Credits: VIAR360
I’m sure we’ve all heard about drones, and at some point in our lives either looked them up or have had first hand experience with it. (I know most of us secretly wish that we owned one or rather, envy those that do, because I do too..)
Well, we’ve heard of their abilities to shoot amazing movie-like videos and transport/courier service, but how much do we know about drone marketing?
Let me indulge you with a few examples of how some brands managed to integrate drone marketing into their businesses:
Imagine sitting at your desk in your office and all of a sudden you see a headless, fully clothed mannequin float by. Would you be freaked out? Camisaria Colombo, a Brazilian retailer, realised that office workers were stuck in offices during Black Friday sales and decided that the best way to reach out to these people was to bring the clothes directly to them! (albeit being a little creepy, we can’t deny it’s not attention grabbing)
Credits: Youtube
Another amazing example is how Coca Cola partnered with a kindness movement in Singapore, where they realised Singaporean migrant workers who participated in the construction works of building the city’s high-rises were underappreciated and felt invisible. Thus, Coca Cola delivered cans of Coke via drones to them, with hand written messages from the community attached to them, spreading “Happiness from the Skies“.
I really appreciate how Coca Cola is able to stay consistent in their brand image/positioning of bringing happiness to people and this campaign definitely showed it!
Credits: Youtube
Looking forward, drone marketing seems as of yet a very unexplored and untouched area, with the potential to develop further. With the many restrictions in place (in terms of government policies and regulations), this could be one of the main reasons why it has yet to become a mainstream marketing tool.
However, the novelty and uniqueness of it could definitely prove worthwhile in terms of the creation process (e.g video creation) of strategies or even the strategy itself (as mentioned in the above examples).
What are your thoughts on drone marketing? And if there were to be no restrictions, which brand do you think could best leverage this platform to reach out to their customers? Feel free to share your comments below 🙂
Digital Digest 
Another great post! It’s cool how companies are willing to try new technologies to provide new marketing experiences. I think it’s important to constantly innovate and try new thing. That’s why I enjoy marketing because it’s an always changing landscape. Coco-cola is a perfect example of using drone technology to get a powerful message across. At the core of the campaign there is a strong emotional story that can resonate with their audience and leave a lasting impression. Perfect.
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Thank you for taking the time to read and comment again! Definitely. If a company wants to stay relevant and ahead of others, they need to be constantly trying out new ways to send their intended message across to their customers. I’m glad you enjoyed the Coca Cola campaign as much as I did!
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This was such an interesting read! When thinking of technologies that marketers will be able to adopt in the future, drones is not the first thing that comes to mind but these examples show that they do have a lot of potential. The novelty of them is huge and a great way to bring attention to your brand and stand out from the noisy marketplace! Brands should definitely consider how they can incorporate them into their marketing strategy.
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Thank you for taking the time to comment and I’m glad you enjoyed my post! 🙂
Yes, same here, it’s not really out there yet but it is still in the integration phase and more and more companies are picking up on this trend. It’ll be great to see how drones are incorporated into marketing strategies in the future.
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That video of the clothes in the sky is SO creepy! If I was in that building I would have thought I was in the middle of a horror movie and machines were actually taking over. Really interesting idea though – I think drones have awesome potential for the future but consumers still need some time to get used to the idea. Once drones are more accepted by society, I definitely see them as having massive potential in marketing (they surely would have captured enough attention in that first video!). In terms of which brands- it’s hard to tell! Dominos have already jumped on the drone delivery scene and I could definitely see that growing as drones are developed more and more. I guess we will have to wait and see 🙂
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Hey, thanks for taking the time to read and comment yet again! 🙂
Hahah I found it a little creepy too but it’s definitely an eye catching and novel idea that it’ll get people talking and take notice of their brand. Yes, definitely! Drone technology is improving vastly and I’m actually really quite excited to be in a time where drones are more of a common sight around. I feel like Dominos is really up there with there delivery system already(with their chat bot and GPS delivery tracking system), having drones would just make it even better! Kudos to them for constantly trying to stay ahead, no wonder they’re doing so well!
