Information about Wrap Advertising

Wrap advertising (also a mobile billboard) is the practice of completely covering (wrapping) a vehicle in an advertisement or livery. Large vehicles effectively become ‘mobile billboards’ afterward. This can be achieved by simply painting the vehicle surface, but it is becoming more common today to use large vinyl sheets as decals. These can be removed with relative ease, making it much less expensive to change from one advertisement to another. Vehicles with large, flat surfaces, such as buses and light-rail carriages, are fairly easy to work with, though smaller cars with curved surfaces can also be wrapped in this manner.

Attributes

Recent advancements in vinyl development have lead to new types of vinyls specifically for doing wraps, such as vinyls that feature air channels to prevent bubbles, and microscopic glass beads that prevent the adhesive from taking hold until squeegeed down. This feature allows the material to be lifted and reapplied as needed during the wrapping process, without compromising the longevity of the wrap.^[1] Decals can be made to cover side and rear windows on a vehicle, though for obvious safety reasons, the front windows used by the driver are not covered. The decals on side windows are typically perforated so that it is still possible for passengers to look outside. A wrap must often be divided into a number of smaller pieces to appropriately cover any movable panels on the vehicle, such as the fuel tank cover, trunk (boot) openings, and other doors.

Wrapping is also sometimes used instead of paint as a less-permanent way of applying its operator’s standard livery than paint. This has become particularly common in the United Kingdom where, since the privatisation of British Rail, it has become quite frequent for trains to be transferred from one company to another and thus require many changes of livery.

Mobile billboards

Mobile billboards are a form of Out-Of-Home (OOH) Advertising. Radio, static billboards, and mall/airport advertising fall into the same category.

Most mobile billboards are dedicated, customized trucks with large, but narrow, bodies for posting the advertisements. Some of these dedicated units offer features such as external sound systems, illumination, and hot/cold boxes for product sampling. This type of mobile billboard is the most popular among vendors, and the most capable in terms of gaining exposure and quick deployment.

Another type of mobile billboard consists of a billboard structure mounted to a trailer. The billboard can then be hitched to any vehicle capable of towing it.

Box-type trucks with glass panels enclosing the cargo space can be turned into a 3-D display. Many companies use these trucks for parades, product launches, furniture displays, and general rapid awareness creation. Anything can be placed inside of the boxes.

Other mobile advertising formats include airplane banner towing and mobile billboards on water towed by boats.

Effectiveness

Industry analysts, researchers and trade representatives have researched the effectiveness of mobile billboards. Outdoor Advertising Magazine said that outdoor mobile media billboards have a 97% recall rate, and 96% of survey respondents thought mobile advertising is more effective than traditional outdoor advertising. 3M and the American Trucking Association noted 91% of the target noticed the text and graphics on truck advertising, and the Traffic Audit Bureau noted that on local routes monthly impressions ranged from one to four millions hits. Product Acceptance and Research said 94% of respondents recalled seeing the Mobile Billboard, with 80% recalling the specific advertisement; the billboards resulted in a sales increase of 107%.

Issues

Visibility is reduced. However, perforated vinyl film comes in various sizes in the perforations. Larger perforations increase visibility.” A 70/30 pattern allows for 20% more picture. Visibility is a concern for vehicle wraps. Vehicle windshields and side windows should never be covered. State and county laws have particular regulations about this.

The vinyl may wrinkle or separate from the glass on curved windows because the polyester laminates are design for flat windows.

Washing windows with solvent glass cleaner prior to application is not recommended, eg. windex. Solvent can affect the adhesive on perforated vinyl film causing it to not adhere properly to the glass. This can cause distortion in the image. Instructions usually accompany products.

Legality

Some municipalities have strict laws against mobile advertisements. New York City is a notable example, in which any sort of motorized advertisement is outlawed. Mobile billboards have been accused of congesting already congested streets, since they seek areas with high populations^[2]. In areas such as these, non-motorized but mobile advertisements (i.e. adbikes) can often be used as a substitute.

In Norway the use of wrap advertising on busses was prohibited by the road authorities. The reason behind the ban was that in an emergency the windows might need to serve as an emergency exit and that the advertising would make the window harder to break with the emergency hammer. Gaia Trafikk argued against the ban, pointing out that their tests showed that the thin wrap had no impact on the breakability of the window, but did remove the advertising which covered the windows.^[3]

See also

• Bus advertising

References