An insider's guide to small-business marketing.
Recently, I heard that riff of music that I always hear when confronted with a piece of fine advertising. At the time, oddly enough, I was paused at an intersection in Austin, Tex., staring at the back end of a delivery truck for a local hardware store, Zinger Hardware.
On the truck's back door was the following message (I took a quick shot with my phone camera): “Dear Potential Carjacker, This is NOT a Zinger delivery truck. Instead of beautiful Zinger furniture, all you'll find inside are priceless diamonds and bags of money. We're sorry for the inconvenience and wish you well in your search for Zinger merchandise.†A sincere sign off was followed by the store's tagline: Hardware, Furniture and Everything in Between.
This rear end real estate could have just offered the company's logo and location info. Or it could have just had “wash me†sketched into its road grime. But the company took the road less traveled and entertained those in its wake, creating an impression of a retailer that has a sense of fun and that might have something unexpected in store for its customers.
There are companies that will put your ads on trucks and drive them around. Depending on the city and number of people who can be expected to see your ad, the costs can range from $400 to $4,500 a month. You can also put your message on those semis that carry billboards on flatbeds. They can cost $500 to $1,200 per day. But it really makes sense if you already have a truck driving around. Undervaluing your truck's branding potential is like hanging the Mona Lisa in a double wide.
While wrapping your delivery truck requires an investment, Michael Ferweda, founder and chief executive of Zinger, says it's wort h it. “People are always tooting their horns as you go by, and you can see in your rear-view mirror people taking pictures with their camera phones,†he said. Ahem.
It costs about $5,000 to wrap a 14-foot, cab-forward box truck, but Mr. Ferweda said the return on investment has ranked high, right after print advertising, which requires a much larger investment. “We do a lot of deliveries, and our truck is always out,†he said. “We knew we needed to get people's attention, and it didn't necessarily need to be hardware related. It needed to stand the test of time and get your attention.â€
So he enlisted the help of a local freelancer to write some copy. Together, they gave lots of thought to how much and what kinds of copy belonged on each side of the truck. “When you are doing branding on a truck, you have such a short instance to grab viewers,†Mr. Ferweda said. “If someone is standing on the side of the street, think about what the pedestrian wi ll see. Then, on the back, you know you will have cars behind you.†That translates into an opportunity for longer copy.
But the key is to entertain. Nobody is going to remember your copy - or take photos of it - if a brand is just chest-thumping. Here's another truck ad you might enjoy.
MP Mueller is the founder of Door Number 3, a boutique advertising agency in Austin, Tex. Follow Door Number 3 on Facebook.
