Five Ways to Balance Spectacle with Sincerity in a Drone Show Performance

Drone performances have become more affordable and, thus, ubiquitous, across the landscape. But as criticism grows over the potential of advertising “swarms” taking over precious skyline views, event marketers are returning to the foundation of authentic brand experiences for drone show performances worthy of this most epic of venues.

Premium freeze-dried raw dog food brand Stella & Chewy’s took its message for thoughtful pet parents to the skies when it hosted a “silent fireworks” drone show ahead of Fourth of July weekend this summer. Driven by data that the holiday is traumatic for pets, especially for dogs, and results in one of the busiest post-holiday days for shelters where panicked pets end up, the brand highlighted this cause with an experience for people and pets at the Santa Monica Pier in California.

There was much more than met the eyes of onlookers within a few square miles of the drone performance. Here, we explore Stella & Chewy’s strategy, along with a fundraising experience put on by the Muscular Dystrophy Association, through five best practices and steal-worthy ideas for using drones to amplify your messaging.

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The show starts long before the launch.

After working with local community groups and municipalities to spread the word about the spectacle, make sure you take advantage of your footprint to engage passersby the entire day. In the case of Stella & Chewy’s, the show required 7,500 square feet of space to form a launch “grid” for the 300 drones. The grid naturally created a landing point for curious people to congregate around (Partners: Pixis, drones and event production; SPH Engineering, and its Drone Show Software).

“Thousands of people were on the beach already, and we were there for the day telling people who we are and what we stand for, and to please come back later tonight with pets to see the show,” says Maiken Erstad, creative director at Stella & Chewy’s. “From that perspective, drones are amazing, because they make such a massive impact for a huge audience that you don’t necessarily have to plan for.”

The drone calibration exercises, a pre-performance of sorts that drew people to the site throughout the day (Erstad describes it as watching the drones line dance in their rows), was an event in and of itself. Pro tip: As an added bit of community outreach, have your drone partner’s pilot interact with your youngest consumers and educate them on the technology.

Be choosy about your partners.

You’ll need to decide if you prefer a turn-key experience. Keep in mind, there are permitting processes to navigate with local zoning and police and fire officials, as well as federal regulations to adhere to (for example, the pilot and devices must be registered with the FAA). Some drone partners have an in-house film crew and offer professionally edited footage of the show after the fact as a separate line item in the budget. And as far as logistics, experts say an ideal planning timeline is anywhere from 45 days to three months.

Show costs depend on the number of drones and the complexity of the performance, as well as the type of drone design software you’re utilizing.

At the Stella & Chewy’s summer drone show, a nearly-silent performance catered to pets and their parents, as well as neurodivergent audiences.

Focus on ‘extras’ for the spectating experience.

For the Stella & Chewy’s drone show, the point of the show was to be pet-friendly and silent, and so the team didn’t incorporate any extra production elements like live music. But they did give out little red flashing buttons for dog collars, which is a safety device that allows pet owners to see their animals better at night. This popular giveaway helped create a festival atmosphere later that evening for the drone show, and the team reportedly spotted dogs with those flashing lights on their collars around the pier for days after.

“There was something beautiful about standing on the beach and watching the display in relative silence, which is something that you’re not used to with a crowd that big,” Erstad says. “It was something that made people get quiet for 10 minutes, aside from the occasional ‘ooh’ and ‘aah,’ which was really quite surreal.”

It’s not just a spectacle. It’s a story.

When a donor family reached out to the marketing team at Muscular Dystrophy Association with an offer to host a benefit concert event at Point of the Bluffs Vineyards in upstate New York, the team wanted to create an emotional moment that would be memorable for all in attendance. The team sought permissions and interviewed three different families, whose stories inspired a poem about the struggles of living with this disease (Partners: Celestial, drones, creative and event production; SPH Engineering, and its Drone Show Software).

“When the concert ended, it was announced that people would walk out of the back of the building right onto the beautiful lawn overlooking the lake, and the drone show started. Lily from one of the family members who was interviewed, was the voiceover,” says Louise Zingaro, national philanthropic officer-eastern division for Muscular Dystrophy Association.

And this is where theater and the human factor can inspire a sincere experience, as opposed to a promotion: As “Lily” struggled to take a seat at a desk lit by a single lamp placed in the field overlooking the airspace for the show (where spectators were stationed), the emotions from her words echoing throughout the field stimulated the activity of the drones. The show was called, “Humble Courage,” and 400 drones created light formations “symbolizing the unwavering spirits of individuals living with muscular dystrophy.”

An emotional storyline made the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s drone show “transformational,” vs promotional.

“While the drone show is taking place, they’re hearing audio with the poem that tells the story. It was just incredible,” Zingaro says. “Transformational experiences are an essential component to making our fundraising successful and in helping to bring our mission to life.”

Stella & Chewy’s wanted to target consumers who “go above and beyond to look after their animals, and make sure they have the best life possible,” says Rachel Brubeck, senior manager-digital marketing. But the mission of the show was to open up a dialogue on social media about fireworks and alternatives. It was a message that resonated with pet parents but had farther reaching applications as it relates to neurodivergent or sensory-averse audiences, too.

“In terms of the visuals in the sky, it was predominantly fireworks [shapes]. The beauty of it was that we were able to then interlace these other brand messages, where we had the cat and the dog coming in together, and looking at the fireworks. We had the hand and the paw coming together and creating a heart. So we had the opportunity to just intersperse these love messages, as well as our logo, of course,” Erstad says.

Think: Social media ‘lightning storm.’

You’re going to want to get the entire organization on board with a drone experience for maximum impact.

“One of the things that made the show successful for us was working with all the different marketing departments within our company. So working with the creative department to figure out what does this look like? What does it feel like? Which logo? And so on. And then working with the digital department to figure out, how does this actually translate on social media, and what is the way in which we will bring this to the world after the fact that is going to be most impactful?” Erstad says. “And then, it’s also working with our sales teams. We had our sales force in Santa Monica come to the event.”

Drone content is the gift that keeps on giving, and it can be “sliced and diced” many ways for social media and marketing mechanisms for years after, opening up an opportunity to tap into the general marketing budget, as opposed to just the event budget, according to the experts.

“We had a small media campaign that we ran across a couple different platforms to drive views, but what really surprised us the most was the amount of organic content where people were posting their own capture of the show, or sharing some of the content we had captured, but then having their own message tied to it about the experience from their pet, or how important and meaningful it was to them that companies are providing this type of show for pet owners,” Brubeck says. “So that’s the part that was really endearing to us—the positive impact across social from people who appreciated the experience.”

Two paws up.

Photo credit: SPH Engineering

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