April 1, 2009–The frontier of emerging media has finally made its way to Madison Avenue: Jetpacks. After decades of science fiction fantasy and military experimentation, jetpacks have become a reliable transportation alternative and now, a bleeding-edge advertising medium. While the WSJ lists 30 second flight times and 1,300° exhaust blasts as challenges to this medium, advertisers should not be deterred.
The superior combination of sight, sound and motion that is a jet propelled human will unquestionably make a lasting impression with target audiences.
As user adoption of jetpacks spikes and price points fall to the $100,000 level – this market is ripe for advertising investment. Quaker has been an early pioneer of this burgeoning media channel; recently launching the first ever jetpack advertising initiative for Quaker Oats oatmeal.
So elevate your media mix – reallocate budget from unreliable and inconsistent media channels like mobile marketing and out of home to fund jetpack schedules. Surely jetpacks are the high octane blend of mobile and out of home efforts that has been missing from the media landscape.
The world’s first geo-targeted jetpack ad network, AfterBurner, launches April 1st, 2009. I caught up with AfterBurner CEO, Giles Livingston, at the recent OMMA Hollywood conference. Livingston said “jetpacks are the convergence of hypertargeted, location-aware marketing†that agencies and brands have been waiting for and cited AfterBurner research that confirmed advertiser interest in the jetpack ad model. Livingston went on to say “jetpack ad deployments will prove to be mission-critical for marketers seeking engagement with the new wave of hard to reach consumers.â€
…Happy April Fools! Affectionately, the Lab.
