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Thread: Another Advertising Idea

  1. #1

    Default Another Advertising Idea

    Since my last advertising idea went over so well ,here's another one:

    I notice many residential services companies (lawn care, plumbing, contractors, fence builders . . .) use enclosed trailers to haul around their tools. I've also noticed that many of them don't. I propose to buy and give them trailers to use with their business in return for advertising on those trailers.

    We could maybe give them the top 1/3 for their own logo and name and use the remaining space to advertise other paying businesses.

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    lots of people do need trailers once in a while, besides the companies......lots of legal and traffic issues probalby...
    sounds kind of wild!!!! and wild and different is what im always looking for....i hope you come up with a good one for ME sometime....
    i have seen something like this in our area....maybe a little more targeted....the realtor loans out his boxtruck to his buyers which they really need at moving time.... and it has his name on i it.....
    ann
    ann at greenoak www.greenoakantiques.com

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    Sounds like a good idea. I would go with a plastic overlay. Then you could change the ad just by pulling off the old and putting on the new.
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    Interesting idea. You'll need to figure out the costs of buying and maintaining the trailers as well as changing around the ads on them. As long as that cost is less than what you can get back from the advertising it seems to make sense.
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    What I don't like is the trailer is being used/operated by some other business or person that I would have no control over. In my mind I would relate the advertising to the person/business using that trailer. i.e. trailer cuts me off. The experience leaves a bad impression on me and all I remember is someone's advertising plastered on the side. Somehow I see it differently than advertisement on public transportation buses or trains. Maybe because I'm not used to seeing multiple advertisements on private vehicles. Just my thoughts.

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    i have a 15' cube van.....my company name is HUGE.....everyone thinks there are tons of my vans all over the road because they see it so often (reality is i have 1 van, but its noticable from 1/2 mile away)

    guess how many times ive gotten calls from that advertising?.....ONE

    Guess how many times its turned into work?....ZERO

    Advertising by signs dont work well at all.....not on vans/trailors...

    A yard sign for a blacktop company works great...every neighbor can see the results of their work...its right in front of them....
    I had a large yard sign on a busy highway where they had to slow down to 5 mile per hour to make the turn...it was a 3story Victorian...everyone loves the house...tons of people i know said they saw my sign...it was up for 14 months!!!!!

    how many calls did this job bring me? ONE
    How many jobs did I get? ZERO

    I had a friend who paid for a bill board for his remodeling company..had the ad up for months..

    How many jobs did it bring him?...ZERO

    Sign advertising really doesnt work for most businesses....if you look at billboard signs you'll notice they change every 3-6 months...why?...it doesnt work..

    If i needed a trailor id sure take your deal, but as far as it working well i say no chance at all...you'll have constant turn around with advertisers....

    i wouldnt give the contractor any advertising space at all....id take it all....its alot of money your giving him...it will get dented and scraped....the locks will get broken into and busted....

    interesting idea, but i wouldnt advertise on it for $1 a month.

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    Nothing could be further from the truth!

    To say a sign doesn't work is insane, the reality is your sign didn't work. Making assumptions about a failed attempt doesn't mean squat. I'm willing to bet the sign was a yard sign and had just your name on it, am I right? The sign was probably 24" x 16" give or take, the same kind of sign everybody does. I bet i'm close on this.

    If you had anything else on the sign it was probably something like the usual, on time, i'm really clean, honest, fair prices, etc etc etc. That will never work to increase sales in the plumbing business not to mention that if it was a yard sign that means that all of it was to hard to see while driving except maybe your business name.

    If you did this on a sign which i'm sure you did it is guaranteed to not work, any marketing professional would know this.

    To make it effective you need an offer, and not just any offer but a strong offer.

    Mike

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    Huggytree is half right and so is handprop. This type of advertising would not be well suited for generating direct calls. Unless you are a gas station, hotel or restaurant you will not see a direct response to outside ads. Why, because by it nature you have to be outside to see the ad. That means you are probably not looking looking for whatever the ad is offering.

    What this type of advertising is good at is name recognition. By repeatedly seeing a name you will subconsciously remember that name. So when you are shopping for that item, that name will sound familiar. Will the customer remember seeing the name on the trailer 100 times - No. Will they be able to tell you why your company was selected - No. Will the tell you that they picked your name from a list of 50 other companies in the phone book, newspaper, internet or other list - Yes. The question is why they picked your company.
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    I think the trick would be to advertise the right businesses. I live in a Condo complex now and one company does all the landscaping, but in other neighborhoods, and especially in S. Florida in more upscale areas, everyone has different landscaping companies and on Tue-Thu you would see vans and trailers from different companies all over the place.

    You'd have to really know the area and market to target it right.
    I think it could work...kind of a play on car, and taxi wraps. Especially in places that don't get any real winter so you have almost all year long ads running. (Arizona, Nevada, S. Cal, etc)

    There was a company in Ft. Lauderdale that used to advertise "Free Snow Removal" on the Garbage Trucks. It took me the better part of a year to get it. (It don't snow in S.FL). For the longest time I couldn't understand how they could afford it.

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    Huggytree's experience is exactly the same as mine. It's a great idea, but after 5 years of doing this (and other) kinds of advertising I wouldn't pay a dollar for it.

    I have a very nice $3,000 wrap on my van and it gets a lot of attention - although I'm sure it might not meet handprop's standards. I've gotten 1 call and zero jobs after two years from it. However, I still think it was well worth it because of the credibility that it gives me when I pull up to give a quote. It also builds name recognition with people that is hard to measure. I also have people that think I have a fleet of vehicles.

    My yard signs on the other hand have done fairly well for me (and I don't even have an offer on them!). It's more a matter of implied referral since they see their neighbor trusted me with their dog fence.
    Steve B

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