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Top 13 Reasons Why Advans and Mobile Billboards Out-Perform Other Advertising Mediums
1. BILLBOARD ADVERTISING WORKS!! It lives up to its’ promise, reaches more people than any other medium (apart from TV), and offers better value for money.
2. You can take your message directly to the areas you want to draw people from ...which means there is no wasted advertising which in turn means pound for pound this medium works harder and is more cost effective than most other mediums.
3. Stand alone advertising ...which means your message stands out from your competitors’ unlike local paper and radio advertising.
4. Billboard Advertising cannot be thrown away, switched off or turned over ...which means it gets noticed and works for you all of the time
5. No other form of local advertising can reach as many people at such a low rate per thousand ...which means you can reach on average over 400,000 people over a week for less than £0.006p per person.
6. Billbaords are always working, stationary or moving ...which means there is no wastage.
7. You can target impulse buyers ...which means you can get your share of the 60% of people who make high street purchases on impulse.
8. Flexibility, from 1 day to 1 month ...which means your message can be altered weekly and can last as long as your sales. Also ideal for launches and special promotions.
9. Billboards are eye level and eye catching ...which means people look at your message which is the whole point of advertising.
10. The billboards are big, moving, unusual and unique ...which means they cannot be missed and people can’t help but look. Also excellent for branding.
11. Billboards are unique and there are less than 200 of them in the UK …which means they stand out even more than any other commercial medium
12. Your advertising on a medium which is perceived to be very expensive …which means your competitors think you’ve got more money than them and your potential customers think your brand is bigger and more trust worthy than your competitors.
13. We can cover a far greater area than other advertising mediums …which means you don’t have to advertise in dozens of overlapping newspapers and radio stations and in the process pay over-the-top rates.
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How Do The Rates Of Using A Mobile Billboard Compare To The Rates Of The More Traditional Advertising Mediums I Can Use?
We commissioned an external agency to carry out the following research on our behalf in the Greater London & Kent areas. Their brief was to negotiate the best possible rates, in the same way you would if you were calling them yourself. The following research was carried out in November 2005 and although inconclusive it's a good comparison.
We chose 3 of the most common mediums to compare to and this is what was found:
Local News Papers
(Free titles & paid for titles) |
Price |
Circulation |
Cost/1000 |
| Bexley Mercury |
£ 850.00 |
20,638 |
£41.26p |
| Bexley News Shopper |
£1500.00 |
134,071 |
£11.19p |
| Bromley News Shopper |
£1500.00 |
103,286 |
£14.56p |
| Croydon Borough Post |
£ 900.00 |
104,105 |
£ 8.65p |
| Croydon Guardian |
£ 950.00 |
115,813 |
£ 8.20p |
| Wimbledon Guardian |
£ 875.00 |
54,114 |
£16.20p |
| Ealing Leader |
£ 775.00 |
75,288 |
£10.31p |
| Ilford Recorder |
£ 600.00 |
22,422 |
£26.78p |
| Kentish Times |
£ 600.00 |
19,394 |
£31.09p |
| South London Press |
£ 900.00 |
31,131 |
£29.03p |
| Surrey Comet |
£ 970.00 |
20,925 |
£46.41p |
| East London Advertiser |
£ 500.00 |
16,728 |
£29.90p |
| Kensington Informer |
£ 995.00 |
98,693 |
£10.09p |
| Stoke Newington Express |
£ 680.00 |
20,860 |
£32.69p |
Advantages / Disadvantages associated with this medium
Prices based on a full page advert. Your advert can be placed anywhere in the paper on a left or right hand page. You will have to pay extra if you want to specify a position. Paid for titles offer less circulation than free titles but can guarantee readership. Local papers are cluttered with adverts and most people skip these and only look at the first 4 pages/last 2. The primary reason people buy or look at local papers is for job vacancies and the property pages. They do not offer your product/service impact and the print quality is poor. The audience is very general and cannot be targeted easily. With the free titles, it’s impossible to estimate how many are wasted even though their circulation may be verified.
