3M™ Study on the Effectiveness of Vehicle Wraps

There is an industry norm to estimate fleet advertising impressions by calculating the number of miles driven per vehicle per day by the type of road. Imagine adding demographics as a dimension. What do you get? Vastly improved measurement capabilities, proof of performance and the ability to target your campaign. 3M™ measured the advertising effectiveness of fleet graphics for Cadbury-Schweppes Company using GPS units to track 10 Snapple® trucks through two major metropolitan areas.

The three-month study correlated truck routes against zip codes and demographic data to deliver the most accurate measurements of message effectiveness, to date.

Key Findings:

• Fleet graphics generate a large number of impressions–in this study, an average of 6 million Prime Daily Effective Circulation (DEC) per truck, annualized.
• Mobile media advertising offers the lowest cost-per-impression of any major advertising medium.
• Routes and messages can be optimized to target specific demographic groups.
• Fleet graphics add a valuable dimension to the advertising marketing mix.

We recently came across an article that discussed an interesting twist on a commercial car wrap program. A rental car agency in Atlanta has teamed up with an advertising firm to offer wrapped vehicles as a discount option for budget conscious travelers. One traveler cited in the article said that because she rented a wrapped vehicle she saved a few hundred dollars on a weekly rental. Wow!

We at custom-car-wraps.com think that this is absolutely a great idea. Rental car wraps are a win-win-win situation, benefiting the traveler, the car rental business and the advertising business. Read on for a breakdown:

The Traveler: Traveling is expensive! After you sunk your dough into airfare and hotel costs, add gas, food, and everything else to the equation. Renting a discounted wrapped car can help to make vacations or business trips a lot more affordable.

The Rental Car Business: By renting out their cars as ad space for vehicle wraps, rental car companies can make some additional cash in this difficult economy. Just like cities that allow buses or trains to be used as advertising space with wraps, rental car companies have hundreds of potential billboards on wheels. In addition, the car rental wraps will allow smaller rental car companies to be more competitive with their larger competitors.

The Advertisers: Wrapping rental cars is a perfect option for businesses who want the brand exposure of a car wrap, but aren’t particularly mobile during the day. Businesses that are limited to one physical location (like a store or a boardwalk) would benefit from a small fleet of billboards being driven to all of the best and most interesting destinations in the area, creating a wide area of brand exposure. This makes it a great idea for restaurants, boutiques, or any other tourism industry business.

When car rental companies start seeing their rentals as blank canvases, it benefits local advertisers who want more exposure and vacationers looking for a ways to make their trip more affordable. What do you think? Is this an awesome mutually beneficial idea or another example of advertisers taking over? Would you rent a car wrap for a great discount? Let’s move this discussion to the comments!