The holiday season is always a great time to introduce a new advertising campaign for your retail business. Starting on Black Friday, America really gets into the shopping mood. What better time to let them know about your store? Unfortunately, your competition will be thinking the same thing. The question becomes: how do you attract attention when so many stores are fighting for it? The answer may be vehicle wraps.
While car wraps and banners are nothing new, they are much more unusual than circulars and billboards. The more unusual your ad campaign, the more likely it is that people will actually notice it. This is what you want. By draping your company vehicles in promotional signage, you essentially become a driving advertisement for your store. If your ads are creative and eye-catching, you may even be able to parlay your car wraps into some social media buzz.
Here are some of the reasons you should consider vehicle graphics this holiday season.
Reach a Wider Audience
Every touchpoint of your brand is an opportunity to tell your story. Diversifying the mediums you use to communicate that story helps you cast a wider net. Plus, if you’re already advertising on the Internet, in print, or on billboards, vehicle wraps give you one more place to create impressions. By diversifying your campaign strategy with vehicle wraps, you can reach that wider audience and expand your customer base.
Mobile
If you advertise on a website, you wait for potential customers to use that site before they can see your banner. If you put up a billboard, you hope that people will take that route. With vehicle wraps, you can take your advertisements anywhere you want. What other form of advertising lets you reach customers at the mall, in the park, out on the freeway, and in local neighborhoods all in a single day?
Cost-Effective
Vehicle wraps are comparatively inexpensive, making them the perfect solution for a company with a limited advertising budget. When you factor in visibility and attractiveness to the equation, car decals may be one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising available to local businesses.
Local
Though national chain stores like Wal-Mart have proven that people like convenience and low prices, a significant portion of the population believes in supporting local businesses. By driving your car around town with banners that promote your store, you are showing these potential customers that you are local. Don’t underestimate the psychological effect this can have on the community. If people have a choice about where they spend their discretionary income, they might just choose to support the local business.
Safe and Non Permanent
If you get your vehicle wraps done through a reputable, specialized company, you won’t have to worry about the ads damaging your car’s paint job. If this is the only concern that has kept you from trying out this powerful form of advertising, drop those doubts at the door.
Subtle
Yankelovich, a market research firm, estimates that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,00 today. That much advertising can get to be somewhat of a sensory overload. During the holiday season, in particular, commercials reach a fever pitch. With custom vehicle graphics, advertisers reap the benefits from a much more subtle approach to brand building.
Road Rules
Are you ready to apply some quality graphics to your car? Great! The sooner you get started, the better you’ll be able to tap into that holiday shopping fever. But go into your campaign with criteria. You want to be a mobile promoter, but you don’t want to be a driving distraction. Put your phone number on the decals, but hold off on things like QR codes that invite people to interact with your ads while they are driving.
Additionally, watch your own driving. Once that vehicle wrap goes on, you will be representing your company around the clock. Make sure your road etiquette reflects that fact and make sure your employees do the same when driving the cars.
One of the most difficult things to do in business is getting customers to take action. By using car decals to get your message across, you can hit your target when potential customers are already out of the house and in the shopping mood.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
License: Image author owned
Alison Johnston is a writer for FASTSIGNS, the leader in visual communication solutions.
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