The aerial advertising companies think that airplane messages are incredibly worthwhile. Advertisers might be enchanted with the novelty of having their ad flown over a busy beach or festival.
But what do consumers think? It would seem a waste for advertisers to spend a good deal of money on advertising that won’t be worthwhile, that consumers won’t respond to, that won’t bring customers and money to the door.
Advertisers will be happy to know, then, that consumers think highly of aerial advertising. They enjoy watching the banner ads, and they remember the ads long after they are gone.
In 2004, a Miami Beach survey of 2,194 beachgoers backed this up. After seeing airplane messages in the sky, they were asked some questions about the advertising. The results were interesting and useful to potential aerial advertisers.
Other forms of advertising might be remembered for a short period of time, especially if the message is unique, but most consumers don’t recall the information for very long.
So what’s enlightening is that in the survey of beachgoers a stunning majority of people not only remembered the banner ads they saw, they remembered them for a long period of time.
Beachgoers were asked if they remembered the banner that passed over in the past 30 minutes. The response? 88% of them had. It’s hard to imagine another advertising medium that could boast of 88% of the people remembering it 30 minutes later.
In fact, most people pay little attention to advertising, unless the message is unique or the way of communicating the message is unique (as in a duck, cavemen, or something similar). But sometimes how you present that message is what’s unique (as in aerial advertising) and that’s what people pay attention to. Once you have that attention, you can get your message across in a clearer way than you might think.
The advantage of airplane advertising is that it is unique. It’s not like all the advertising that we see on any given day – billboards, radio ads, and newspaper and television ads. When that plane flies over, towing a banner and a message, we all look up. We pay attention. We remember.
And this statistic bears that out – 79% of the people questioned remembered what was being advertised on the airplane banner. This is 30 minutes after the banner passed over. This backs up what aerial advertising companies already know – airplane messages work. The medium is unique enough that people notice it and they remember it. An advertiser can ask for little more than that.
Finally, the best news for advertisers – 67% of those beachgoers surveyed said they remembered at least half of the message of the airplane advertising. When people remember the message, they remember the advertiser. They seek out the product or service being advertised.
The bottom line is, consumers respond to aerial advertising. They enjoy looking at it, they pay careful attention to it and (best of all) they remember it. Whether alone or combined with other forms of advertising, an advertiser’s dollar goes far when used for plane advertising.