Leaflets & Distribution
(Free titles & paid for titles) |
Price |
Circulation |
Cost/1000 |
Printing of leaflets based on a competitive quote from a printing company for 80,000 flyers printed full colours A4 size both sides. |
|
|
£1840.00 |
| PLUS distribution cost @ £20 per 1000 |
£1600 |
80,000 |
£43.00 |
Advantages / Disadvantages associated with this medium
There is a lot of wastage with leaflet distribution and your flyer may be distributed with numerous other flyers. There is no way of guaranteeing the leaflets were distributed.
| Radio Advertising |
Price |
Circulation |
Cost/1000 |
| Choice FM |
£2980.00 |
190,000 |
£15.68p |
| Sunrise FM |
£5259.00 |
300,000 |
£17.53p |
Advantages / Disadvantages associated with this medium
Prices based on 90 spots @ 30 seconds over a 2 week period. Production of advert will cost extra. Radio advertising is 2 dimensional but many spots need to be booked to make it effective.
| Posters On Wheels |
Price |
Circulation |
Cost/1000 |
| 1 Advan |
Please Call |
400,000 |
£4.99p |
Advantages / Disadvantages associated with this medium
Prices based on a 5 day campaign reaching an average of 80,000 people a day including driver, fuel, mileage and posters. No other costs involved. As you can see, the figures speak for themselves.
There are a number of other advertising mediums to chose from too but the above are the most common.
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How Many People Will Look At My Billboard Advertising?
Billboard Advertising is the fastest growing form of advertising bar the web. All the major and best-known brands are built through TV the use of billboard and other ambient advertising methods. Research carried out by the OAAA shows how much importance the brands put on the use of mobile billboards as part of the marketing mix.
The research was carried out over a period of 4 months with the use of small cameras that measured and captured how many people looked at a billboard message and for how long. This was carried out on static billboards, advan mobile billboards, buses and taxis in major cities and the results were staggering.
Mobile billboards came out top. They measured an average of 105,000 people looked at a mobile billboard message on an average weekday for 3 seconds or more over an 8 hour period. The results were 15% higher on a weekend. The study was carried out in various cities and the above figures are an average.
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Which Geographical Areas Can Your Billboard Advertising Cover?
From the South to the West, from the East to the North, we cover the whole country with our Advans & Mobile Billboards. We offer a truly nationwide service and regularly undertake work in Ireland and Europe.
We guarantee to offer the same level of service wherever we undertake to go. All we need is a route, a contact point and any other specific instructions you may have.
Please note, if you require us to travel long distances and we do not have an advan or advertising trailer in the region around the time of the start date of your campaign, we may have to levy a mileage charge. Please contact our sales team on 08707 60 56 57 for up to date pricing & scheduling information.
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If Advans And Billboards Are So Effective As An Advertising Medium, Why Isn't Everyone Using Them?
Good question! Advans are a relatively new concept in the UK and most marketing managers and advertising agencies have never used one before to really know what they are about.
Only 4 years ago, I worked in the field of marketing and advertising consultancy and booked millions of pounds worth of advertising on behalf of my clients but never ever considered researching advan mobile billboards as an option – I didn’t even know they existed - until coming across one by accident. Even then it took me a while to include them as part of the marketing mix because my perception was that they were going to be too expensive and deplete all my budget.
The main reasons why people don’t use them are:
- They don’t know anything about the medium and its’ merits
- They automatically think the costs are going to be prohibitive because they only ever see the big brands using them
- They don’t see many of them around in the first place to consider them
- By the time they have booked the ‘traditional’ mediums they always book and pay too much for, they run out of budget to consider anything else
- They perceive booking a billboard to be a lot of hassle because they haven’t booked one in the past
The fact that you are reading this article means that you are looking for a Mobile Billboards company and considering us for your campaign.
If you’re anything like the people we are used to dealing with, you recognise that just having a good creative or message isn’t enough anymore in a crowded market place - you need to place your advertisement on something that stands out, that not everyone is using as an advertising medium, which still has the WOW factor and makes people stop and stare. You’ve found it!
In the whole of the UK there is an estimated 160 Advans and Adtrailers. This alone means your messages will stand out over your competitors!! The “exclusiveness” of the medium is on the one hand why people don’t use them but on the other hand is why they work so well as an advertising medium for the people who do.
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What Are Your Turnaround & Lead Times?
As one of the leading Advan and Mobile Billboard providers in the country, we are able to accommodate even the tightest of schedules 97% of the time.
If you have artwork ready that meets our specifications (see our ‘size specs’ page), we can turnaround your campaign with 48 hours.
We normally recommend at least 7 days to produce your billboards from your artwork. However, we understand that time is something that business does not always allow. If you need to put your campaign together on short notice, we will do everything possible to make your campaign happen. We recommend scheduling your campaign as soon as you have a date confirmed. Our advertising trucks usually book up several months in advance …book early to avoid disappointment!!
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What Tips Can You Give Me To Ensure My Advan Campaign Is Successful Including Ideas On Routes?
Every campaign is different but more often than not our clients’ objectives are the same.
