Aerial Advertising - The Most Memorable Means of Mass Advertising

Posted by Peter Swanson

Advertising is usually a big budget item for many businesses. Most agree that word-of-mouth is the most effective method but it takes time to build up a good foundation of happy customers.

Therefore, some turn to high cost radio and television ads, aimed at a local community. Polls determine the number of people watching and this determines the price of the ad. However, too often channel surfing during breaks in a program cause these numbers to be inflated. Printed matter puts a coupon or offer in hand, that is, if they actually read it. Internet advertising is growing in popularity but may reach a much larger market than a local business wants to pay for.

One novel plan to quickly and effectively inform a local population of a product or service is aerial advertising. A firm is hired to make a large banner with a concise message and then to trail this message behind an airplane flown over a beach, sporting event, concert, parade or any open sky gathering. The people hear the drone of the plane, look up, read the ad, and the message is delivered. Does this sound expensive? It is actually more cost effective than most of the methods of advertising mentioned above.

Though it costs less, aerial advertising reaches more people in a more effective way. One example is a beach in Miami that was advertised to and then, 30 minutes later, 2000 people were surveyed. The survey showed that 88% knew the ad had flown by, 79% could recall the product or service, and 67% could recall at least half of the exact message. Could the printed media or radio and TV ads match this effectiveness at a reasonable five dollars per thousand people targeted? Amazingly, you can reach the same number of people with less than half the budget required for traditional advertising by using aerial advertising. Those spending significant amounts of their budget on traditional advertising would do well to consider this option.

It works like this. The drone of the plane in the sky causes people to look up. There, behind the plane, is a banner flapping in the wind and displaying a large, readable message, product, logo, or website. Curiosity sets in. “Who hired this plane to tote their message?” “Who is going to pay so much to get their message to the public?” or some wonder simply, “What does it say?” For up to seventeen seconds the people watching can repeatedly read the ad. The message has been delivered.

For those concerned about the air pollution of the plane, consider in contrast the amount of land pollution resulting from fliers reaching the same number of people? Aerial advertising is non-invasive, without waste products, and proven effective.

Companies interested in reaching a large number of people in a short period of time with their product or service should consider looking into aerial advertising as a means to this end.

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