Advertising is about ensuring positive word about a company or product gets around. Few things get around more quickly and capably than vehicles do. In some ways, this is a match made in heaven.
After all, even Santa uses his wheels for a higher cause, patrolling the streets in December and collecting money from the masses. Vehicles are useful tools to get organisations seen creatively, ensuring marketing is mobile in the real world.
Cars and vans are constantly earning people’s attention too. While people might ignore the occasional banner or billboard, that same discourtesy can’t be extended to vehicles. Pedestrians and road users must keep an eye on them, so you might as well make the most of that fact.
Whether you’re using one car or several, there are many creative avenues to explore when using vehicles for advertising. We’ve provided a few suggestions below that should help you consider these options in more depth.
Working with Other Companies
Marketing isn’t always about you or your business. Advertising with a vehicle isn’t exactly an original idea either.
In 2018, people earned up to £100 a month by allowing firms to advertise on their vehicles that year. That’s no small amount of money in today’s climate. Moreover, those earnings could increase substantially if you have multiple cars or even a fleet of vehicles at your disposal. It might seem like much at first, but it certainly can be when it all adds up.
Of course, there are a few things you must do here before signing up. You should research the proposed business’s history and reputation to ensure your values align. Are their services complimentary to any you provide? If so, advertising on each other’s cars could be a way to establish B2B links.
There may also be a vetting process that you need to pass, as these entities can be selective of who they pick to drive with their logo attached. They may base their judgements on how responsible you are when driving. Points on your license and any history of accidents will be reviewed, but hopefully, you’ve been careful enough on the roads so far.
Customising a Private Number Plate
Admittedly, there’s not an awful lot of intricate advertising you can do with a number plate. Your ideas are limited to a handful of letters and numbers.
Still, many people use their private plates to convey something about themselves, including their job and/or business. The name of the business can feature or abbreviations of it. The same can be said for slogans or even just job titles. Common examples in the latter case include plumbers fixing DRA1N or MET3R to their cars.
Private number plates are easier to secure than you might assume too. Click4Reg has an extensive range to choose from with different financing deals. That way, you can split the costs into a series of more affordable payments. The service is also rated very highly on Trustpilot, so you can find private plates with confidence. Use their search tool to find the right personalised number plates, and contact them directly if you have questions.
While these measures aren’t highly in-depth, they do communicate a different side of marketing seldom seen, the fun side. If people see that your company has a sense of humour while you and your representatives drive around, they may be far more likely to look you up later and do business with you. It’s a memorable effort that humanises the business world, which counts for a lot.
Research Vehicle Wrapping
Commercial vehicle wrapping involves printing lots of graphics on your cars, vans, and lorries. A professional service will ensure your firm’s name, number, web URL, calls to action, and branding imagery is all displayed.
Because there’s so much to pack in and potentially only so much space to utilise on your vehicle, more creative input is required here. You’ll need to ensure your designs are optimised for the layout of your vehicle and that fonts can be read clearly, even at speed.
Furthermore, it’s worth researching vehicle wrapping solutions ahead of time so that you’re more aware of the options you have available to you. There’s standard fleet wrapping, full digitally printed vehicle wraps, information graphics, and manufacturer decals, to name a few options. Some can be bright and vivid, while other avenues provide a more understated approach to vehicular advertising.
It might be that wrapping your fleet of vans helps improve your company’s reputation too. After all, drivers of these vehicles are stereotyped as reckless, and some incidents don’t disprove the theory either. By commercially wrapping a van, your firm will have a friendlier face on the roads, and people may be less likely to view the vehicle as some generic death machine to be weary of.
Go Green
Many firms claim to run a sustainable operation. Sadly, not all of them tell the truth, instead of grossly exaggerating how much they do for the environment.
By using electric vehicles in your business operations, nobody could dispute that your company is making empirical progress around eco-friendly measures. Your vehicles will advertise your firm’s ethics and values clearly for all and help spearhead the gradual phasing out of fuel and diesel motors in the coming decades.
Swathes of the UK population understandably have reservations about electric vehicles. Costs and the availability of charging stations give them pause. Nevertheless, using electric cars or vans in your operations can be an impressive feat that can positively influence those around you. After all, enterprises are often the instigators and facilitators of societal change.
Train Your Drivers
Drivers of company vehicles often think they have a discrete role in the business. On the road with the wind in their hair, they can feel like they are off the radar, unaccountable, and can do whatever they like.
Your company’s training procedures and work culture should swiftly snuff out that assumption. If you’ve invested heavily in vehicular advertising and the people behind the wheel drive recklessly, it can undermine all the goodwill you’re trying to create. All your designs will be viewed as surface-level gimmicks that conceal uglier business practices.
Technologies can help you enforce higher standards and monitor driver behaviour. Dash cams and vehicle management systems should keep outbound staff in check. If your company isn’t using electric vehicles yet, you may be able to monitor whether your driver has bad habits that waste fuel; flat tyres, heavy acceleration, and stop-start driving. The public will pick up on any of these if they witness them.
Remind your drivers that they are representatives of your business. Give them routine training around customer service, driving decorum, and the responsible handling of customer packages. Only when they have the utmost respect for the business and its customers will things start to improve here. Making them feel like full-fledged employees rather than fleeting freelancers will strengthen your efforts.
Conclusion
Your business vehicles can advertise your firm’s collaborative spirit, sense of humour, creativity, morals, and good behaviour. Mine the potential for all its worth here. View your cars and vans as mobile billboards that can convey all there is to know about your firm. Instruct your drivers to be an extension of everything the vehicle seems to promise. Be excited about the prospect of representing your business far and wide in the real world.
