Aerial advertising has put a new thrill into the industry and is cost effective, reports Gillian Farquhar
ALTERNATIVE advertising has been around in South Africa in varying states of ebb and flow since the Eighties; but this small and avant-garde form of marketing is slowly becoming more of an attraction, spawning spectacular vehicles to get a message across to the consumer market.
Some alternative ad campaigns have become commonplace in urban areas – the murals, ads on bus exteriors, brand promotions on bus coupons, train tickets, till slips and even popcorn boxes. But alternative advertising also boasts a more daring form of guerrilla theatre that draws on what advertisers call “face-to-face interactive and dramatic elements”.
Aerial advertising company, Skysigns, uses these elements to entice potential consumers to buy certain products. The most active of three such companies in South Africa, Skysigns, puts a thrill into marketing via its fleet of small aircraft that tow banners bearing advertisers’ logos and catchy messages over gatherings of about 20 000 people.
“Ideal tactical opportunities for this type of advertising are sports events and concerts where the target audience is easily definable,” says Skysigns’s Tim Lambono.
At the Bon Jovi concert, Skysigns flew a banner with a witty message from the Wimpy fast food chain: “After the rock, have a roll.”
A big strength of alternative advertising is its ability to reach its target audience directly as the appeal of “the unusual” captures people’s attention and has greater impact, says Lambon. “Locally we have no figures, but studies of aerial ad campaigns overseas show brand recognition and message recall are high.”
But priced at around R2 250 for an hour of banner towing, is it cost effective?
“Very,” argues Lambon, when compared with the cost of a full-page ad in a Sunday newspaper or a slot on prime-time television which costs over R20 000.
However, one media analyst said although the prices for alternative advertising were cheap, it was a localised form of advertising (unable to reach as large an audience as radio, print or television). The drawback of alternative advertising is that it is in a smaller league than mainstream advertising and cheap rates cannot compensate for this drawback, he said.
Still, airspace is free space … so, if a stadium has contracted out all its adspace to one softdrinks manufacturer, a competitor may legally rise above the obstacle and, as the Skysign logo reads, “Communicate at a different level” with an overhead banner.
Skytyping is another form of aerial advertising-cum-airshow. Five planes flying in synchrony write a message across the sky through a computer controlled puff process. Each letter is 300m high and can be up to 8km long.
The clarity of the advertising message depends on the weather and the ability to ascend high enough to get a piece of sky that is not windy.
But the latter is difficult because of the traffic congested airspace in Gauteng. Companies are hesitant to take a risk, especially at a cost of R11 000 per message.
Unlike in the United States where aerial typing is a multimillion industry, it has a limited market locally