With the evolution of technology and the changing environment as to how advertisers reach consumers, one of the new developments is drone advertisements. While it is currently mostly still developmental in nature, the future of drone technology is surely going to impact how business market themselves to consumers and reach target markets. Currently companies such as Amazon and Google are investing into use of drones for transportation of goods, but they have many other uses as well.
One of the major industries investing in the potential for drones to be used as advertisements is the billboard industry. There have been various testings of using drones to fly advertisements at concerts, rallies, outdoor events, and other events. The drones are effective because they eliminate the cost associated with having to purchase billboard locations, or the cost of flying a plane with a banner. Drones pose virtually no cost other than the initial investment. An article on the subject "Drone advertising may be the future" looks into the use of completely 3 dimensional drone LED displays. The new drones can emit a spherical image from its frame that can be seen from any point of view. This is revolutionary in the industry as current displays are one dimensional must be properly located to reach people. While this seems like a far fetched idea it is already currently in the works. The most recent Super Bowl did a coordinated light show using drones that was viewable by millions of people.
The company leading the charge in the industry is DroneCast. DroneCast is a Philadelphia based company that uses drones to fly banners at large events. They are now working with Fortune 500 companies such as Ford Motor Co. and Sony. In an article I read on the company they talk of some of their advantages in drone advertisements. One of the major advantages is that drones are hard to ignore. For example people speed right past billboards every day without noticing them, however a drone that is able to move to capture longer viewing time are much harder to simply skip over.
Some of the major issues that the companies that pursue drone advertisement will face will include regulations by the FAA as well as the potential for hackers to pose a threat to the drones. Specifically, the hacker interest in drones will be sure to cause concerns as the drones get larger in size, as they could potentially be used for alternative motives. What makes the drones susceptible is that most of them will be programed with flight patterns. These patterns can be intercepted and changed causing a potential threat vector. I believe that as the market for this form of advertising grows, there will be an increased number of IT jobs related to the security and protection of the drones. One of the reasons I find this very interesting is because it backs up the reoccurring theme that there is going to be such a high demand for IT jobs into the future and this is only one example. An article in The Economist talks about how drones are " either cheap toys or expensive weapons, but interesting commercial uses are emerging in the middle".
The article in The Economist goes on to talk about how 110,000 drones were sold for commercial use in 2017. "In “Drones Reporting for Work”, published in 2016, Goldman Sachs, a bank, argued that drones are becoming “powerful business tools”. It predicted that of the total of $100bn likely to be spent on both military and civilian drones between 2016 and 2020, the commercial segment would be the fastest-growing, notably in construction (accounting for $11.2bn), agriculture ($5.9bn), insurance ($1.4bn) and infrastructure inspection ($1.1bn)." (unknown author, the economist).
Overall it is very evident that in the next couple years drones will have a heavy impact on commercial use, especially that in the advertisement industry. The new IT developments will pose many advantages to advertisers, but potential vulnerabilities will also arise.
Article Links:
http://insideunmannedsystems.com/advertising-drones-deliver/
https://www.wetalkuav.com/droneadvertising/
https://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21723003-most-drones-today-are-either-cheap-toys-or-expensive-weapons-interesting
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteThis was a really cool article to write about because although Drones have been in the News for years, people often don't talk about them with regards to advertising. Most of the time, drones gain media attention for their roles in military and amazon distribution. People often completely disregard the potential that drones have in other industries. You make a strong argument when you especially talk about the reduction in costs. Not only do drones avoid billboard costs, etc. but they also provide a far greater outreach because they can constantly move to where crowds are...essentially making their reach infinite.
Hey Trey,
ReplyDeleteExactly! They have been around for so long but only seen as being weapons or toys. The military originally dominated the drone market but these were more specialized expensive large drones meant for carrying out military operations. I think that the introduction of drones as a toy is what directly lead to the ideas to use them in business. I think it will be very exciting to see what other industries use drones other than advertising companies!
Alex,
ReplyDeleteGreat insight in your blog posts. I especially enjoyed how you broke down the expected future spending on Drones by commercial, military, or private usage. I am curious to see what impact this technology will have on both the delivery and advertising sectors in the near future. Despite the initial start fees, I believe that Drones will undoubtedly play a major factor in how goods are transported and received by both commercial and private sectors.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post! Last year in my BCOM class I too researched drones and how they are used with Amazon's delivery. From what I've learned it is a very tricky subject due to all the FAA regulations on drones. Drones are difficult to use due to the different licenses and laws out there. It is even more difficult to create a self flying drone which would be very cool! I do hope drones can be widely used in the future, This would be very interesting to see.