OUTER SPACE ADVERTISING

Never mind outdoor ads, outer space ad concept launches soon

By our News Team | 2021

Canadian space-tech company involved in the idea says consumers don’t need to worry about advertising pollution in the cosmos.

For consumers who already think there’s too much outdoor advertising around Africa’s cities and the continent’s wide-open spaces, things are about to get a lot more concerning.

A Canadian company involved in developing space technology has announced that it is making space advertising possible with the help of SpaceX, the tech business run by African-born Elon Musk.

During the early part of next year, SpaceX will carry a small satellite called CubeSat aboard one of its rockets undertaking a moon mission, and launch the CubeSat into orbit. Once there it will deploy a screen capable of displaying advertisements, logos and art.

This feed will then be broadcast to livestreaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Which, fortunately, means that future astronauts and space travellers won’t be seeing bright flashing Big Mac billboards in outer space as they hurtle towards Mars and beyond.

No uncontrolled ad pollution

But, of course, there’s always the worry that what starts out as a novel, non-intrusive marketing concept evolves into uncontrolled space-based ad pollution. The company involved, Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC), says not.

GEC’s Co-founder and CEO, Samuel Reid, said via Twitter that the project involved non-disruptive space ads.

“The invisibility of anything Geometric does in space is a 100% priority and we will never compromise ground-based astronomy or global public citizens’ freedom to a light-pollution free night sky!

“That is the entire point of why this project was disruptive, non-obtrusive space ads,” Reid wrote.

Buy ads with cryptocurrency

Interestingly, marketers wanting to capitalise on this advertising opportunity will have to pay with the Dogecoin cryptocurrency. One of Dogecoin’s board members is Vitalik Buterin, a close business associate of Musk.

“Having officially transacted with Doge for a deal of this magnitude, Geometric Energy Corporation and SpaceX have solidified Doge as a unit of account for lunar business in the space sector,” Reid said in a media statement.

Will it work as a marketing idea? Some experts believe it will, based on novelty value alone.

“Whatever is run will [give] so much enhanced value to the brands and the advertisers,” Barry Frey of the Digital Place-based Advertising Association told the publication Adweek. “The audience will come from social amplification.”

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