In a DRONELIFE unique interview, CEO Jamar Williams shares how Promo Drone is creating a brand new class of aerial messaging—from fan engagement to emergency response
Promo Drone, a San Diego-based drone know-how firm based in 2016, started with a easy perception: folks at all times discover drones. Jamar Williams, the corporate’s founder and CEO, noticed this consideration as a novel alternative—not for surveillance or images, however for communication. What began as an modern strategy to aerial promoting has grown right into a scalable instrument for mass visible notification—able to delivering every thing from branded promotions to crucial public security messages throughout disasters.
“The thought for Promo Drone was born from real-world experiences as a drone pilot,” Williams defined. “Whereas capturing actual property content material, I had frequent encounters with owners—some curious and excited, others fearful and even confrontational. That big selection of emotional reactions made one thing clear: drones demand consideration. However that spotlight was usually met with suspicion, not worth.”
“That was the spark. I assumed—what if we flipped that notion? What if drones could possibly be seen not as intrusive, however as useful, informative, and even entertaining?”
Turning Consideration into Connection
Based in 2016, Promo Drone started as an idea to reinforce out of doors promoting with aerial digital signage. Since then, the corporate’s mission has grown to incorporate functions past advertising, resembling real-time crowd communication and emergency messaging.
“Once I launched Promo Drone, the main target was on creating a brand new out of doors promoting expertise,” mentioned Williams. “However because the drone trade advanced and I spent extra time participating with completely different communities, the imaginative and prescient expanded. What began as an modern promoting idea has grown right into a platform that delivers worth throughout a number of sectors, serving to communities keep knowledgeable, engaged, and linked.”
Williams calls this “mass visible notification”—a time period that captures Promo Drone’s broader affect throughout public occasions, disaster response, and sensible metropolis infrastructure.
A Flying Billboard, Engineered for Communication
Promo Drone’s present platform, the Starling X.2, contains a programmable, ultra-bright LED show seen from a whole lot of ft away in direct daylight. The display screen is remotely managed and totally customizable in actual time, permitting customers to push updates on the fly.
“Not like conventional aerial promoting—which depends on static banners or skywriting—our system affords high-impact messaging, animations, and emergency alerts with precision and management,” mentioned Williams. “It’s not only a drone with an indication—it’s a flying platform that merges media, mobility, and mission.”
The Starling X.2 is FAA Half 107 compliant and modular, enabling operators to fly with or with out the show relying on the mission. Promo Drone can be creating drone-agnostic payloads to develop compatibility and accessibility.
“We addressed the most important technical hurdles—balancing visibility, weight, and energy—by choosing display screen options engineered for each brightness and effectivity,” mentioned Williams. “Each technical hurdle we’ve confronted has helped us refine the platform right into a field-ready resolution that delivers when consideration, timing, and visibility matter most.”
Bridging Expertise and Human Expertise
At its core, Promo Drone goals to make drones extra interactive and emotionally resonant. From festivals and live shows to parades and sports activities video games, the system can drive fan engagement by way of aerial QR codes, sponsor messages, and directional signage.
“Drones are extra than simply instruments for show—they’re interactive connectors that create shared moments in actual time,” mentioned Williams. “Each flight turns into a possibility to attach, have interaction, and monetize—all whereas enhancing the general occasion expertise.”
This imaginative and prescient extends past model activation. Promo Drone is now working with public security groups to assist emergency response, together with the power to visually inform communities throughout wildfires, pure disasters, and civil emergencies.
“These realities are creating demand for agile, deployable security communication techniques—and drones have gotten a crucial instrument,” Williams famous. “Promo Drone gives cities and companies with a scalable strategy to visually inform and defend communities when it issues most.”
Empowering the Operator Financial system
Promo Drone has launched a “business-in-a-box” mannequin that allows drone operators to enter the aerial messaging market with a whole package deal: the Starling X.2 {hardware}, coaching, and entry to a rising community of occasions and model campaigns.
“Our business-in-a-box mannequin offers drone operators a whole, ready-to-deploy aerial messaging system—however extra importantly, it offers them a path to income from day one,” Williams mentioned. “Occasions need the tech, pilots need the work, and Promo Drone is the bridge between the 2.”
This strategy creates a brand new profession path within the drone trade—one which strikes past conventional images or inspection providers into higher-margin, scalable engagements.
“We’ve constructed one thing that permits drone operators to interrupt out of saturated markets,” Williams defined. “On the identical time, we’re giving occasion organizers, municipalities, and sponsors a strategy to faucet into the eye economic system in a visually highly effective and emotionally resonant format.”
A International Imaginative and prescient, Constructed for Native Impression
Promo Drone is already increasing internationally by way of partnerships like its launch with Bella Wings Aviation in Guam. These collaborations have highlighted each the worldwide enchantment of the platform and the significance of creating native networks to assist adoption.
“We discovered that promoting the {hardware} is just half the equation,” Williams mentioned. “The supporting community—gross sales reps, occasion companions, model relationships—must be inbuilt tandem to make sure that prospects can monetize their funding by way of precise flight alternatives.”
Trying forward, the corporate plans to enter new markets with tailor-made methods that embrace operator enablement, associate collaboration, and infrastructure growth for paid deployments.
“As we develop globally, we’re pairing every new area with native assist,” Williams mentioned. “That’s how we’ll scale—with function, readiness, and endurance.”
What’s Subsequent for Aerial Messaging?
Trying towards the long run, Williams sees Promo Drone on the intersection of a number of key traits: drone-as-a-service development, integration of information analytics, and the rising demand for responsive public communication instruments.
“We’re centered on constructing with intention—increasing our operator community, rising our occasion partnerships, and deepening our knowledge capabilities,” mentioned Williams. “It’s a pivotal time for the corporate, and we’re participating with aligned stakeholders who see the long-term potential of aerial communication.”
Promo Drone’s trajectory means that drones aren’t simply flying cameras—they’re quickly turning into a brand new layer of public infrastructure, able to supporting each civic want and industrial alternative.
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Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, knowledgeable drone providers market, and a fascinated observer of the rising drone trade and the regulatory surroundings for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles centered on the industrial drone house and is a global speaker and acknowledged determine within the trade. Miriam has a level from the College of Chicago and over 20 years of expertise in excessive tech gross sales and advertising for brand spanking new applied sciences.
For drone trade consulting or writing, E mail Miriam.
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