I've got an ad feeling about this - SpaceBillboard boldly goes where no ads have gone before

SpaceBillboard, an initiative from four Belgian space researchers, allows marketers to buy advertising space on a billboard that will be actually launched into orbit by means of a satellite in 2016.
I've got an ad feeling about this - SpaceBillboard boldly goes where no ads have gone before

As a marketer or brand, you fantasise about your advertising campaigns to have an impact all around the world.

But what if your ads could actually travel around the world?

Enter SpaceBillboard, the first endeavour to launch banners ads into actual fucking space. That's right - the SpaceBillboard's mission is to not only shoot for the stars, but actually launch a fucking billboard with banner ads into space to sit alongside the fucking stars.

It's the world's first - and hopefully the last - project with a mission to, I repeat, bring fucking banner ads to fucking space.

first

In all seriousness, SpaceBillboard is fishing for "innovative and adventurous companies" to become prime sponsors and buy banner ads on squares (2,500 euros a pop). Granted, people won't actually be able to see the ads on the billboard, which will be launched on board of a novel kind of tiny satellites called CubeSat, from planet Earth or anything.

But, the people behind SpaceBillboard will tell you, the real value is in the massive global media coverage that the launch of the billboard - currently scheduled for January 2016 - will enjoy. Ads will be shown on the SpaceBillboard website (a single square is 30x30 pixels but you can buy more than one), as well, social media marketing should drive more bang for the buck.

Here's the cool thing about SpaceBillboard, though. Rather than a PR stunt from some corporation, the initiative comes from four Belgian researchers at the Engineering department of the KU Leuven University and is meant to raise additional funding for space research and the further development of the aforementioned CubeSats satellites (you can read about them here).

benefits

And to be fair, advertising on SpaceBillboard does give companies some bragging rights - the ads will be the highest (500 km, which is higher up than the International Space Station), fastest (27,400 km/hr) and furthest (660,000 km per day) ever! They will also last for up to 25 years, after which the satellite will slowly descend and eventually burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

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fastest

furthest

Let's just hope this modern version of the 'million dollar homepage' doesn't give too many companies unoriginal ideas for similar launches into space.

On a funny sidenote, these are some potential headlines that were not used for this post:

"SpaceBillboard - because we were all waiting for advertising in fucking space" "SpaceBillboard - a small step for advertising, a giant misstep for mankind" "SpaceBillboard - you've gotta be high to appreciate advertising in space" "SpaceBillboard - to boldly go where no advertising has gone before" "Advertising with the stars - SpaceBillboard is bringing banner ads to fucking space" "Shooting for the stars – SpaceBillboard rockets advertising into space" "SpaceBillboars shoots for the stars, misses" "Star Drek - SpaceBillboard ads boldly go where no ads have gone before" ""Adpocalypse – Spacebillboard boldly goes where no ads have gone before"

Yup, we had some laughs. Oh and here's the SpaceBillboard video promo:

(Featured image credit: Johan Swanepoel / Shutterstock)

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