Drones have Marketing Potential – Daily Business

There are almost as many ways to market something as there are products to sell. As each year passes, and science makes a mockery of science fiction, more appear.

One of the more seismic shifts in marketing could be just around the corner — and it might be a difficult thing for consumers to avoid. As drone technology advances, would you trade the view from your window for a brand’s logo?

Seasonal Products

Wintertime is when marketing tricks are all on display. Halloween and Christmas both have a noticeable effect on branding, occupying retailers’ storefronts — physical or digital.

For instance, game developer Inspired Gaming has rebranded its popular Wolf It Up! slot for Christmas, giving it a snowy makeover. The Wolf It Up Christmas online slot features sugary imagery like a gingerbread house and a Christmas pudding.

It’s also a time for novelty seasonal products, like Marks & Spencer’s Cheesy Garlic Christmas Tree or Christmas Charcuter-tree Pinchos. Sofa-surfers enjoy these festive foods while seasonal movies slowly take over the airwaves, accompanied by regular adverts reminding viewers exactly what time of year it is.

Shopping-wise, YouGov’s Big Survey on Christmas reports that the highest festive costs for 2025 will be presents between partners (£51–£100) and for parents (£31–£50).

We’re all used to this type of marketing. In fact, we’re often able to tune most of it out — much to the chagrin of product managers. But another potential shift in marketing was on full display in Dubai this month: drone displays.

Drone-Based Advertising

The coming year could be a strange one for advertising. Marketing company Kantar predicts that brands will pivot towards “synthetic data” in 2026 — AI-generated audiences used for campaign testing. In other words, selling to humans might soon involve fewer real people.

Drones, however, are perhaps a more tangible addition to the marketer’s toolkit. While sky advertising was once the domain of hot-air balloons or planes trailing banners, drinks brand Red Bull recently demonstrated the potential of sky-based marketing with a fully interactive display of 2,800 drones.

Admittedly, it’s currently an expensive way to sell a product. Professional drones often retail for over £1,000, with even entry-level models starting in the double figures.

Aerospace news site ADS Advance reports that support for drones among Brits reached a new high in 2025. Public acceptance of their use in emergencies rose by 10% over the previous year to 86%, while drone use for infrastructure inspections and deliveries also gained popularity.

Among the Stars

Drone-based advertising is still a developing niche — more experimental than mainstream. The Independent notes that drones have already been used to advertise products from Nike, Raid, the NBA, and Volkswagen as early as 2022.

But will consumers accept the loss of the night sky for marketing? Consider the controversy over space billboards, which dates back to 1993, according to Popular Science.

As of March 2025, the International Astronomical Union is pushing to ban space advertising altogether, calling it a “useless way” to promote products and dubbing it the “ultimate light trespass.”

In short, while drones are a flashy new tool in the advertising world, getting them off the ground — both literally and figuratively — might prove to be its own marketing challenge.