Top Aerial Advertising Examples and Types by Van Wagner Aerial August 16, 2023
Are you ready to take your brand to new heights and really wow your target audience? We at Van Wagner Aerial have some seriously cool aerial advertising options that’ll make your message pop in the wide-open skies.
These top examples of sky advertising showcase how this one-of-a-kind marketing approach can effectively reach your ideal customers and create a lasting impression. Before diving headfirst into an aerial ad campaign, why not check out what Van Wagner Aerial Media has to offer and see if it’s the right fit for your brand?
Types of Aerial Advertisements
Below are aerial advertising options you can choose from us at Van Wagner Aerial:
Airplane Banner Advertising
Consumers see over 5,000 advertisements a day, and aerial advertising allows ads to break free from all the clutter on the ground below. Airplane banners are a top choice for local, regional, and national marketing managers looking to make money and get noticed above high-profile events and areas with a lot of foot traffic. These conspicuous floating billboards are commonly seen flying over beaches, music festivals, and sporting events like NFL, MLB, and NASCAR.
Why do brands choose aerial banner advertising?
When executed properly, these eye-catching, dynamic outdoor marketing campaigns offer publicity and media coverage that is second to none. Their portability enables marketers to fly banners in the top DMAs across the country for a fraction of the cost of traditional outdoor campaigns.
Consumers are tuning-out advertising messages all around them. As of 2008, 28 million households in the United States used DVR. Goodbye, TV ads. Radio is encountering the same problem with new ad-free or ad-reduced, radio streaming companies like Sirius, Pandora, and Spotify. We are also sad to report that print advertising is becoming more and more obsolete. In order to reach consumers, advertisers need to put their messages right in front of them. That’s where aerial display banners come in.
Aerial banner advertising has been around for almost a century, and although we have had improvements in banner materials and towing-technologies, the concept for the most part has stayed the same. Why? Because it works. People are naturally-programmed to look up when they hear something flying overhead. Depending on the size of the aircraft and the crowd below, airplane banners are capable of garnering tens of thousands of impressions with one single flight. Plus, with the right copy, aerial banners create social media buzz that amplify impressions exponentially.
Sky Writing / Sky Typing
Sky Writing is when a single plane performs a series of loops to create a message, typically one or two words, in the sky above. Sky Typing is a little bit more complex. A group of planes fly in a staggered formation while ejecting small puffs of environmentally-friendly smoke from the plane’s exhaust creating a dot matrix in the sky above. The matrix spells out letters which eventually create a message. Typically, messages are somewhere between one to four words long. The dot matrix is pre-determined by a computer prior to flight.
Why do brands choose sky writing/ sky typing?
People are fascinated by sky writing and sky typing. It captivates consumers on the ground below and stimulates their imagination. It has people asking their neighbors, “What do you think it’s going to say?” Advertisers love sky writing/ sky typing because they can target an audience anywhere and these types of messages usually create a huge media frenzy. With sky typing, messages can span for multiple city blocks and stand at a height of over 1,000 feet.
What it really boils down to, is the fact that sky writing/ sky typing give brands the freedom to directly target large audiences with relatively small investment when compared to traditional media. It is also a form of guerilla marketing that makes a BIG impact. If you are looking to get people talking, sky writing/ sky typing is a definite must.
Top Examples of Sky Advertising
The best aerial advertisements often elicit a double-take. You want a banner with something funny or clever, or a really good photo or picture. You always look for something that will get someone to stop and say, “Wow, that’s really funny,” or “Hey, that’s clever!” This format has the unique ability to pull people out of their routines and grab their attention.
To give you some examples, we showcase four photos of the all-time best examples of banner advertising.
Reebok’s marathon campaigns
The shoemaker had a presence at both the Boston and the Miami marathons that was funny, effective and engaging that used multiple banners flying at once.
In Miami, the first banner said, “Be kind to your implants. Run easy, Miami.” The second banner said, “Heat stroke, not fun. Run easy, Miami.” For the Boston Marathon, one banner said, “Why hit the wall? It hurts. Run easy, Boston.” Another banner said, “The British aren’t coming! The British aren’t coming! Run easy, Boston.”
These banners used humor to convey a message, and they did so very effectively. By using a banner towing a copy that was locally targeted, they really kicked up engagement.
The flying Superman Snapple Bottle
Snapple had an aerial advertisement that was a die-cut banner of a Snapple bottle with its logo and a cape. When people hear a noise overhead, they always look up and this approach was effective on two levels. First, it was funny and got people engaged and amused. Second, the marketing message was clear: Drink Snapple and become a super hero (and don’t we all wish we were?).
This is a great example of the power of this advertising channel.
The Geico Gecko
Geico is really effective at using aerial advertising. The insurance company tailors its banners to each event. There’s a Geico banner with a football for targeting football games, for example, and another for Supercross motorcycle racing events. Since it is such a sledgehammer brand, Geico simply uses the gecko with a simple addition of whatever sport it’s flying over. Geico does a great job of relating to its target audience.
HBO’s “Eastbound & Down”
HBO used humor and a cross channel approach to kick off the season for this popular series. The banner said “K.P. Lover’s Back” with a funny picture of the show’s protagonist, Kenny Powers, and a phone number to dial. When you called the number, there was a voice message featuring Kenny Powers. By using comedy to grab people’s attention, and integrating the phone number into the campaign with longer messages, this campaign packed a powerful punch. Clearly HBO recognizes that the more ways you can engage your audience, the more effective you will be at building brand awareness.
Whether through airplane billboards, helicopter banners, or skytyping, aerial advertising gives brands a nearly unlimited number of unique and engaging opportunities to grab people’s attention and get them engaged.
Let’s Take Your Business to the Skies!
If you have any questions about what we can do for your brand or client, please feel free to contact us! We’d be happy to provide you with some background of our aerial advertising opportunities.