Parades have long been a cherished part of celebrations and cultural events worldwide. They evoke a sense of excitement, bringing communities together to celebrate special occasions and traditions. At the heart of these parades are the captivating parade floats, which not only add a touch of grandeur but also tell stories, promote businesses, and entertain the crowd.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the various types of parade floats and dive into the many benefits they bring to parades of all kinds.

Types of Parade Floats

Push Floats (or Manually-Powered Floats):

Push floats are typically moved manually by a group of people who push or pull the float along the parade route. These floats are a cost-effective option since they don’t require a vehicle for propulsion.

Car-Driven Floats:

Car-driven floats are built on a vehicle chassis, such as a truck or trailer, which provides the power and mobility needed to move the float. The vehicle is often concealed within the float’s design. Car-driven floats are versatile and can accommodate larger and more elaborate designs. They can also move at a consistent speed, allowing for precise synchronization with performances or other elements of the parade.

Towed Floats:

Towed floats are not equipped with their own built-in propulsion systems like engines or motors. Instead, they are towed or pulled along the parade route by a separate towing vehicle, such as a truck or tractor. These types of flaots can be quite large, built on a flatbed trailer or other platform.

Floats with Performers:

Floats that host live performers, such as dancers, musicians, or actors, offer a dynamic and interactive element to the parade. These floats not only engage the audience but also elevate the entertainment factor, turning the parade into a spectacular show. They include specialty safety equipment or seatbelts to secure people to the platform.

The Benefits of Parade Floats

• Visual Impact: Parade floats have an undeniable visual impact. Their vibrant colors, impressive designs, and thematic elements capture the audience’s attention, making them a memorable part of any parade.
• Storytelling: Floats are powerful storytellers. They convey stories, cultural heritage, and brand messages effectively, creating a connection with the audience.
• Community Engagement: Parade floats provide opportunities for community involvement. They foster a sense of unity and pride as individuals and groups come together to create and showcase their floats.
• Advertising and Promotion: For businesses and organizations, parade floats serve as effective marketing tools. They reach a wider audience and promote products, services, or causes in a fun and engaging way.
• Entertainment Value: Above all, parade floats contribute to the overall entertainment of the parade. Their creativity, performances, and captivating presence add to the festive atmosphere, ensuring that everyone has a good time.

We recieved a million likes both here and internationally from our social posts promoting our parade float. Unbelievable!

– Leader feedback from the Nigerian Canadian Association of Calgary

Tips for Creating a Successful Parade Float

• Planning and Theme Selection: Choose a compelling theme that resonates with your audience and your brand.
• Budgeting and Resource Management: Consider your budget and explore cost-effective ways to source materials and support for your float project. Allocating marketing budgets and fundraising can go a long way to making your float a reality.
• Design and Construction: Find an experienced company that can guide you through the build process – Imagination Design Studios has been building floats for 30 years!
• Safety and Regulations: Adhere to safety guidelines and parade regulations to ensure the well-being of participants and spectators.
• Promotion and Participation: Promote your participation in the parade and engage the community to make your float a memorable part of the event. Get your float all over social media! Show off the build process and build momentum.

Parade Floats Are Great for Business

Parade floats are the heart and soul of parades, adding enchantment, storytelling, and entertainment to these celebratory events. Floats play a vital role in creating memorable experiences for communities around the world.

So next time you attend a parade, take a moment to appreciate the magic and creativity that parade floats bring to the festivities.

Want some more inspiration for promoting your town or business?

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Contact Imagination Design Studios (IDS) to discover how to promote your business with a parade float.

With the lasting effects of the pandemic on the tourism industry, it is more important than ever to find ways to attract visitors to your town. However, competing with big cities and their many venues of entertainment can make it difficult to keep up.

But what if there was a way to draw in tourists and locals alike? What if you could create something that would make people want to seek out your town? What if you could get on the map?

There is a way, and that is by creating and promoting a roadside attraction! Have you seen the movie National Lampoon’s Vacation? If you have, then you remember Chevy Chase promising his family that they will soon see the world’s second-largest ball of twine. The movie is fiction, but roadside attractions like that are real and do in fact increase tourism.

