Since the early days of aviation, pilots have been using aircraft as flying billboards. Now, one company is aiming to change air-bound advertising with drones.
According to Axios, Sustainable Skylines will soon send aerial advertisements over beaches in Miami, Fla. From there, the drones could also be coming to the Los Angeles area.
CEO Jacob Stonecipher told the outlet his company is the first drone-based banner hauler to be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. He wants to begin launching the ads by late July, and is talking with local officials as well as the FAA about where the drones should take off and land.
Compared to the traditional aircraft and banner setup, drones are smaller and controlled remotely by a person in a nearby mobile command vehicle rather than by a pilot inside of a plane. Per the Sustainable Skylines website, drones are quieter and better for the environment than gas-powered planes.
“We were sitting on the beach, watching antique airplanes fly-by every couple minutes pulling massive ad-banners, and we knew there had to be a better way,” the company website explained. “As we learned more about the hazards of the current industry, we began looking for ways to reinvent this antiquated practice with superior technologies that improve the offering and don’t come at the cost of our environment.”
Last May, a press release announced that the company has $1 million in pre-seed funding round in preparation for its initial launch.
Stonecipher previously worked in venture capital research. Axios said he wants to displace antique planes and usher in a new era of drones to cut down on hazardous practices such as attaching banners with grappling hooks. As its drones take flight, Sustainable Skylines plans to track real-time impressions and process drone footage to measure audience size.
Another difference is that the drones will have a flightpath around 100 feet lower than banner planes.
“I think it’s going to be similar as to where we’re flying, it’s just going to be more readable,” Stonechipher said, according to Axios. While he acknowledged that public pushback is possible, he also said that the project will improve aerial advertising overall.
Remote pilots of the 5.5-feet diameter, approximately 100-pound Sustainable Skylines drones with 800 square foot banner ads will be aided by two visual observers and a safety officer. The drones are expected to travel in a four-mile loop.
First, the company plans to launch two drones in Miami. It then plans to expand in Fort Lauderdale and Tampa by the end of 2024. On the company website, Sustainable Skylines lists several other cities as target locations. Los Angeles, Calif., is the largest and the list also includes Las Vegas, Nev.; Daytona, Fla.; Austin, Texas, and San Diego, Calif.