Consistently ranked as one of the top beaches in the United States of America, South Beach in Miami, FL, spans only 2.7 square miles with a population of 3,120. Nestled between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, South Beach sees nearly 8 million tourists yearly. People come from all over the world to enjoy the pristine beach, exciting nightlife, exquisite cuisine, and vibrant culture. In 2023, Sustainable Skylines announced that they would be changing the way people advertise along South Beach with the use of eco-friendly drones.

For over 100 years, companies have been grabbing the attention of beachgoers by using small airplanes to drag banners across the sky. It’s a brilliant advertising method. You have a completely uncluttered advertising surface, the sky, with no competing, obstructing posters, placards, or billboards. Banner planes are attention-grabbing and entertaining ways for local businesses to capitalize on tourists flocking to beaches everywhere.

The price of a banner plane ranges from $7,000 to $9,000 for 2 hours a day. It starts with a ground crew laying out a banner to ensure that the text or image will be properly displayed. Once the small airplane takes off, a ground crew strings the banner’s rope between two PVC poles at one end of the runway. Meanwhile, the plane begins to circle the airfield to gain speed. As the plane circles back, lining up with the poles, the pilot releases a towline with a hook on the end to drag behind the plane. Next, the pilot has to swoop down at just the right height and angle to snag the banner’s rope on the towline’s hook.

As Jacob Stonecipher, founder and CEO of Sustainable Skylines, points out, though banner planes ultimately get the job done, it is an antiquated process. Using banner planes is costly and is bad for the environment, both in terms of fuel emissions and noise pollution. Moreover, the process of getting the banner up in the air can be very risky. As explained on the company website, the idea for Sustainable Skylines came to Jacob while he was at the beach with some friends.

“We’re sitting on the beach, watching antique airplanes fly by every couple of minutes pulling massive ad-banners, and we knew there had to be a better way,” the website states. “As we learned more about the hazards of the current industry, we began looking for ways to reinvent this antiquated practice with superior technologies that improve the offering and don’t come at the cost of our environment.” As a former Senior Director at the capital data and research firm, PitchBook Data in New York, Jacob had the business background to set in motion the idea of using drones instead of planes to advertise across the sky.

Once Jacob got in contact with Velary, a drone startup based out of Washington D.C., it was only a matter of time before he moved to Miami to launch Sustainable Skylines. By May of 2023, Sustainable Skylines had raised $1 million in pre-seed funding for the project. The drone making this vision possible is the Velary Lift 10, a drone initially designed to combat wildfires. The drone is about 5.5 ft in diameter and weighs just under 100 lbs. With a hybrid powertrain, the drone can remain airborne for more than 4 hours while supporting a payload of 22 lbs.

With a 4-hour flight time, a rarity in the world of drone technology, the Lift 10 is the perfect fit for advertising campaigns. Customers will have the ability to design a bespoke 800 sq ft banner that will be suspended beneath the drone. The Lift 10 is a VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) drone, so there is no need for a runway, just a simple launch pad. Sustainable Skylines is also the first company to obtain approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use drones in such a manner.

To adhere to all FAA regulations, the drones will be operated within visual line of sight of a pilot, two additional observers, and a safety advisor. The drone will be flown at the approved altitude of 400 ft along its preplanned 4-mile loop. Following these guidelines, Jacob says beachgoers will be awed by the novelty of a drone advertising scheme without the noxious fumes or annoying roar of a banner plane.

Sustainable Skylines envisions drones as the next frontier in marketing. “The digital advertising ecosystem has become overly saturated. Brands are relying on outdoor advertising to create real-world brand familiarity and amplify digital activations,” said Sustainable Skylines Chief Marketing Officer, Tim Carlisle. “Sustainable Skylines will drive brand impact by operating in the last true uncluttered environment, the sky.”

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