes to sponsorships, sometimes it can be kind of boring. But this is really unique,” said Sweetwood, who added that it’s not only a way for his company to reach people but also gives attendees “a memorable time when they’re at the festival.”

At the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning, Sweetwood said Unique appreciates the freedom and collaboration, saying, “They do a nice job, which is more fun for the businesses, the people that work the companies, the employees and the fairgoers.”

“For us, we want everyone to create better pictures, so my goal is whatever event we sponsor, that people come away from that with a terrific experience or taking better pictures,” he said. “We try and maintain it — people look forward to it. And although even though maybe this year I didn’t get direct profitability or value, it’s a long-term proposition for me and that’s how I really view the business.”

Freeman believes developing customized promotion packages to help companies hit their objectives is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.

“Tell us what your goals are and your biggest challenges and then let’s put our heads together and see how we can use the festival to achieve those goals, overcome those challenges and make it more positive. And give you some ownable content and some unique positioning,” Freeman said.

He stressed the value of experience, saying a great event – whether a concert, golf tournament or the World Series – can be a memory-maker, which is something that some companies may not understand could be a better marketing move over buying ads on radio, digital, television or social platforms.

“That’s the differentiator that we have,” he said. “People don’t have to buy a ticket to a festival, concert or sporting event. So, if they’re spending their hard-earned money during these tough times on our event – at any of our events – we’re going to promise ‘X’ and hopefully deliver ‘X’ plus ‘Y.’ And that reflects on our partners and hopefully that’ll get people coming back,” he said.

Looking ahead to the 2024 festival, scheduled for July 26-28 at Solberg Airport, Freeman said there will be “more surprises” as well as different options for music and food.

“At the balloon festival, we’re looking at more food trucks and more people want more food selections, as well. But that becomes a challenge of keeping it affordable. We subsidize the concessionaire through the part of the fee to keep it at the same low level that we’ve charged all along. So, we’re trying to figure out a way to bring in more food trucks, more diversified epicurean tastes,” said Freeman.