Russian scientists suggest that satellites could be used to display advertisements in our sky. Such space billboards would bring companies huge profits. As you know, advertising is a trade lever and even the most popular products need to be promoted in the media to maintain sales at the current level. Marketing specialists keep coming up with new ways to reach consumers’ awareness with a new product. Soon, a new idea may be implemented that will bring advertising to a global level, in the literal sense of the word.
Cosmic billboards overhead
In the Aerospace daily we can find an interesting article by Russian scientists on the use of satellites to display advertisements in space. Experts investigated the possibility of using small CubeSat satellites as giant displays showing logos of famous brands. Each such satellite would play the role of a single pixel of the presented image, and setting them into specific formations would allow displaying different graphics. Scientists say that this form of advertising is not only feasible, but can also be very profitable for companies. In their opinion, the cost of a single mission could close to $ 65 million. However, given the scale of such advertising and reaching millions of potential customers with it, the profits could be huge. Scientists believe that such space advertising could already work with about 50 small satellites. The satellites would not have to display an advertisement of just one brand, but many, which would significantly increase the profitability of this venture. The researchers calculated that revenues will depend on many factors, including cloud cover, air temperature that discourages people from leaving their home, and the demographic composition of the city. You also have to consider that satellites work by reflecting sunlight off their air. This somewhat limits their effectiveness, as such advertisements would only be visible during sunrise and sunset, not at night. The researchers calculated that under ideal conditions, a 91-day advertising campaign, after deducting the expenses, would bring as much as 111 million profit. Of course, only the biggest brands with huge budgets for product promotion could afford such advertising. It is not the first time that the Russians have presented an idea for a space advertisement. In 2019, the Russian startup StartRocket suggested displaying huge ads in the night sky. The company wanted to do this using small satellites with sails from Mylar. A few months later, a contract was signed with the Russian branch of PepsiCo to send an orbital billboard to promote the energy drink “Adrenaline Rush”. The headquarters of the concern, however, abandoned this idea, fearing criticism.
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