Not every team at the Olympic Games flies a national flag. We put a spotlight on Intel’s Drone Team, and their most-ambitious drone light show to date, joining the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. While they are not athletes, they participated in the Olympic Movement in a big way, flying over 1,200 Intel Shooting Star drones to form the Olympic Rings, setting a Guinness World Record in the process.

Intel traveled to PyeongChang for the 2018 Winter Olympics, where subzero temperatures and stiff winds were the setting for not just the world’s top athletes, but the Intel® Shooting Star™ drone. A team of pilots, software engineers, animators, project managers, and brand marketing ensured a successful light show.

A 1,200-strong drone light show took flight to illuminate the Opening Ceremony, showcasing mesmerizing, volumetric formations such as a dove, a snowboarder grabbing air, and finally ending with the iconic Olympic Rings. The pre-recorded flight was followed by a half-dozen medal ceremony flights throughout the games, culminating with a grand finale flight during the Closing Ceremony.

Multiple tests and shoots were completed over eleven nights to complete all animations. Harsh weather conditions impacted battery life and high winds grounded flight attempts, but the Intel Drone Team persevered to deliver an innovative entertainment experience, setting a Guinness World Record™ in the process.

With over a million views in under a week, the film canonized key drone team members as media darlings and interview subjects, and footage was ripped for press coverage from NBC, Good Morning America, the BBC, and hundreds more news organizations. Moreover, Intel had more than double the social mentions during the Olympics against any other sponsor, shifting the world’s perception of Intel from the maker of chips to the enabler of experiences.

With the Intel Shooting Star drone, people get a tangible way to experience Intel’s technological prowess and innovation. Being invited to showcase the Shooting Star technology at the Winter Olympics, in conditions that had never been attempted, flying three times the number of drones in a typical show, viewers were left in awe. But the first question viewers ask after witnessing a drone light show is, “How did they do that?” We created a short film to answer that question, and prove that you don’t have to be an athlete to participate in the Olympic Games.

Intel’s primary target for this film was Olympic fans, drone enthusiasts, and members of the press. Through a record-breaking light show, the team had aspired to create an Olympic headline heard around the world, well before the actual games began.

Beyond consumers and PR, the story was the perfect intersection between sport, technology, and creativity. Our secondary audience was potential brand partners for the Intel drone light show service who would come across the Olympics performance and want to potentially collaborate with Intel for future activations. These could be marketing teams, agencies, brand partners, event organizers, and other technology companies who may want to purchase a drone light show for their own events or campaigns.

As a first-time TOP sponsor of the Olympic Games, Intel wanted to stand out amongst other tech giants like Samsung, Panasonic, and G.E. But instead of making just another ad, Intel brought tech-powered experiences to the games.

Intel’s drone light show offering utilizes lightweight Shooting Star drones outfitted with LEDs to create a new entertainment experience that we provide as a service to partners. Each show is a custom undertaking: new animations, fleet counts, and piloting challenges are just a few details that our in-house team manages from beginning to end.