London, Present Day. Lunch Time.
The atmosphere is calm, for now at least. Workers in the UK capital sit down at a table outside one of the city’s innumerable eateries, order their food and wait, oblivious to the fact that within minutes their order will be on the floor, dropped for the pigeons by a poorly trained novice piloting an airborne waitress-drone.
Far from a daydream (as if we’d ever have time), this actually happens in a video that’s currently streaming on Guardian.co.uk, showing Yo Sushi! customers being troubled by a flying machine carrying a tray full of food. As anyone that read our Blagger’s Blog last Friday will understand, it got us thinking about the Domicopter Domino’s used to deliver pizza as the crow flies, the first time a drone has brought edibles to anyone, anywhere in the world.
Whilst The Guardian video pokes fun at the idea, giving a suitably British interpretation of the worst case scenario- many spillages- Yo Sushi! intends on rolling out flying trays next year, apparently. And, if the Huffington Post is anything to believe, that pizza prototype “is currently undergoing further testing” at Dominos U.K. HQ, presumably to see if the stunt can become an everyday occurrence. Either way, the two projects are great examples of engaging PR. We’re writing about them here, and half the English-speaking world has been doing a similar thing.
These are not the only organisations with similar intentions, either. Burrito Bomber, billed as ‘the world’s first airborne Mexican food delivery service’, is also waiting in the wings. It might remind some of the Tacocopter, unveiled a few years back, but the latter was a hoax, albeit still a great example of how to get the public talking.
Although it’s not a viable business, yet, the Burrito Bomber system takes orders through a mobile app, along with the customer’s location, and launches a drone to deliver the wraps and other rations. Unfortunately, though, it has one fatal flaw. Whilst Domino’s didn’t need a permit for its chopper, which flew at 126 metres above England, the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority’s current regulations won’t allow this to get off the ground.
However, a Reform Act passed last year means by 2015 America must have legislation in place for commercial drones, a move that could be a potential game changer, in the most sci-fi way of looking at the very near future. Which, according to many tech and gadget experts, might not be far off the mark, with widespread predictions suggesting we’re set to witness the start of an unmanned food delivery revolution soon-ish.
Of course not all companies in this industry want to be part of such high altitude manoeuvres, but nevertheless there’s a lot to be taken from these examples. Irrespective of whether the flying tray etcetera actually become a reality, the brands behind the headlines have won attention by considering how the marketplace could develop in years to come, and incorporated that with modern technology to develop campaigns that have resulted in serious exposure. By interpreting those cornerstones in a way to suit your business, there’s no end to the benefits that can be reaped.