Sustainable Skylines to revolutionize banner ad towing with FAA OK to use drones

In a case of disruptive technology promising transformative disruption of disrupting business practices, Florida drone company Sustainable Skylines says it will transform what many beachgoers consider the annoying activity of aerial banner advertising – and, somehow, make it better.

Miami-based aerial drone advertising and data analytics company Sustainable Skylines is preparing to stage that revolution in fly-by, banner-trailing messaging by replacing the small, legacy airplanes usually doing all that heavy dragging with UAVs. 

Yeah, that’s pretty much the extent of that marketing insurrection, which vacationers ­– many who consider the recurring overhead passages intrusive to the point of vexation – are likely to find it more or less the same dang thing.

Sustainable Skylines begs to differ, however, noting details within its plans to begin towing advertising banners with drones involves some remarkably significant changes and improvements. And, to be fair, it has a point.

Read: Draganfly continues scaling drive with new digital advertising and public safety messaging drone

To begin with, the startup says swapping out habitual aircraft – usually single-engine prop jobs – with drones offers a variety of benefits from the very get-go. For example, the hybrid-electric UAVs made by Sustainable Skylines partner Velary use about one-tenth the fuel that planes do, slashing carbon output by 90%. 

Those bulked up quadcopters are also much quieter than the usual planes (though it’s the very sight of banner ads on the horizon, rather than noise, that usually cheese off distracted crowds most). And by removing onboard pilots from the activity, the company adds, the risk of injuries or deaths suffered from rare but not unheard aircraft crashes during the activity is eliminated.

An even bigger benefit of using drones for banner towing will be enjoyed by client companies (who didn’t see that upside coming). 

For starters, Sustainable Skylines says that because drones don’t need airfields and extended runways for takeoff or landing, they can be deployed from spots far closer to target locations than planes.

Better still (except for people who dislike them), campaigns can be intensified, and costs reduced, through mission scaling – that is, dispatching more drones to diffuse related product messages during the same time period, or as part of a succession of ads. It’s like network TV in the sky you can’t turn off!

Jocular sarcasm aside, the Sustainable Skylines innovation involves some legitimately remarkable advances in the activity that would, at present anyway, be impossible otherwise. 

Onboard sensors, for example, will enable accurate estimates of crowds below, offering clients better visibility in terms of outlay versus objective realization – ie. how many eyeballs actually see banner messages towed, representing a measuring tool akin to Nielson ratings in the sky.

Meanwhile, in preparing to launch the activity, Sustainable Skylines says it became “the first drone banner towing operation in the US to receive Federal Aviation Administration approval for commercial operations,” marking another precedent for emerging UAV services often limited by often dated regulations.

The startup is now awaiting secondary approval for yanking full-size ads aloft to start making the rounds above the sweaty faces peering up from Miami Beach.

“This is a significant milestone for Sustainable Skylines and the broader drone industry, explained Jacob Stonecipher, the startup’s CEO. “We’re excited to work with our partners to safely launch and integrate banner advertising by drone into the local airspace and community.”