Eyes on the skies

Gaze skywards on any sunny day in Cape Town – especially in the summer, or when there’s a game on at DHL Stadium – and chances are you’ll hear the distant drone of a Piper Super Cub making its way slowly across the Mother City skies. And following not far behind: an advertising banner.

The banner could be touting business for an (in)famous gentleman's club or a sports betting brand, estate agent or online retailer. Whoever might be hoping for your eyeballs, one thing’s almost certain: you looked.  

Because in a world awash with transitory advertising, social media messaging and ceaseless input, there remains something nostalgic, arresting somehow, in spotting a plane that has slipped the surly bonds of Earth. Chances are, you’ll look up and remember the brand. And while the announcement of new dancers may generate the most consideration (or condemnation) in Cape Town, it’s certainly not the only brand buying into the world of high-flying advertising.

It’s a bright winter’s morning when I pull into Cape Winelands Airport, just off the N1, to find out more. While a R7-billion investment is set to transform the airfield into a new air hub for Cape Town, today it's a low-key operation used mainly by flight schools, charter flights, private pilots... and a company called Sky Messaging.

Sky Messaging is South Africa’s only company dedicated solely to banner towing. It’s been around since 2012 and has a fleet of aircraft towing advertising banners across the country. Most of the business is in Cape Town and Johannesburg, but they’ve also flown banners for the Bokke in Bloem’, and plan on expansion to Durban later this year.

“Our core business is advertising; we just use aircraft as our medium,” says Brian Rothman, a qualified pilot who joined the company in its infancy. “We meet strict Civil Aviation Authority requirements: all our pilots hold commercial licences, all flights are tracked, maintenance is logged, and we have regular safety and quality audits.”

After more than a decade in business the core concept hasn’t changed, but the banner technology certainly has. The original vinyl-letter setups – think of a giant sew-on fridge-magnet-alphabet in the sky – have given way to ripstop parachute material, allowing full-colour digitally printed designs that can handle Cape Town’s legendary winds.

And the banners are huge, I discover, as I watch Rothman and assistant Lihle Mtintsilana prepare a banner for take-off. Each banner is up to 30 metres long, and almost six metres tall, yet they weigh just 15 kilograms, including the aluminium lead pole that keeps the banner flying straight. The cost? 

“Locally made banners cost around R60 000, but the top-of-the-range imported European banners can be more than twice that price,” says Rothman.

Despite its size – an area of more than 170 square metres – launching the banner is a deceptively simple process. The banner is packed in a concertina fashion into a custom-built trailer, with an aluminium lead pole on small wheels. As the plane accelerates down the runway, the rope tightens, the banner unspools, and airflow keeps it aloft as the plane takes off.

Landing is even easier, with the pilot simply releasing the banner to float down onto a taxiway, where it is collected and repacked.

“You never land with it attached,” Rothman explains. “It’s safer, and it protects the banner from damage.”

While the banner technology has changed, the plane doing the towing certainly hasn’t. The workhorse of Sky Messaging in Cape Town is a 1958 Piper Super Cub, with some 12 000 flying hours on the clock.

“It was originally fitted with a 150-horsepower engine, but we’ve upgraded it to 180hp for better performance, especially at altitude in Johannesburg,” says Rothman. 

Not that the banner pilots – all certified commercial pilots – are looking to break any speed records as they make their way around Cape Town. Sky Messaging tows its banners at a sedate 60 miles per hour (roughly 96km/h), with each flight lasting around two hours.

“That’s a distance of around 200 kilometres per flight,” says Rothman. “It allows us to cover most areas of Cape Town.”

Routes vary from scenic loops around the Peninsula’s suburbs, to targeted runs over specific areas, beaches, or events. With the airspace of Cape Town International to work around, air traffic control clearance is essential, and pilots operate under strict Civil Aviation Authority rules, complete with flight plans, GPS tracking, and safety audits.

And then there’s the weather.

“Wind is the big issue,” says Rothman. Cape Town’s summer south-easter can ground flights, with pilots usually calling off the flight when the wind gets above 20 knots (37km/h).

It’s a world apart from placing a few AI-generated adverts online and tracking the clicks.

Instead, says Rothman, banner-towing is about creating brand awareness and recognition, especially when this decidedly vintage approach is combined with social media. That’s backed up by a diverse client list, including Play.co.za – “They are our biggest client, especially in Johannesburg,” says Rothman – along with brands like Takealot, Remax, Cornetto, Mambos, and Brother Printers. Government departments have even used banners for road safety campaigns along the N1. Sky Messaging also used to tow the often-seen Maverick's banner too, but no longer.

“Flying has always had a certain romance. You notice it. Even if you only glance for a second, that image sticks. And when you link it to social media, it’s huge. Footgear, for instance, ran a competition encouraging people to snap the banner and share it on social media for a prize,” says Rothman. “The plane’s location is trackable in real time, so you can tell people, ‘Look up now!’ It’s interactive and memorable; something different from the constant online noise.”

But for Rothman, one of the highlights has been flying ‘Go Bokke’ banners in formation during the Rugby World Cup celebrations, as the nation celebrated below.

“To be part of that, it’s unforgettable,” he says.

So next time you’re stuck in traffic and you see that banner fluttering across the Cape skies, know that there’s a decades-old aircraft out front, flying a little piece of advertising history. And if you look up and remember the brand it’s proof, perhaps, that sometimes, looking up beats scrolling down.