“Mobile Billboards are the modern day Town Crier”
Set your frame of mind – imagine you’ve got a bell in your hand and you’re standing in the middle of a busy high street (much like a town crier in the olden days). What would you say to those passing by to get their attention. Remember – you’ve only got 3 to 4 seconds – so make it count!
We want you to get the best and the most out of using our advans because we believe you will come back for more. Below you will find a list of bite sized top tips, which are a mixture of practical customer advice and years of our own advertising experience. Together they will help ensure your advan campaign is successful;
Establish your goal
The starting point when planning your Advan campaign is to establish your goals and the reasons behind booking and using a Mobile Billboard company. Who do you want to attract? What do you want them to do?
Billboards are used mainly for brand awareness and to make special announcements such as New Home Sales, Seasonal Sales, Grand Openings, Product Launches, Tactical Advertising, Back Drops for Press & TV Interviews, College Enrolment Campaigns, Sales Promotion, Car Dealerships, etc, etc.
Artwork and Message
The artwork and message is all important – especially when using Mobile Billboards. The most successful billboards keep their message short and to the point. The less words there are the better. On the reverse panel of your Advan you can have as much wording as you like because people tend to spend more time behind our Advans when in traffic.
A short message coupled with a strong graphic relevant to the advert works best. A web site address is also important as a means of giving more information. Most Mobile Billboard Advertising users don’t put too much emphasis on phone numbers. Outdoor Billboards aren’t primarily used to encourage people to call (when was the last time you phoned a number advertised on a billboard?). Billboards are message boards. For example, if you are a furniture retailer and you’re having a seasonal sale, your artwork content should promote your brand/logo, the fact that you are having a sale, when and where the sale is on, and of course the all important offer – what’s in it for your perspective audience? Why should they visit your store? The picture to be used could be of a piece of furniture relevant to the offer.
Lastly avoid making your message too complicated or the artwork too intricate. The average time a billboard message is looked at is 3.5 seconds. Plain backgrounds with contrasting colours work best. Your designer should be able to point you in the right direction.
If you need some inspirational ideas take a drive down the road and have a look at how regular billboard users do it. You could also have a look at our gallery pages for some ideas too!
The Route
Our service is truly flexible – that’s the whole point of a moving billboard! The main objective is to get in front of as many people for as long as possible. City and town centres are very good for this as are retail parks and shopping malls. We recommend you get in your own car and drive the route. This will give you a better idea of where to start. Alternatively you can accompany our driver on the first morning and give them pointers.
You can use our advertising trailers in 3 ways;
- The driver can drive around a set route which he can follow to the letter if that is what you wish or you can just give him an area to stay in and circle continuously.
- Some times it is more fruitful to choose stopping points where the driver can park the billboard on a prominent spot such as a cross road or a roundabout where a lot of traffic congregates. This is probably good for rush hours. Other stopping points for our outdoor advertising vans could be outside the entrances of busy retails parks or traffic spots, train and tube stations and sporting events.
More often than not we advise you instruct the driver to do a mixture of both.
- Arrange for the billboard to be parked in the pedestrianised area of a local and busy shopping street. You will have a large captive audience. Some advertisers use this opportunity to hand out flyers, menus, samples etc to passing shoppers.
Whichever way you plan to do it, please do have a plan. Our instructions to our drivers are for them to continuously seek and find people, driving or walking, and slowly drive past them. But, they will depend on your local knowledge too.
We also recommend when planning your route, you keep to tight compact areas rather than large areas. Get the driver to drive around a small area a number of times then move to another area.
Communication with the Driver and Us
Communication is paramount. You can change your tactics daily to suit your campaign and all our drivers posses a mobile phone for this purpose. Please keep in touch with them and we recommend you instruct them to come and see you on a daily or bi-daily basis to update you on their activities – make the most out of them!!
We also like to be kept in the loop with regards to routes. You can do this by either calling our office or updating us by e-mail. Our outdoor advertising billboards are tracked by satellite GPS so we can see exactly where the drivers are at any time.
If for any reason you cannot contact the drivers by phone, please contact us and we will contact them via their on-board messaging systems.
Billboard & Press Release Opportunities
Extra publicity can be gained by the way of press releases. Our Billboard Vans are big and imposing and a picture of your message on one of them outside an area of interest coupled with a press release normally guarantees exposure in the local press and trade press.
We can supply you with pictures upon request too once your campaign has finished.
How to Assess if your Campaign was Successful
Unlike newspaper advertising, radio advertising, and flyers, billboards continuously broadcast your message and by default are successful.
