I need your opinions on advertising

[Dbeau]

Ok so my buisness partner and I have desided to put some advertising on our vehicals for the first time. The problem I am having is he wants to go the way of BIG letters all down the side's of the cars, that he says people can see from down the street. Basically huge, short one colour words. He insists this is the way to go.

Now as for myself I am more interested in the vinal coverings calles "perff". It's the stuff that you can cover a window completley with full colour and graphics and still see through from the inside. I was thinking of using this on the back windows only, since it would like a nice detailed billboard right in front of peoples face when they are parked behind. True it will only be seen from those behind or walking by when parked, but to me just seems less tacky and a more high-tech type of look (we are a tech company).

He refuses to even consider this option as he belives it is two costly, about twice the price, will be seen less often and might be hard to see from a distance.

So what's you folks take on this ? Or any sudgestions ?We cant seem to agree on this at all :smt014

[Tachikoma]

I can pretty much guarantee you, the only time someone looks at adverts on vehicles now is the "how's my driving? call ******" when a van cuts them up on the motorway.

People just look straight through them without even noticing.

On top of this, regardles of what they say, they do not come off easy! you can see lots of ex-fleet vehicles with half peeled off logo's/adverts and then just being painted over. Looks terrible!

Get a roof rack and a big sandwich board on the top instead!

It may be "old hat" but its easily changeable/removable and cheaper.

[madhatter256]

I suggest you guys first use the side advertising. Then when you get more business in and more money then invest on the rear-window option AND still have the side advertising, then you have a 360' billboard :smt042 .

What kind of business do you guys do?

[Yakumo]

I'm into graphic design and I can tell you know that words DON'T SELL. What's the first thing you notice when you look at a billboard? It's the image, right? Then you notice the text. I say go with the window option.

Here's one I made for a Japanese Mentaiko (Fish eggs) company to fit along their bus. It was never used in the end because the older vice manager of the company didn't like the korean woman even though that's what he asked for. I didn't care though. Still got 40'000 yen for it :-D Show this to your partner. I'm sure he'll change his mind. Text only looks crap and cheap.

(Images resized from originals so they look a bit poor)




Yakumo

[Tachikoma]

What you really need to do, is hire some stunning female models, kit them out in tight little hot-pants and vests emblazoned with the company logo, and send them around to my hou... I mean around your local town. Handing out flyers and stuff. *cough*

[Dbeau]

What kind of business do you guys do?

We are a technology consulting company. Basically we do everything from hardware sales, network install and admin, programing, web design and hosting and I could go on but you get the idea. If its tech and we think theres money in it we will do it :-D

I agree with the fact people just look right through lettering and with the vinal, ya fewer will see it but atleast they will see our logo and what ever images/words we decide to incorporate. So I belive its worth the money and few eyes if the impresion is better and remembered.

I like to hot chick idea, maby when we do our first trade show ! Been 4 years since we started up and the first bit of advertising we have ever done.

[TRigga 007]

Yakumo is totally correct in saying that words just DONT SELL, wether it be a product or sevice.

People will only notice things if they stand out: Ie; Bright colours, big pictures, something funny.

At this moment in time it seems the biggest winners in advertisment seem to be going with the minamilist (SP?) look with bright backgrounds (light and bright).

With your company it will be hard to incorperate a simple yet eye catching advertisment but im sure with the right team behind it something good shall happen.

Also the semi naked women handing out flyers should grab the attention of a lot of people :smt023

[Bert Hardy]

(this might sound a bit heavy....it's not meant to be...)

I think you might be better not thinking of it from your point of view and think of it from your client's point of view and from a (professional) marketing persons's point of view.

The marketing person may ask why have you chosen the car to advertise? - and then ask you to stand back before making that decision and think about a few things.

My wife's a marketing executive and drills things into my head all the time and one of big things is what you think is not necessarily (and often) is not what your clients think. (I've lost this argument too many times and she's right... :smt042

Try the marketing news groups - post it there. They'll probably make you think about things you're not considering at the moment, you can mention stuff like:

Do I need to know the demographics of our clients ? (demographics = information about your clients, how much disposible income, where can you target them - if they all drive cars then they are less likely to notice of see your add on a vechille, if they go on buses then they are more likely).

How will you measure success? (you'll want metrics - typically a small poll in your area to ask what percentage seen the vechille in the last week, say)

What's your marketing mix? (you may be better having a mixed- focused? - marketing campaign) (marketing mix is the way you use different mediums to reach your clients).

Define your goal? (is it just to raise awareness or get them to buy/use something - you may want a big phone num on the side, website etc.)

Can you get PR rather than advertising - marketeers have a saying "advertising is what you pay for, PR is what you PRAY for!". Basically advertising costs you money. PR is free. Is there an angle you can use to get a story into a news paper? some quirk about yourselves that's funny or different.

Have you got a promotion to coincide with the advertising? Often companies will offer a promotion at the same time as *starting* a campaign - this is deliberate and tries to build an initial momentum quickly before people get used to it and ignore it - you see it all the time when new things come out in the supermarket.

I know jackshizz about marketing except for the bits my wife drills into my head, but they appear to be the key concepts they think about when advising clients.