Truck advertising is a type of mobile advertising. What is mobile advertising you asked? It’s simply an out-of-home advertising that moves. Out-of-home advertising is initially a very good way of doing advertising if you want your message to reach as many people as possible. With thousands of people passing by your ad everyday, you are sure to make a great number of impressions. But what about the other way around? Your ad passing by people instead of them passing by your ad, meaning mobile advertising. Cool, eh?
There are many benefits in using mobile advertising, depending on the type you choose to go for. Some people use their own cars as a canvas for their ads, some people prefer going big and rent huge trucks that are wrapped in their brands’ name. Whether big or small, what matters is the travelling distance of the vehicle because that’s how you determine the number of impressions.
Never Before?
If it’s new to you, – and it’s still new to a lot of people – you can do some primary research online and then ask questions to an actual expert. By expert, I mean going to a truck advertising company such as Movia Media for example, or just call them. You can ask all the questions you want, they will be happy to assist you. Who knows, you may be a future customer? You can start with keeping on reading this article, for the basics at least. I mean, you should know if it is right for you before moving forward.
How It Works
Like I said at the beginning of this post, truck advertising is a type of mobile advertising, so your ads will move around in the city. Before that, you will need to choose what kind of truck you want or need, and you will also have to consider how impactful you want your ad to be. A full wrap is obviously catchier, especially on bigger trucks. I could use the saying ‘‘go big or go home’’, but that would be inappropriate in this case. There are too many factors to consider for me to make such a statement. The side of the truck could be as effective as a wrap, after all. It all depends on the amount of creativity you put in the ad. Also, even if you will get some guidance on what matches best your situation, you are the boss, so the final decision is yours. You will need to determine the location as well. Do you want to advertise mostly in the Great Toronto Area or in other cities as well? What is the time frame? Do you want many locations at the same time? After all, the more people see you, the better for your brand. Enough about that, here is how it actually works.
Mobile billboard companies usually partner with truck or vehicle rental companies to get access to the mobile ad space for a fee. Then, the clients go to the mobile billboard company with their inquiries. They will provide information like how long they need the space for, for example. The truck advertising company is the one making the rest of the work, including finding which truck is available, which truck goes the particular route that’s best for the ad, finding ways to track its progress in real time, and so on. It usually costs $300-$700 per truck per day for static mobile trucks and $700-$1,800 per truck per day for digital ones. It all depends on the size as well as the routes.
To Introduce Your Brand
If it is a new brand, you can use truck advertising to raise awareness. Seeing that you just started, it’s better to go for the less costly method of advertising. There are many methods of introducing a brand nowadays, but that doesn’t make it any easier. You still have to find the right content that will hook your audience. Look at social media for example. How many ads do you come across while browsing through your Twitter or Facebook feed? A lot. Still, you don’t pay attention to more than half of them. See the challenge? Now let’s consider video ads. They are very easy to skip, so it might be a waste of time if you are still new. In any case, even if people see these ads, how many of them would remember you? Look you up? There are other methods you can use, of course.
- Uniqueness of your brand: what do you have that others don’t? If you don’t have any obvious answer to that question, create one, just like Old Spice did. When I say ‘’The Man Your Man Can Smell Like’’, you know what I’m talking about.
- Influencer marketing: use influencers and bloggers to promote your brand. The effectiveness of this method depends on the number of followers of the influencer.
- Create great content: tell them something that they are interested in or that will make them react. It can be funny, cute or serious, depending on your brand identity.
- Giveaways: everyone likes free stuff, so give them that. It could be a branded pen, tee-shirt or an umbrella?
At the end of the day, truck advertising remains one of the best ways of making your brand known. It can bring people on your website, because 46% of people who look up a product online after seeing it on out-of-home ads. If that’s not a good reason to go mobile, what is? Well, maybe the number of impressions? Mobile truck ads make 30,000 to 70,000 impressions a day, that makes 30,000 to 70,000 people who will be exposed to your brand at least ounce. And 46% of these people are likely to look you up and learn more about you. Now you’re up for a great start.
To Better Promote Your Brand
You have been doing some advertising, and it doesn’t seem to work, but have you tried everything yet? If you’ve read this article up to this point, chances are you didn’t. This is your chance to try something new: truck advertising. It will be a good boost for sure. A reminder for people who have already seen it or read about it, and it will be a subject of curiosity for people who haven’t even heard about it. A good way to get out there and gain exposure.
Even if you have some presence online, it never hurts to get more traffic on your website and social media pages. Again, 46% of people who are exposed to billboard ads look up the brand online, so you are sure to secure an increase in traffic on your website. Also, people are more likely to remember you this way, so entertain them while you’re at it. Just because it is truck advertising doesn’t mean you can’t be creative. Just as any OOH, truck wraps can have a creative component. Actually, it should be one of the most creative pieces of your advertising campaign, since it will most likely have the most exposure. Again, that will depend on the option you’ll choose. You will be able to track the number of impressions live, anyway.
You want a better brand promotion, which means that your brand is already known, so try to improve without being too different. What I mean is, unless you’re trying to reposition or rebrand all together, stick to the brand personality you’ve already created. If you don’t think that you have a brand personality yet, creating one now will help in your brand promotion.
To Reposition Your Band
Repositioning your brand might require as much effort as promoting a new brand, especially if you’re doing a rebranding along with it. So the first question you have to answer is, are you rebranding and repositioning at the same time? What is the difference? Repositioning is about changing the customer’s understanding of what your product or your brand is. Rebranding is the process of changing the image of your company.
Now, if you’re just repositioning, you will need to follow three (not so easy) steps: listen to the customers, deliver the right improvement and convince the customers to give you a second chance. Fast forward to the second and third steps, how do you get to tell your customers that you’ve heard them and you’re ready to give it another try? Advertising. This is when OOH, more specifically, truck advertising comes in. It will be the fastest way to spread the word, even with a strong social media presence. In fact, it will make the circulation of the information on social media easier.
But if you are rebranding as well, you will only need to do some extra efforts. It could be the logo you are changing? The message? The brand personality? Maybe even the colours and name, like StateFarm changing their name to Desjardins insurance? Truck advertising can still be your go to platform.
Any Other Reason?
None of these reasons mentioned concern you? You can still use truck advertising. It will always be a win win situation for you. Because of its many advantages and the fact that a brand is never too advertised, you would be wise to secure your truck right away to start or expand your advertising campaign. If after reading through this article you are still sceptical, think of it this way: just like new products need a trial period, give truck advertising a trial period as well. Rent a mobile truck for one week and see what happens. I can guarantee that you will no longer run an ad campaign without it. Oh and by the way, I said one week because it’s usually the minimum time period companies rent the trucks for. But if the whole trial concept is too bold of a move for you, you can just keep researching. There are articles available, you can even ask those who have tried it before. Testimonials can be an effective way of getting information sometimes.
References:
https://info.haulerads.com/moving-billboard-blog/truckside-advertising-and-brand-awareness
https://brand24.com/blog/rebranding-and-brand-repositioning/
https://medium.com/thrive-global/19-powerful-ways-to-market-your-brand-ab9e7f2b04e4
https://info.haulerads.com/moving-billboard-blog/how-does-mobile-billboard-advertising-work
https://haulerads.com/mobile-billboard-questions-and-information/
https://thoughtleadership.oaaa.org/repositionyourbrand/