An attraction can be something like a “World’s Largest…”, a historic site, or a photo op for families to pose with.

By having a roadside attraction within your town, you are creating a focal point for your town’s marketing efforts. A roadside attraction can create buzz around your city, improve your online platform’s performance, develop your town’s economy, and solidify your town’s identity amongst the people.

4 Reasons Why You Should Have a Roadside Attraction in Your Town

1. Attractions Create Buzz and Conversations That Increase Tourism

Having a roadside attraction gives a reason for tourists to not miss your town.

With tourists already on the road and wanting to venture through the country, a roadside attraction can be another destination they’ll add to the list of places to stop. How often can one say they’ve seen a 40ft gorilla, a giant pierogi, or the “World’s Largest Wagon Wheel and Pick Axe”? These are just a few examples of large-scale landmarks that can be found across America.

If you’re curious to see more examples of large-scale landmarks created by IDS, click here.

Hearing about these unique landmarks can create buzz and entice tourists to stop by your town. Not to mention that you are providing your tourists with a unique conversation starter that they can share with family, friends, or even other travelers on their journey. This word of mouth can create organic traffic for travelers to come to visit your town, and once they do, you’ll be able to showcase the local businesses and culture that your town is known for.

By having a roadside attraction, you are also giving opportunity for your town’s economy to grow, more on that later.

Bonus Tip: Get Listed in Directories

There are directories, from Wikipedia to travel websites, that list must-see attractions, including those places with “The World’s Largest” sculptures that make it easy for travelers to plan road trips. Making sure your community is listed on these directories is an easy way to get attention.

2. Attractions Create an Organic Social Media Tool for Your Town

Nowadays, posting on social media is key to growing awareness for anything, whether it be businesses, people, cities, or towns. Having a unique landmark that can only be found in your area can provide a memorable photo opportunity for tourists to use and post on social media. This in turn can become an organic way for your town to market itself and grow its online presence. You can even encourage visitors to use a hashtag to help keep track of any photos posted on social media.

Think of the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building. You most likely didn’t have to google where you can find those landmarks because their symbol is so closely tied to that city. Especially with today’s social media climate, all it takes is one photo of your attraction to go viral and draw the attention of potential visitors.

If you’re really eager about how to maximize the photo potential of your roadside attraction, you can provide fun, personalized photos of your tourists when they come to visit your location – think of photos that they provide at theme parks, national parks, and gift shops.

3. Attractions Help Develop Your Town’s Economy

As mentioned earlier, having a roadside attraction can help boost your town’s economy. An influx of tourism means an influx of money into your local economy.

A landmark acts as a stepping stone for your town. Drawing people into your community helps to share the spotlight from the attraction to local businesses. Hidden gems can be found in many communities and having an attraction can help uncover them. Travelers will be spending money on food, lodging, souvenirs, and attractions while they visit your town.

Check out this great example of photo op bench characters. This pair of dating dinosaurs in downtown Drumheller, Alberta (known as Gus and his girlfriend to locals) are located at 2 separate bus stops on opposite ends of the street, prompting visitors to take a stroll through the main street and see all the other stores and restaurants along the way.

Beyond increasing the activity at local businesses, the attraction itself can create job opportunities for local residents, from management and maintenance to customer service and sales positions.

If you want to take your town’s development one step further, you can provide memorabilia based around your landmark. Think of keychains, magnets, t-shirts, hats, and more. The possibilities are endless. Your landmark will be a feature that can’t be found anywhere else, tourists will love to take a little memento back home or to give to a loved one.

Seeing this landmark not only in its main location but throughout your town can help build and solidify your town’s identity.

4. Attractions Solidify Your Town’s Identity and Boosts Community Pride

We’ve talked a lot about the marketing and economic potential that having a roadside attraction can provide, but a roadside attraction can also benefit the individual members of your community as well. This is because your landmark can become a unifying symbol that represents your town.

