Now that we have learned about important laws and regulations on the use of drones, let’s discuss how drone technology is integrated into marketing usage within commercial real estate.
Drone Photography
One of the most pivotal components of marketing commercial real estate assets is photography. In order to create any collateral, you need a picture of what you are selling – ideally many pictures in fact and strong ones at that. Drones have brought a wonderful new perspective to real estate photography.
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Because drones are able to take a bird’s eye view of the property, photographs are now able to give an investor an image of the property at all angles. This also provides your marketing team with high quality and unique photography options to create visually striking marketing collateral.
A drone can only fly up to 400 feet, so if you want to get a trade area shot that encompasses a larger radius, stick with helicopter or plane aerials. Costs for drone photography vary, but they tend to be less expensive than helicopter or plane photography. Drones can get very distinct shots of the property at angles a helicopter of plane cannot achieve.
Drone Video
The next practical application of this technology is drone video. Often, if you are hiring a drone pilot to fly drone aerial photography you will also contract them to get drone video footage. Property marketing videos have become more commonplace in commercial real estate to give an investor the opportunity to view the property more immediately than a property tour.
Drone Video has also given marketers a new medium to craft telling and compelling marketing campaigns. Getting the video footage is only the first step in the process; the next step is contracting an editor and visual effects artist to cut and animate the footage.
This can be costly, but when done correctly drone video adds layers of sophistication and distinction to property marketing campaigns.
Contracting Drone Photographers and Pilots
One of the greatest challenges in executing both drone photography and video is finding a pilot you can trust. To set yourself up for success, start by finding out if they are licensed by the FAA and carry an insurance policy. This is very important, especially if something were to happen during a shoot. Secondly, do some research to discover what your drone preferences are. What kind of angles do you like and how do you like your video footage shot? Providing this information to your photographer will help cut extra costs and will also help your pilot deliver exactly what you want and what you need to deliver to your post production team. This extra step will save a lot of time and money on re-shoots and the overall post production process.
The Future of Technology in Real Estate Marketing
With the advent of VR, we can only presume that drones will be a huge part of where commercial real estate marketing is going. There’s the potential for every technological opportunity from virtual reality tours to area flyovers. Drone technology is also becoming more exact. Now, many of the drones carry bluetooth technology and motion sensors allowing the pilot to direct the drone with the slide of their own hand. Drones can also detect when they are in range of a no-fly zone and will often times not work until they are within safe parameters.
The future is opening new doors for real estate marketing — don’t let potential pass you by.