Marketing flybys: Drones a new tool in promotion

Drones – those small, buzzing unmanned aircrafts – could soon take over the airways. Formerly only used by the military, businesses and private citizens are readily embracing the technology as it becomes more affordable, according to The Telegraph. Prices of personal drones are as low as $150 at some stores.

While they’ve made headlines as irritants to helicopter pilots and firefighters battling the wildfires in California this summer, according to CNN, they’re seen as a potential gold mine for businesses wanting to meet consumer demand for faster delivery of goods. The first government-approved drone delivery recently occurred after an Australian company flew medical supplies to a small, rural clinic in Virginia in July 2015.

So what could drones mean for promotional items and branded apparel? Could companies start sending branded corporate gifts via unmanned aircraft?

Drone promotion
Amazon already has plans to deliver packages via a series of drones, even sending out a letter of intent to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in 2014. The retailing giant said the drones will enable it to ship items to customers within 30 or fewer minutes.

However, the FAA still proposes a ban on drones shipping commercial items, according to The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, to Amazon’s chagrin. The government’s proposals include banning night flights and forbidding drones from flying near airports, among many other restrictions.

“We have tried to be flexible in writing these rules,” Michael Huerta, an FAA administrator, said in a press release. “We want to maintain today’s outstanding level of aviation safety without placing an undue regulatory burden on an emerging industry.”

If the skies open up to drone traffic like Amazon wants and special delivery highways are established, it could be a boon for not just retailers but for companies wanting to get public notice as well.

An informal poll of promotional product companies by the Advertising Specialty Institute found mixed reactions to using drones. Some respondents said drones wouldn’t be able to deliver bulk packages and services such as UPS Inc. and FedEx are more cost effective than using the flying objects to get parcels from here to there.

Meanwhile, DHL, a competitor of UPS Inc. and FedEx, announced it will use drones to send out medical supplies across Germany.

It’s just a matter of time, though, before drones become the norm in delivering goods and promoting and marketing brands and companies, according to an editorial by Dave Vagnoni on Advertising Specialty Institute’s website

Drinks delivered from above
While some companies are taking a wait and see attitude to the new technology, a few businesses are already employing drones to market their brands with delivery of goods and promotion stunts, according to Business Insider.

Lakemaid Beer, a brewer from Minnesota, used a drone to fly in a case of their beer to ice fishers holed up in a shack on Mille Lacs Lake in the central part of the state in 2014, according to CNN. However, the FAA quickly put a stop to the craft brewer’s beer flights after seeing a video the brewery posted on YouTube.

Not to be outdone, Coca-Cola flew a case of soda to migrant workers building a high-rise in Singapore as part of an online advertisement for the beverage giant. Even neighborhood taverns are using drones, or at least the possibility of using them, to successfully market themselves.

Pope Francis’ planned visit to Philadelphia in September 2015 will effectively shut down traffic around the city’s downtown, according to NBC Philadelphia, so the 155-year-old McGillin’s Old Ale House proposed plans to send drinks by drones to its patrons who’ll be shut out of that part of the city during the papal visit.