It’s easy for people living in small towns or rural areas to feel disconnected from the rest of the world; having a unique piece of art or landmark can give them something tangible that they can point to with pride and say “This is ours!” As word spreads about your town’s one-of-a-kind creation, more and more locals may flock to check it out as well —especially if it’s free!

You may be worried about how to decide on a piece for your town, a simple solution would be to provide a public survey of what your citizens want to be represented with and go with the majority. Having a brand new attraction for your town can help jumpstart excitement within the community and become a talking point for social events and gatherings.

Are You Ready to Boost Your Tourism Power with a Roadside Attraction?

Roadside attractions have been around for decades but have become increasingly popular in recent years due to their ability to attract tourists from near and far. Investing in one could potentially bring numerous benefits to your town including increased tourism, economic development, social media growth, and community pride.

Why not give people a reason to seek you out? Give them an adventure by creating a giant sculpture or artwork as a roadside attraction!

One of our Creative Consultants would love to help. Contact Imagination Design Studios (IDS) to get started creating your special attraction.

If you thought this article was interesting, watch this incredible landmark whale sculpture come to life in Texas:

Want some more inspiration for promoting your town or business?

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Contact Imagination Design Studios (IDS) to get started transforming your tourism experience from mundane to magical.

Having unique roadside attractions and landmarks can be a simple solution to support your town’s marketing efforts, but how does one decide what to create as their main piece? After all, with the investment going into this project, you want to make sure it’s not only a unique piece that stands out but one that resonates with your community.

Luckily, there are lots of different types of attractions to pick from to help inspire your decision. From giant sculptures to highlighting natural wonders, this list can help show the benefits of each type and make you one step closer to getting your town on the map.

Let’s check out the varying types of attractions that your town may be interested in creating.

1. Giant Statues and Sculptures

Giant, larger-than-life statues can be an eye-catching and noticeable choice to attract tourists to visit your community. These sculptures can be anything from animals to people to plants and objects that are related to or can be found within your community.

Creating a giant sculpture that represents your community can enhance its identity and provide a focal point for its values. Whether your town has a strong connection to an industry such as mining or forestry, local flora & fauna, cultural heritage, or historical figure, a sculpture that embodies these elements can promote local pride and draw visitors to explore your town’s unique character.

For example, imagine creating a larger-than-life sculpture of the majestic Bald Eagle, which is the national bird of the United States and can be found in many states. This iconic bird of prey symbolizes freedom, strength, and independence, making it a perfect inspiration for a landmark sculpture that embodies a town’s spirit. The landmark sculpture could be designed to be educational as well. Visitors could learn about the history and significance of the Bald Eagle, as well as the importance of preserving its habitat and the natural environment.

They are a great boost for local businesses as well. For example, dinosaurs have become a beloved symbol that captures our fascination with prehistoric times, and are an obvious choice for a giant landmark owing to their larger-than-life stature. Any region that is rich in prehistoric features can leverage this popular attraction by installing a giant dinosaur landmark that is sure to captivate tourists, leading them to explore local museums, fossil shops, and dino-themed restaurants.

Having a giant version of an item you least expect can be a unique way to entice travelers to take a rest stop in your town. A simple “Have you seen the giant potato peeler?” can be an easy and simple conversation starter that can lead back to you and your community.

Overall, a giant sculpture that represents the local community can be an excellent way to amplify and grow the town’s identity while serving as a focal point for the community’s values and history. By highlighting the unique aspects of the town or region, it can also help to attract visitors who are interested in learning more about the area’s culture, heritage, and industry.

2. Natural Wonders

Naturally occurring roadside attractions can be a fascinating sight for travelers and tourists alike. These attractions are often created by natural forces over thousands or even millions of years, and can provide a glimpse into the history and geology of the surrounding area.

Some of the most popular naturally occurring roadside attractions include giant redwood trees, impressive rock formations, and stunning waterfalls. These natural wonders can provide a unique and memorable experience for visitors, and can even inspire a sense of awe and wonder.

