Trucks pull long trailers that contain millions of tons transported on American roads every year. Delivery trucks, in particular, have broadsides that offer an excellent space for placing ads. The space at the side of the delivery trucks is sufficient to place large-format ads that are highly visible to the target audience. As the trucks crisscross the country, many people become familiar with the brands emblazoned on their sides.
Truck side advertising is similar to mobile billboards advertising. Advertisers wrap the billboards around the visible sides of the truck for maximum exposure. Delivery trucks reach closer to the target audience as they ferry goods. Often, the delivery trucks terminate at the point of purchase. As such, customers at that point have an opportunity to interact with the brand. Further, delivery trucks are huge such that the message sits atop the traffic on highways. It affords the billboards enough exposure to drive high conversion rates.
Advertising vehicles will no longer be effective
Recently the Interactive Advertising Bureau surveyed nearly 400 media buyers and brands. The results were surprising: 74% think the coronavirus pandemic will have a larger impact on their advertising spend than the 2008 financial crisis. According to the President of Interactive Advertising Bureau, David Cohen, “Typically marketers will press pause for a moment, take a breath, assess the situation, replay and reevaluate.”
The use of mobile OOH methods will most likely experience more decline in the coming months, given the fact when the economy re-opens, people will still be cautious and stay more at home. Mobile advertising using trucks, buses and others will be fast replaced by in-home advertising. The impact of COVID-19 has kept normally mobile citizens inside their homes. Hence, the best ways to reach your audience and maintain brand visibility will be to take your products and services to them indoors, as it will be clearly unprofitable to place adverts on advertising vehicles that no one is seeing.
Truck Advertising: pitfalls
There are millions of delivery trucks on American roads every day. As of December 2019, Amazon had 20,000 delivery trucks. Other companies like FedEx, U-Haul, and UPS have thousands of vehicles in their delivery fleet. All the trucks are branded such that wherever they go, they increase the awareness of the brand they represent. Having multiple trucks enables the brand to reach as many potential customers as possible.
Say, for example, that your business acquires and brands a delivery truck. For every delivery that the truck makes, people from new parts get to interact with the brand. Further, the delivery trucks enable businesses to target the exact audience with the message. This ability for precise targeting is critical to increasing conversion rates.
Another positive about truck side advertising is that there is no definite overage period. The banner is removable and reusable whenever the advertiser deems fit. Further, the size of the banner is only limited by the size of the truck. For a straight truck, the typical space for the banner ranges from 16’ to 26’ L x 7’ to 8’ H. On the other hand, the typical range for trailer vans is 28’ to 53’ L x ~8’ H.
Brands are looking for alternative to static traditional OOH advertising as vehicle advertising or digital mobile OOH. The use of ads on advertising trucks has been emerging as unconventional tactics however it has risks related to the impact on reputation. When the vehicle carries the advertisement of the brand on the road, the advertising truck serves as brand ambassador. Any driving misbehavior could impact directly the brand image. In addition, advertising trucks have several pitfalls as low return on the ad investment, difficult to track the outcomes and low brand recall. Advertising trucks cannot target precisely the exact audience as any traffic driver could be targeted. There are some parts of the country and others globally, with restrictions on billboards. As such, advertisers cannot access the areas during an ad campaign. In such a situation, truck side advertising is an ideal alternative. Notably, advertisers can attach different types and sizes of billboards on the side of trucks.
