How drones are changing the face of customer communication.
Look up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…a remotely piloted aerial system?
Every day, flying robots take to the sky over nearly every major metropolis on the planet. It sounds like science fiction; but these flying robots return to earth with impossible stories to tell. Stories that were once too expensive to capture for a small Communications shop. A shop like ours at Hydro Ottawa.
Drones, as they are more commonly known, provide our customers with access and views of our city, our business and our employees like they’ve never experienced before. They offer thrilling and spectacular aerial footage, but without the big Hollywood budget. You don’t even need to be a Spielberg-calibre filmmaker to get superb results, and wow your audience.
Drones bring everyday work to vibrant life, and are quickly becoming a necessary tool for Communications’ departments no matter your industry or field. At Hydro Ottawa, drones are enabling us to showcase how dynamic our workplace and industry really is. Whether it’s recruitment, infrastructure investments or giving back to the community, drones are natural storytellers. Fly over solar-powered rooftops, follow a Powerline Maintainer as they ascend a 50-foot pole in a bucket, or zig-zag over our hydroelectric facilities on the Ottawa River.
Taking your communications to new heights will be rewarded with higher content engagement, shares and views across your social media channels. But don’t rely on posting to YouTube alone. It’s important that all movies allocate some of their filmmaking budget for promotions and marketing. To us, our latest video may as well be our organization’s next Hollywood blockbuster premiere, and we want people to see it. A lot of people. The competition for your audience’s attention is fierce, so sponsored content across social channels has ensured that thousands and thousands of people see our video compared to just one or two hundred on YouTube. That being said, free organic engagement is soaring on channels like Facebook thanks to uploading directly to their platform and taking advantage of their autoplay feature. A lesson learned here is not to waste time with branding your video, but rather to grab your customer’s attention with a show-stopping opening shot.
As the face of technology changes so does the face of customer communication. With our customer base and media connecting with us more on social, video content provides us with a new way of engaging with them where they are and how they like to be communicated to. For the most part, that’s social media.
Drone footage has proven to be a major influencer for all of our major media announcements. In addition to providing high-res drone imagery, we’re now able to offer media outlets electrifying aerial footage of our projects and initiatives. We’ve seen significant pick-up from media outlets, whether it be print, web or television thanks to the power of our videos.
Our Communications department’s flying robot is a real superhero, taking our customers up, up and away. Don’t you need a hero?