WOODBINE, NJ (CBS) – If you spend part of your summer along the coast, you’ve probably seen banner planes flying through the sky. Over the years, they’ve become a summer staple, including saltwater taffy and fudge accents.
It is a common phenomenon in the sky, such as seagulls or kites. Small planes pull banners advertising everything from food and drinks to your favorite team.
“With digital media and everything else, we’re actually busier than ever this year.” David Dempsey, owner of High Exposure Aerial Advertising, said.
Dempsey started High Exposure Aerial Advertising almost thirty years ago with just one aircraft. He operates one of the largest aerial advertising companies in the country.
DiMattei: “Did you ever imagine that you would become a regular part of summer like now?”
Dempsey: “Never. It wasn’t on the radar at all. I thought: commercial airlines, business flights or something like that. I never thought I would be flying here with banners along the beaches I used to visit with my friends.” family when I was a kid, it’s amazing.”
Locally, High Exposure’s fleet of 17 aircraft operates from a small airport in Woodbine, New Jersey.
From there it’s a short flight to the coast, where they fly banners over the beach all summer long. From Ocean City, Maryland to the Hamptons.
“Aerial advertising used to be considered a form of guerrilla marketing when I first got into the industry. And now it’s really traditional media for many major advertisers,” says Dempsey.
It’s day 2 of training for High Exposure’s new pilot pool. Among them is Connor Bassi, who grew up going to the coast and admiring the banner planes from afar.
“Every few minutes you hear those planes coming over, you look up and they’re carrying different banners and different advertisements. And it must be working because they’re flying all day long,” Bassi said.
Bassi is learning how to properly set up a banner so that one day he can perform the difficult maneuver of retrieving the banner mid-flight.
“The choice of banner is perhaps what some people would call extreme,” Bassi said. “We’re coming towards the ground, we’re pointing the nose towards the ground, we’re going full speed. And then at the last moment we pull up quite abruptly to swing the hook down and catch the banner on the way up. “
Sometimes it takes several attempts before a pilot can make a successful banner choice. But once it’s in the air, it goes pretty smoothly, with a little extra weight pulling on the back of the plane.
“I can kind of compare it to when you’re driving a car, you feel an extra jerk when you’re dragging something on the back of the car,” says Christopher Labriola, a pilot for High Exposure. “But when you fly an airplane, it’s so much more.”
Labriola just completed his flight training. He traded his life in the financial world to fly and can’t wait to enjoy the view while dragging banners on the beach.
“It’s beautiful. Of course you have a view of the beach when you sit there. But it’s a hundred times better once you get there,” Labriola said.
Ross Di Mattei
