Many small businesses spend a considerable amount of money on search engine and social media advertising. In some instances, this money is well invested; however, there are many times when precious dollars are simply flushed down the drain. It is always important to track your advertising to see where it truly produces results that far exceed the cost of the ads themselves. With so many responsibilities and wearing so many hats, many people turn to “experts” to guide their expenditures, a decision that can be not only costly but outrageously expensive. Nobody is better prepared to watch your dollars than you are yourself, and the person who initiated an unsolicited contact has only one divergent interest, and that is to maximize their income, not yours.

With that in mind, it is wise to consider some of the alternative ways of getting your name and message in front of the eyes of prospective customers. One sure way is through the use of vehicle graphics. Vehicle graphics and wraps have become really inexpensive in recent years. As recently as 20 years ago, it was commonplace to hire a talented airbrush artist to physically paint a vehicle with a unique design, a variation of what has been known as an “art car”. Prior to that, vehicles were usually hand-painted and lettered using stencils or decals. Today, designs are digitally created and printed on oversized sheets of adhesive vinyl that are carefully applied, with proofreading virtually eliminating the chances of an error appearing on the sides of a vehicle. More commonly, these graphics have become complete vehicle “wraps” that colorfully convey a company’s advertising message.

Particularly for the drivers following you down the highway, your business name on the back of your vehicles is a truly inexpensive way of spreading the word. In fact, if you are driving a distance down an Interstate highway, you may want to consider setting your cruise control to a couple miles per hour below the speed limit, allowing a greater number of vehicles to pass you and absorb your message during your trip. According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, a vehicle driven 15,000 miles in the course of a year will pass or be passed by 9,000,000 other vehicles and might have 50,000 ad impressions per day. Of course, these impressions per mile will vary wildly, based upon the volume of traffic upon a vehicle’s most commonly travelled routes. For example, your message will reach more drivers on an Interstate highway in a crowded metropolitan corridor than it will being driven on rural back roads. Either way, the same OAAA studies show the 80% of consumers can recall details about a vehicle wrap after seeing it only once, with the rate of recall increasing significantly after multiple exposures.

Given those statistics, it is important to craft your message as carefully as possible, where as simple as possible is generally the best approach. We have all seen vans driving down the road, typically owned by some sort of contractor, where the sides are covered by dozens or even hundreds of words of text that outline every type of work that the company provides. Recall on those? Close to zero. Think of the big companies whose trucks we most frequently see driving down the highways, and the simplicity of the effective messages that they convey. Their goal is recall of their company’s names and conveyance of a positive impression.

• Amazon: The Amazon wordmark, its yellow swoosh, and “There’s more to Prime. A truckload more.”
• UPS: Whether the “package car” making a delivery to your home, or a semi-trailer driving down the highway, the only embellishments are usually the distinctive UPS logo on a brown background.
• Walmart: The company logo and “Save Money. Live Better.”
• Target: The iconic logo, “EXPECT MORE. PAY LESS.”, and “Bullseye” – the official mascot bull terrier.

All this effort goes to waste and can totally backfire if a vehicle that displays your business name is being driven in a haphazard manner. The town where I live is a notorious speed trap, where the radar guns on the police cars do not seem to have an “off” button. The speed limit in the center of town is 25 miles per hour, unless the light is flashing on the school zone sign, when the speed limit is reduced to 20 miles per hour. I vividly recall being pulled over and ticketed by a part-time police officer whose position was funded by a state grant, about 20 years ago for going 32 miles per hour in the 25 mile per hour zone. That temporary worker is now the town’s chief of police, and folks in town know to take that speed zone seriously, especially now that it passes the new public safety complex where the police department is headquartered.

Anyway, a few years ago, I pulled out of my road heading toward the center of town, doing exactly the signed speed limit: 40 miles per hour, then 30 miles per hour, then the 25 mile per hour zone. Well, all this time, a truck that was barreling down the highway tailgated me into the center of town, until I turned into the bank parking lot and the driver of the truck displayed an obscene gesture. Well, not only will I never hire Mr. Gutter to repair the gutters and downspouts on my house, I called the company to let the owner be aware of his driver’s behavior. Just this past week, while driving in a nearby town, I noticed a delivery truck breeze right through an intersection with a four-way stop, then make a turn on a commonly used shortcut route that is prominently signed “No Trucks”. It was 5:30 in the evening, and perhaps the driver was behind schedule and only paid until 5:00 o’clock. I sent Fly By Night, a local furniture retailer, an email outlining my observation. I have received no response, but you can be sure that the company will never be making a furniture delivery to my home. These are two examples of how the advertising message on your vehicles can backfire and do more harm than good.

On the other hand, I was simply approaching a crosswalk, also in the center of town and in that 25 mile per hour speed zone, earlier in the week. There have been many instances when I have witnessed 7 or 8 vehicles failing to stop for a pedestrian in that crosswalk; however, in this most recent instance a semi-trailer that I did not expect to come to a stop yielded for me so I could cross the road. Kudos to the Big Y Supermarkets, whose graphics covered that vehicle, for employing at least one courteous driver who did the right thing!

You may have the best of intentions, but a low-level employee can ruin your efforts. Yes, there can be name recognition, but it will not necessarily lead to an increase in business. Take measure to ensure that your messages and business visibility lead to positive outcomes.