The drone industry is undergoing a major shift: what was once a tool used primarily by the military is now finding new missions in the business world, civilian government, and the consumer landscape – opening up a $100 billion market opportunity by 2020.

In 2016, Goldman Sachs’ Global Investment Research Division issued a report on this transformation and it was our assignment to identify key findings and translate them into a compelling yet informative experience that could  capture the attention of the broader public. This meant going beyond numbers and graphs. Using video, animation, and photography,we took the audience on a journey inside the drones’ new missions—fighting fires, inspecting infrastructure, and surveying farmland. We used these missions as a platform to illustrate the new market’s vast potential.

Designing the Drones microsite was a balancing act. We wanted to create something that harmonized with the Goldman Sachs core brand, but still had a rich, unique, “drone-like” visual aesthetic.

We were able to leverage the brand’s typeface, using a combination of ultra-condensed and bold Univers to create a sleek, high-tech look and feel. Other design elements were inspired by the user interfaces of actual drone-control software.

Technologically, we created an immersive cross-platform experience using parallax and HTML5 techniques with movements activated on scroll. The result: a surprisingly engaging data driven microsite that lets users completely control a real-life drone scenario on any device.

The Drones microsite and accompanying cross channel strategy drew a large audience across organic and paid media. The paid campaign delivered over 8.6MM impressions and over 23K qualified engagements, exceeding the brands’ previous campaign benchmarks by 54%.

The organic social posts earned a total of 1.5MM impressions. On organic Twitter alone, the project earned a total 332k impressions, with a potential reach of 3.2MM.

Overall, the infographic drew over 1.3 million visits to goldmansachs.com and contributed to the generation of an ongoing strategy to deliver Goldman Sachs Investment Research to a broader audience.