The Pensacola Habitat for Humanity had a problem. People loved their annual food truck festival, but nobody realized it was a fundraiser for the house-building nonprofit. That’s where The Marketing Bar (asi/258231) came in.

The Florida-based distributor has a wealth of experience in branding and event planning, and they came up with a creative solution to raise awareness for Habitat: a 20-foot-tall custom inflatable “Big Blue House,” branded with Habitat’s logo, that attendees had to walk through to enter the festival. Inflatable hard hats on either side gave simple visual cues that the event was for house building.

The Marketing Bar designed this custom inflatable “Big Blue House” with the help of supplier Instent (asi/94101) to help build awareness for the Pensacola Habitat for Humanity’s annual food truck festival.

Thanks, in part to that wow-worthy entryway, 14,000 people attended the three-day festival – a 27% jump in attendance – and the Habitat for Humanity chapter was able to raise nearly $16,000 more this year than it had in previous years, an 18% rise.

“There was a huge increase in attendance,” says Michelle Sarra, founder and CEO of The Marketing Bar. “A lot of it was, ‘Wow, what’s this huge, 20-foot house doing in the middle of the road?’ They would just buy the $5 ticket to get in even if they weren’t planning to.”

Initially, Sarra adds, it took some convincing to get Habitat for Humanity to agree to the custom inflatable. “The woman who made the decision wasn’t all on board in the beginning because of the cost, but she took a chance and we discounted some of the cost because we really wanted it to happen,” Sarra says. “In the end she was thrilled. The amount of PR they got for it, they couldn’t have paid for.”

Habitat for Humanity could’ve saved thousands of dollars by simply ordering some feather flags and a tent, Sarra says, but that wouldn’t have had nearly the same impact.

The Marketing Bar worked with supplier Instent (asi/94101) to design the inflatable house-shaped entryway, which included clear windows and plenty of surface area to print the logos of all the event sponsors on the sides. They even suggested a roof to make it look more realistic. “I don’t think people realize how easy it is,” Sarra says. “The supplier can work off just an idea, and they come up with a 3D rendering.”

On the logistics side, planners have to think about how to secure the inflatable and disclose its presence to insurance providers. “You really have to work with event producers to make sure they understand that there are some operational things that have to be done,” Sarra says.

Though the upfront cost of the inflatable was high, it ended up being an investment piece for the Pensacola Habitat for Humanity. The nonprofit brings the Big Blue House to many of their events now, and stored properly between use, the piece can last around 10 years.

The inflatable is also a great way to pique interest on social media before an event. “With events, you kind of run out of things to talk about,” Sarra says. “Social media posts all end up looking the same.”

But if you post a fun, time-lapse video of an inflatable house being blown up the night before on social media, “people are going to look twice,” Sarra says. “It captures people’s attention in a more interesting and memorable way.”

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The Marketing Bar handled all the other promotional products at the food truck festival, including feather flags, wristbands, cornhole boards and volunteer T-shirts. There were water bottles, can coolers, custom mini hard hats, bumper stickers and hard hat-shaped stress balls as well. All of that was well received, Sarra says, but the custom gateway was the real showstopper.

“We love it when clients let us really dive in,” she adds.

The Marketing Bar provided the Pensacola Habitat for Humanity with an array of logoed products for its annual food truck festival, including custom mini hard hats and hard hat-shaped stress balls.