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Great post!
I never considered that drone marketing could ever become its own thing, and it’s super cool to see how digital marketers are trading these newish technologies to their advantage. That Coca Cola ad is nice and allows consumers to appreciate the brand image that they are trying to uphold. I can’t really think of how other companies can maybe utilise this, maybe food delivery services, like Domino’s little motor delivery friend that we keep hearing so much about.
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Hey, thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my post! 🙂
Drones have been used for live streaming events and the most common would definitely be taking breathtaking videos for commercials. I’ve heard food delivery services like UberEats trying to dabble in this area as well! In terms of marketing, the usage of drones is still slowly integrating into the advertising scene, maybe brands could use drones to provide advertisements to those who are less exposed to ads? Or even help to facilitate trial activity by directly delivering products for trial to potential customers… Who knows? I’m excited to see how brands incorporate drones into their strategies in the future!
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Great post Emily! I really like how you’re always tapping into the interesting marketing topics which many may not pick up. I think the Coca Cola’s kindness campaign was executed with perfection – even I was touched and got quite emotional watching the video. Instead of using drone marketing to benefit profitable brands, I am beginning to think of drones as suppliers of food and aids in Third World and developing countries?
Drones may also be utilised as an advertising platform as proposed by this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2017/06/10/5-ways-marketers-can-take-advantage-of-drone-technology/#5e73e8ab58cc However, I believe drone marketing will only be successful if it doesn’t become mainstream because people will start taking it for granted and eventually not pay any attention to the drones.
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Thank you! I try to keep the content here as unique as I can! >< Same here, I really loved how the campaign was able to integrate technology to execute such emotional appeals. As for drones being first responses to humanitarian aid, I think some countries are actually looking into this now as well! http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-30/accessing-disaster-zones-in-the-wake-of-emergencies/8075198
Yeap, I agree here with you too about if it becomes to mainstream it'll be ignored after time, maybe being a novelty now is key! Again, thanks for being an avid reader! 🙂
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Hey! Emily! Interesting post!
It’s good to see how companies like Coca-Cola is trying to adopt this innovative strategy to connect with their consumers. Also, I really enjoy the content of the ads from Coca-Cola! It touched my heart! It is a collaboration of content marketing and drone marketing, very interesting!
Personally, I think drone marketing definitely plays a big role in the future! It can expose the brand to consumers who might not always have time to sit in front of the TV and play their phone. Therefore, the market share of that company will boost up.
However, I am not sure if there are any regulations behind to stop drone marketing, such as the danger of the flying little machine falls from the sky? Anyway, that’s just my thought! Great read!
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Hey Sharon! Thanks for reading and commenting! Seems like many people enjoy the Coca-Cola article as much as I do! 🙂 I can’t wait to see how drone marketing is adopted in the future too. Yes, it’s like the ads come directly to you! Talk about personal advertising… Anyway, that is still one of the flaws of drone technology, but they do have tracking devices on the drones so I’m sure security measures and laws will be put in place to curb that issue of ‘raining drones’.
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Great post, I’ve never thought about drones being used for marketing before. I can definitely see how the novelty of this would bring a lot of attention to one’s brand – the story about the Australian guy using a drone to fetch him a Bunnings sausage while he sat in his backyard spa went viral so quickly (altho he copped a $9000 fine for going against safety laws)… Coke is always so quick to use innovative technology to advertise. However, I can’t help but be concerned about the future of our lives & our privacy if we become more accustomed to the presence of drones!
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Thank you for taking the time to read and comment! Hahah I’ve never heard about that wow I guess that’s one way you could gain fame.. Yes, I really like how they are always able to incorporate technology and unique ideas into their advertising. That is true, with each different platform or type of technology, there is always this rising concern of privacy…
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Some great examples here Emily! Drone is an untouched area and is not really implemented. I think there are a lot of Government restrictions and safety issues in regards to drone marketing. The Coca-Cola campaign was appealing in that it delivered the brand’s message of ‘happiness’ and the drones was able to deliver the drinks in an innovative way. I’ve also seen a lot of Youtubers use drones to get scenery shots so it’s also great to get new perspective and image content.
