More temporary than a billboard and cheaper than a banner-towing airplane. That’s how Eugene Stark is promoting the new advertising service offered by his startup, Hoovy.

The company builds and operates what Stark calls “advatars” – small drones used to carry advertising banners while hovering over parking lots, outdoor events and beaches.

For $120 an hour on weekdays and $200 to $300 an hour on weekends, Stark’s advatars will carry a 3-foot-by-6-foot banner printed with a company’s logo, ad or other message about 20 feet in the air.

The advatars are about two feet across, powered by eight propellers. Part of Stark’s pitch to potential clients is that his drones themselves will get people’s attention, which in turn puts more eyes on the ads they carry.

“Every time we fly, we gather a large crowd who take pictures of the advertisement, ask us questions and are very fascinated by the concept,” he said. “It’s more interactive and more engaging – the banner moves and that attracts a lot of attention. And the sound (of the drone) attracts people, too.”

Stark graduated from USC’s Marshall School of Business with an M.B.A. last year and founded Hoovy in September. The company is based at USC’s business incubator at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

Since February, Stark has flown his drones for about eight customers including a natural bath and body products supplier, a barbershop and Glendora magazine Avenue. Flying the drones for the barbershop resulted in three appointments, he said.

For safety, Stark doesn’t fly his advatars over people, keeping them above an area blocked off with tape. At events where vendors have tents and tables, he flies them above the tent canopy.

He’s targeting mostly small businesses that might not have the budget for other kinds of outdoor advertising, such as billboards.

“Most of our clients, they weren’t really advertising before and now they do with us,” he said.

– Carol Lawrence