‘What’s an effective way of raising awareness of our brand locally that isn’t going to break the bank?’ asked one of our clients in a meeting last week. Our answer – ‘Advertise your business using vehicle advertising and graphics!’
What’s so good about vehicle advertising?
As a small to medium business you probably don’t have a massive marketing budget. Whilst a good quality, easy to navigate website should be at the top of your list, it isn’t the only way to let potential customers know about your business. Building awareness of your brand is crucial. You want your company name to be the first one that comes to mind whenever anyone has a need for the product or service you offer.
Vehicular advertising is a flexible, low cost way of doing this. First used by Milton Hershey in 1900 it’s now a firm marketing favourite for companies both large and small.
Does it work?
Just think about the vehicles you see driving around your local area every day.
Now see how long it takes you to name just 10 companies whose branding you recognise from their vehicles. (We came up with 10 in less than 10 seconds and we weren’t allowed to include companies we’ve worked with!)
- Lane & Peach
- The AA
- Taylor Made
- Sky
- Mountjoy
- Virgin
- Concise Removals
- Ocado
- KKM Deliveries
- The Post Office
Advertising your brand on a vehicle works
Here’s why it works
Familiarity
People unconsciously recognise and emotionally associate with things they see every day.
Mobility
Your vehicle covers a lot of ground as it moves about, giving a lot of eyeballs the chance to see it. (Admittedly in traffic jams it doesn’t move very quickly, but this is also great for you. People have time to read your message over and over again!)
Improved Brand awareness
Vehicular branding and graphics will give your company an expanded presence. One of our local companies – KW Lawrence – only has 2 vans. But because they’re branding stands out, and they’re always visible, and always in different places, it gives the impression that there are many more of them.
Round the clock advertising
Even when your vehicle is parked up it’s still doing its job and advertising your company.
Accessibility
Your audience doesn’t get the chance to ad-block your vehicle, or change the channel, or skip your advert. You’re in front of their eyes whether they like it or not!
Which brings us on to the design of your vehicle advertising.
DESIGN IS VERY IMPORTANT!
The right graphics will build your brand and bring you business.
The wrong graphics will have a negative impact on your brand and lose you business.
Illegible fonts, garbled marketing messages, a logo that looks great on your business card but looks terrible on your bonnet, all these things will actively damage your business.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Here are some of the things you should consider.
How much branding do you need?
Do you want the whole vehicle to be branded? Or just something on the bonnet? Maybe the sides, or just a logo on the bumper? Where to put the phone number? And what about an email address, or website details?
Are you running a promotion? Maybe you’re just starting up and need a whole new brand creating? Or you’ve got some graphics that aren’t doing the job and you need a redesign?
That’s where we come in!
We’ve had a lot of experience designing vehicle graphics here at Design Image, for all sorts of different businesses.
Whatever your budget, whatever your brand, we’re here to make sure your vehicle marketing does its job.
Give us a call on 023 9226 9137 and get your vehicles working for you.
There’s no obligation, our team just loves to chat about design!