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Yes, that was one of the reasons why I decided to bring this topic up! Government restrictions is probably one of the main reasons why drone marketing isn’t taking off like how it was anticipated to be, especially with concerns about safety and privacy reasons. I really like the way Youtubers use drones to capture picturesque shots too (off topic but many have lost their drones in the process too). Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read and comment, really appreciate it!
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Amazing post!! I’ve got to admit I don’t know all too much about drone marketing, but your examples were great to showcase how it can be utilised to creatively communicate a brand’s messages for certain target segments. The Black Friday clothes was indeed quite creepy hahaha, but if I put myself in the position of office workers I’d love to see that happening as well. Not sure about specific brands persay, but I think photographers would be able to leverage the strengths of this tool. In fact, I heard Snapchat was considering buying out a drone company to gain aerial shots, selfies, video capabilities potentially in future? Ah so many exciting things happening because of new technology but we’ll have to wait and see once it’s more accepted by society and the government.
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Thank you, i’m glad this post was informative and that you liked the examples I posted 🙂
I can’t imagine suddenly seeing a headless mannequin outside my window as well, i’d be so freaked out! Definitely eye-catching, but nonetheless still creepy! Oh, I didn’t know Snapchat was looking into drones as well, maybe in the near future we’d see updates on that… Not sure how they would incorporate that into their current system though…
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Interesting post Emily! I think that drone marketing is so cool and can generate talk and publicity for a brand, since as you have said it is not yet widely used. Brands can even now use drones to deliver products to consumers like delivering food. There may be restrictions due to noise and privacy but drones are a great novelty to use in marketing.
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Yes, the novelty of it definitely creates buzz for brands! Would definitely like to try having my food delivered to me by a drone one day, that would be so cool! Right…I forgot about how noisy drones can be too… Maybe they could come up with “silent drones” in the future? I mean they came up with “silent hair dryers” right? Might not be in the same category but you get the gist hahah. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read and comment yet again 🙂
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Great post! Honestly I’ve knew that this drone marketing thing would come anytime soon. I like what Coca-Cola has done. Being able to deliver boxes of cokes which is obviously heavy, I guess there is nothing else that a drone can’t carry. I guess the courier service companies will be using drone soon. However there is also some concern, job cutting for delivery men? And how far can it go? it must be connect to the remote within a range, so I guess it can’t really go far.
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The next thing you know, they’d be making heavy duty drones hahah. I’m not sure how they would work out the kinks of weather delivery problems though and especially if they just leave the package out in the rain… I wouldn’t want that but I can’t deny that I want stuff delivered to me via drones. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read and comment again! 🙂
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I think that’s pretty cool. This drone marketing thing. Especially that clothing one. Like that’s just what you see when you do window shopping except in the air. I think it is a great publicity stunt mainly to generate WOM and stir interests in consumers as people tell their friends of flying clothes in the city floating around by drones.
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Yes, I think so too! Since it’s such a novel idea it would definitely create buzz and get people talking about it.And now instead of you walking by the windows, the clothes “walk” by you! Thanks for taking the time to read and comment! 🙂
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I think drone marketing is a great idea because it allows the brand to stand out from the crowd because its not very common at the moment. The problem with this is that it will never be successful in Australia with the current laws we have. For one you are not allowed to fly it over people, so the coke campaign would definitely have been shut down here. Is this a good or bad thing? Well I think it’s all about people’s safety and I know I don’t want a drone falling from 400 meters above me on my head!
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Yes, that’s true, I think the welfare of people should come first. Maybe drone campaigns could be launched in monitored areas?? Hopefully aerial laws would change to help suit marketers needs in the future. Anyway, thank you for reading and commenting! 🙂
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