Advertising on cars has a relatively short history. Company vans and trucks as well as public transport such as buses and trams have long had advertising on them. Cars, on the other hand, have largely been seen as a personal transport vehicle and not to be tampered with. Ads adorning cars can sometimes be seen as a vulgar intrusion into the devoted car owner's world.
That is now changing fast. Now there are companies who are willing to pay car owners to have their adverts plastered all over the car body. Of course, you do have to qualify for the privilege of being paid to drive a car with ads wrapped around it, but it certainly does happen, and increasingly so too.
Of course, anyone who agrees to have a flashy advert on his or her car must also be the kind of person who doesn't mind being stared at. The new vinyl wraps that can create just about any kind of image imaginable on a car can be - and usually are - very eye-catching. People do turn by the dozen to look and stare as the car drives past.
It's the computer-generated vinyl wraps that have revolutionised advertising on cars. These can be a full wrap where the entire car is covered with the ad or a partial wrap where only parts of the car have advertising and the natural paintwork shows through elsewhere.
Buses and trams are natural choices for vehicle advertising. They spend all day trundling around city streets, thousands of people travel in them and thousands more wait for them to arrive, watching other buses and trams go past in the meantime.
This translates into an advertising medium that few can avoid. The more creative and inventive the advertising on cars, buses or trams, and some are real works of art, the more eyes turn to look as the mobile ad moves past.
Advertising on cars is really a progression from traditional advertising on company vans and trucks. Company logos and trademarks have long been seen on company vans. It's essentially free advertising for the company since they own the van or truck anyway. They can place their company logo with an address and telephone contact, email and web address and expect to get some increased business as a result.
Now there's a new twist in all of this. It has been noted by some enterprising people that there are many white company vans running around that don't have company details on them. These are usually small companies with small fleets, but they represent a great opportunity.
White vans without advertising or company logos can carry advertising for other companies and be paid to do it. Of course, they are unlikely to want to carry adverts that might benefit their competition, but they might be happy to carry ads that complement their business. Being paid to do this has the added bonus of helping to offset the cost of running the van in the first place. It doesn't get much better than that.
David A Robinson
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