Pixis Recognized with Award for Spectacular One Piece Drone Light Show

Pixis Drones took 2nd Place in the highly competitive Drone Show as Marketing Tool category at the running of the prestigious SPH Engineering 4th International Drone Show Competition. The annual awards event was bigger than ever, featuring over 100 participants from across 24 countries competing in eight unique categories.

The Silver-Level award recognized Pixis’ acclaimed work at the premiere event for the Netflix live-action adaptation of the beloved anime franchise One Piece in Santa Monica, California, in August 2023.

The 500-drone light show featured faithful recreations of One Piece characters and iconography, headlined by a giant animated Sea King monster that hovered menacingly over the world-famous Santa Monica Pier.

Fans of One Piece are known to be demanding and passionate - so every drone formation had to be planned and executed with care to ensure a realistic recreation of characters, their costumes, and even their movements. Reaction from those in attendance and followers who saw the show online had overwhelmingly positive things to say. 

It all provided Netflix with tremendous exposure heading into the premiere of its high-budget streaming series - producing valuable earned media, fan support, and significant bumps across the company’s social media channels - including its official Instagram page, where the post featuring video of the One Piece drone show remains one of the channel’s most seen/liked of all-time.

In 2020, SPH Engineering kicked off the 1st International Drone Show Choreography Competition. In 4 years, this contest has evolved into a broader Drone Show Competition, with 574 entries from 104 countries, honoring 53 outstanding winners. The Competition aims to bring together the best representatives of the drone show industry and present their amazing drone light shows and projects to the world!