Oh look up in the sky! It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane….It’s a Drone.
Picture this: You’re sitting at your office desk. You see something out of the corner of your eye. You turn to look out your window and are confronted by a headless mannequin wearing a suit.
Creepy and scary, right?
Headless bodies floating around the city may sound like something out of a nightmare rather than a marketer’s dream, but in 2014, the Brazilian retailer Camisaria Colombo thought up this little marketing stunt as a way of selling more suits, all thanks to the Drone technology.
The clothing company’s target market — business executives — were cooped up in their offices on Black Friday. In order to let them know about the store’s special sales, the brand flew several “dronequins” donning their latest looks around Sao Paulo’s business district and right in front of their windows. Now that’s some targeted advertising.
From Aerial Mapping, to Photography, to Logistics and Army, there are only a few fields left where drones haven’t made a huge impact. Combined with the rise of social media and video marketing, this drone-frenzy has driven marketers to develop ways to make drones more useful in their line of work.
In the meantime, if you’re still here and not staring out your window in search of headless dronequins, let us see how these 3 major brands are using drone marketing to reach new heights.
#1. Amazon Prime – Get High on Shopping
Even before the beginning of their boom in the commercial and consumer market, Amazon was among the first of the big brands to make drones cool. They took advantage of the novelty of drones, using them as the main surprise factor in their video commercials.
In 2013, Amazon launched a video to create buzz around their still-to-come Amazon Prime Air service. This revolutionary service would allow Amazon to deliver packages “in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles”. You can see Prime Air make its first public U.S. drone delivery here:
Did you see the excitement and buzz it created among the audience? That’s a job done right.
#2. Coca-Cola – Delivering Love From the Sky
In 2014, Coca-Cola partnered with Singapore Kindness Movement to launch “Happiness from the Skies,” a campaign designed to give back to the Singaporean migrant workers who were building the city’s high-rises.
With a fleet of drones, Coke delivered cans of soda and handwritten “thank you” notes from the community to these workers in the sky.
Incorporating the drones in their campaign helped Coca-Cola’s pass with flying colors on three major fronts:
- The “wow” factor created using the drone technology;
- Delivering a feel good message of social responsibility;
- Combining the above two in creating a shareable content that lives on even after the campaign.
Well done!
#3. Red Bull – Gives You Wings Straight on the Ridge
“Red Bull gives you wings,” and the brand is certainly flying high in its beautifully shot 2014 film, “The Ridge,” which features Scottish cyclist Danny MacAskill conquering a perilous mountain ridge.
The swooping aerial photography, courtesy of drone-mounted cameras, makes it obvious why the video has accumulated over 43 million views on YouTube as of June 2016.
Sky’s the Limit: The Future of Drone Marketing
Even though they are still in infancy, drones have shown a huge potential for the future of marketing. Of course, there are regulations to follow and the legislation is a bit unclear, but drones have huge marketing potential.
It will be fascinating to see these cute flying robots reach high in the sky, only to bow down to convey a marketer’s dream.
