Drone Companies Are Borrowing From Apple’s Advertising Playbook

(Source: Washington Post)  

The drone industry could use a boost in the public eye. A 2014 Associated Press poll found that only 21 percent of Americans favor the commercial use of drones. Even as drones are used for humanitarian causes, to battle poachers and make farms more efficient, a stigma remains.

Some in the drone world have suggested abandoning the name drone, saying it conjures up negative imagery of military strikes.

Now leading drone companies appear to be pursuing another tactic — releasing impressive videos of their products, a long-existing strategy of the powerful brand Apple.

Apple doesn’t brag about the technical specifications of its products in its videos. It doesn’t seem interested in the tech geek who wants to talk about how many gigabytes of RAM his new gadget has. The company thinks broader, about life and happiness. Its ads focus on the emotions its products generate in those who use them. You can count lots of smiles in Apple’s ads, but few references to actual details about its products.

With smart cuts, montages of interesting examples of the products in action, lively music and sometimes poetry, the ads always stand out.

Leaders in the emerging drone economy seem to have noticed, and they’re borrowing Apple’s tricks. Chinese drone maker DJI released its latest version of the popular Phantom Wednesday, and produced a series of a related videos about the joy of using drones.

One of DJI’s videos shows the Phantom being used to inspect a solar panel farm. There’s solemn yet energetic instrumental music, and a narrator reading a Walt Whitman poem, “When I heard the learn’d astronomer.” It’s reminiscent of Apple’s 2014 ad for the iPad Air, which included lines from Whitman’s “Oh Me! O Life!”

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