Oreo is formally obsessive about drones

Oreo is formally obsessive about drones. Whereas publicity stunts are simply that, this one stands out purely as a result of the Oreo fandom over drone supply has gotten extra over-the-top than it already was.

And hey, it doesn’t damage that The Drone Lady crew loves Oreos simply as a lot as we love drone, too.

So right here’s what occurred within the Oreo firm’s newest obsession with drones: the corporate construct a two-foot model of an Oreo cookie. It then delivered the cookie in an unconventional means — dunking it in a six-foot tall cup of milk by way of drone. Watch it right here:

The impetus for the PR stunt, which was held in tandem with retail big Walmart? It was to have fun the truth that Walmart has crossed the ten,000 drone supply milestone. And coincidentally, Oreo was really the highest merchandise delivered by way of drones.

How are Walmart drone deliveries carried out, and the way do they evaluate to opponents?

Lots of Walmart’s drone deliveries, together with the one within the Oreo publicity stunt, are carried out by DroneUp, which was based in 2016 and is headquartered in Virginia Seashore, Virginia.

DroneUp began working with Walmart in 2021, although Walmart is working with different drone supply firms too (Walmart additionally invested an undisclosed sum of cash within the firm at the moment). Earlier than DroneUp, Walmart launched a partnership with Flytrex in 2020. And in 2022, Walmart launched a brand new partnership with Zipline, which is basically thought of the largest drone supply supplier on the market. Underneath the Zipline partnership with Walmart, buyer in Pea Ridge can get choose well being and wellness and consumable gadgets from Zipline’s fixed-wing drones.

Regardless of all that progress, issues haven’t been solely rosy for the drone supply world. In Might 2023, DroneUp laid off a handful of workers from its crew of about 400 workers. Different drone supply firms met with setbacks have included Amazon’s drone supply arm, which laid off workers in early 2023.

As of January 2023, 36 Walmart shops within the U.S. had drone supply hubs both by DroneUp, Flytrex and Zipline, throughout seven U.S. states.

Walmart may very well be in a novel place to scale drone deliveries, significantly as a result of its 4,700 Walmart shops are already situated inside 90% of all U.S. residents. These shops, which usually have massive parking heaps, can even double up as warehouses to retailer merchandise delivered by way of drone, in addition to ‘airports’ to deal with the drones and deal with their takeoff and landings.

A historical past of the Oreo obsession over drones

Whereas the August 2023 Oreo dunk video is catchy, that is removed from the primary time Oreo has tried to capitalize on the fascination with drones.

All the way in which again in 2017, Oreo used drones to conduct a height-defying dunk the place drones dropped really cookies into cups of milk in a form of beer pong fashion endeavor (albeit with drones and Oreos somewhat than arms throwing ping pong balls). Watch that ‘problem’ right here:

And the 12 months prior, Oreo partnered with drone leisure firm Dronisos (which primarily conducts drone gentle reveals) to “gown up” drones like Oreos. The flying cookies danced in reveals which have been carried out at London’s Westfield Purchasing Centre in Might 2016 for a mixed viewers of greater than 200,000 individuals.

Oreo has additionally used drones to movie its personal promotional movies. For instance, it as soon as carved “Oreo” into grass, and it gave audiences an aerial video due to a drone video.