Night ads flying high

Area entrepreneur Zack King is now an aerial entrepreneur, with the founder of Delaware Distilling Company combining his skills as a creative businessman and a licensed pilot to break into uncharted territory with his new venture: SkyLights Ads.

SkyLights Ads is a nighttime aerial advertising service that operates from a Cessna 172 and offers a new twist on airplane banner ad messaging.

Instead of pulling one long message from the plane during the day, these planes are equipped to scroll messages using an on-board computer, which controls 252 lights to display an advertising message on an electronic sign at night.

A total of seven characters can fit on the sign at once, and messages can be scrolled up and down or flashed.

“We can change the message as much as you want,” King said, “whereas with a banner plane, you can only send a single message.”

The system and its installation are approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, he said, and each flight is conducted at a legal altitude, which King says is close enough to be effective for onlookers, but far enough away not to distract drivers.

Typically, his pilots take off from the airport in Georgetown and focus their flights based on population density in the areas their advertiser has contracted.

“It’s more based on traffic count; wherever we see the most people, we focus,” he said.

Already, the businessman said he’s fielded lots of inquiries about the new service, which event planners have already incorporated to broadcast messages during Firefly and the early summer Beach Goes Blue promotion sponsored by the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce.

 King said generally, most of the messaging is centered along the Delaware beach areas, but he’s open to advertising in other states and across the region. 

“It’s always a possibility,” King said. “Mostly, our limitations are weather and flight-restricted areas.”

For more information about Skylights Ads, go to www.SkylightsAds.com or call 302-841-0963.