Perhaps you have a natural wonder close to your community and you want to emphasize its importance in a more interactive way. Having a 3D sculpture that pays homage to your natural surrounding can be a great way to provide the bigger picture in a single space. This can make for great photo ops for family and friends when they come to visit your location.

3. Historical Sites

Many roadside attractions are dedicated to preserving and showcasing the history of a particular area or topic. These attractions can range from small, local museums to larger historical sites that draw visitors from across the country. Some examples of these types of attractions include historic battlefields, pioneer settlements, and museums that focus on local industries or cultural traditions.

Similar to natural wonders, using giant sculptures can help emphasize the meaning behind historical sites and build on the importance of that site. Oftentimes, historical sites utilize past images to showcase the events of that era. These photos can often be small or only provide a small portion of the actual event.

Using a large-scale sculpture can help immerse your visitors to see the intensity of the many details that history may have. Perhaps your location is next to a well-known historic battle, you could use large-scale sculptures to create a 3D landscape of what that battle may have entailed. Maybe your historical site involves a prominent figure that made a difference within your community or within history, having a large-scale sculpture of that figure can help focus the importance of that historical person.

All these ideas give your visitors a unique and memorable experience that they’ll be able to share with future visitors for years to come.

4. Museums and Curiosities

Museums can be historical in nature, but can also focus on science, art, or just a day of discovery.

If your business is out of the ordinary and takes its guests through a journey outside of the box of regular life, using a roadside attraction can be a great way to gauge curiosity towards your business. Museums, optical illusion exhibits, science centers, and other outside-the-box businesses can benefit from outside-the-box attractions. An upscale exterior design can entice or give visitors a hint at what your business is all about.

A great example of this is the business WonderWorks, in which its building is literally flipped on its head.

WonderWorks is an indoor amusement park that combines both education and entertainment through its exhibits. Having a unique exterior design both turns heads and causes curiosity as to what hidden treasures that building may contain. WonderWorks also knows that its exterior generates curiosity and that they’ve gone “big” to build a story about its unique origin. By doing this, they build on the customer experience and branding for its company.

5. Amusement Parks and Activities

Many roadside attractions include rides and games, such as go-karts, mini golf, and bumper boats.

Offering a small activity like a mini-golf course is a good way to encourage travelers to take a break and relax for a bit. It can even increase the length of time that tourists stay in the town. Instead of just passing through, they may choose to spend a night to play and to explore the other attractions in the town.

6. Art Installations or Murals

Art installations and murals can be a unique way to create both a sense of community and create engagement from visitors. Having a large-scale art piece along a busy roadway can quickly enhance what your town or city is all about and give a focal point for guests to see and instantly relate to. These pieces can also showcase multiple aspects of your town and flow together into one captivating piece that can educate your visitors.

Have you heard of Graffiti Alley in Toronto, Canada? This unique section within the Greater Toronto Area stretches 1000 feet and showcases large-scale graffiti pieces that have become an iconic photo opportunity for models and photographers. These sets of murals also help encapsulate the alley’s history and curiosity about how the piece came to be.

On top of this, it has created an organic focus point for tourists to visit and venture into closeby businesses. The alley can be found within the heart of the GTA and closeby to Queens Street West which has local cafes, restaurants, and stores.

Although graffiti may not be the art style that you’d prefer for your community, a large-scale art piece designed to represent your town can create opportunities to highlight your location.

What Attraction is Right for You?

Whether it’s a statue of an iconic figure, an out-of-the-ordinary exterior design, or a large-scale art piece for photo ops, having a unique roadside attraction can be to drive visitors to learn more about your community. These six different ideas will help you start the conversation and jumpstart your ideas.

Regardless of what your community decides to go with, creating an iconic landmark can become a unique staple of your community piece for years to come.

Want some more inspiration for promoting your town or business?

How Exterior Theming Can Draw Visitors to Your Tourist Attraction

4 Ways a Roadside Attraction Can Benefit Your City or Town

How to Build a Giant Elephant

Playful Photo Op Inspiration

Contact Imagination Design Studios (IDS) to get started transforming your tourism experience from mundane to magical.