It is important to have a goal, to ensure your message and visual are relevant to your objectives and your route/stop points have been planned properly. If they are, you can’t go wrong. Your brand will enjoy unsurpassed publicity and exposure.
As with any advertising campaigns it is important to keep a momentum and if budget allows we recommend you to book a series of campaigns rather than a one off. The best advertising is drip feed advertising. This is what establishes your brand in our minds.
Companies have different ways of establishing the success of their campaigns. Some gauge it on the response, some use questionnaires and others base it on how many times their staff and customers have seen the billboards driving around – word of mouth.
Here’s how we gauge our own success when we want to promote our brand to say…. Advertising agencies in London’s’ West End on our Mobile Billboards;
We plan our campaigns in exactly the same way we have advised you above making sure the message is relevant, the visual is relevant, the route is carefully outlined and the driver is briefed on our objectives.
During the execution of the campaign we randomly call advertising agencies in our target areas and ask if they have seen the billboards. The response is normally great and if it is not what we expect, we change our routes.
At the end of the campaign our sales people blitz the targeted agencies with phone calls to arrange appointments. At these appointments they generally find the person has seen our billboards and they already know who we are and have visited our web site prior to their meeting.
Lastly, we rely on existing clients. They normally call us or in passing mention they saw the vehicles.
We also participate in the trade shows and it is a good way to gauge if our efforts have been fruitful when visitors tell us they already know about us by seeing our vehicle driving around their places of work.
Our latest 5 day campaign generated direct calls from 18 agencies. We also know that many, many more agencies contact us when the need arises because they remember our brand above others. This is how we know our constant efforts are rewarded and our objectives met.
If you require any further information or help planning your campaign please contact our sales office on 08707 60 56 57. Good Luck!!!
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I've Been Advised To Ask How The Posters Are Attached To You Advans. Why Is That?
(see pictures & case study below too)
Mobile Billboards are prone to extreme weather conditions. The fact that each side of the billboard covers no less than 200 square feet means that you can compare it to a sail on a sailing boat.
The traditional methods used by all our competitors is either pasting the posters on in sections or stapling the posters around the edges when they arrive at their destination. The inherent problem with the above two methods is that the vehicles cannot carry the posters over medium to long distances and more often than not they look unacceptable at the end of the day - especially if the weather conditions are windy.
Pasted posters tend to peel at the edges and in some cases totally come off whilst the mobile is on the move rendering your campaign over They also require a skilled and experienced person to paste them up to avoid unsightly creases.
Stapled posters are a little more resilient but as the posters are printed onto a thin pvc material they stretch as the wind bellows beneath them whilst the vehicle is moving. The result of this is the banners pull against the staples and the pvc material stretches. They then look creased and saggy very quickly. The wind does not have to be strong for this to happen - the fact that the vehicle is moving gives the same result. They can also come off under extreme circumstances.
We have invented a patent pending poster hanging system. It is totally unique and exclusive to Posters On Wheels!
This means the posters are pulled very tight and look great throughout the life of the campaign. There are very few creases and the wind does not make them sag after a full day out.
The result of this unique & exclusive system is as follows;
* They can be installed at one of our bases instead of waiting to get to the proposed destination and then installing them, which is what all our competitors do.
* Your brand/message enjoys and receives more publicity whilst it is being driven to the proposed destination. For example if the vehicle starts at our head office in Kent and the campaign is due to start in Manchester, the vehicle will have to travel to Manchester the day before (12 to 14 hours prior). The process will be the same on the return journey. On a recent campaign, BMI, the low cost airline, received 24 hours/600 miles extra branding and publicity at no extra cost.
*You/your clients image is kept intact throughout the campaign and your studio does not have to spend any time touching up the photographs at the end of the campaign before being able to present them to your client (we've been told this is what happens with our competitors pictures).
- There is no 'down time' which occurs in the case a poster is lost or damaged as it rips off the vehicle and another one has to be printed in its' place.
Case Study – What happened in the General Elections 2005?
All the major political parties booked our services leading up to and during their campaigning in the 2005 General Elections. As you can imagine, this was a very busy and potentially stressful period. Every Advan company in the country was booked out and more were needed by us and our competitors.
The major factor that stood us out from our competitors was our banner hanging system. The candidates required the advertising vans to be driven over very long distances because they covered large regions. This in itself caused major problems for our competitors such as;
- They had to install and de-install their posters on a daily basis whilst traveling from one destination to another which meant their clients weren’t really getting value for money as most of the time was spent traveling. We didn’t!
- They had to keep on stopping and re-tightening their posters for them to look good for photographers, the press and tv news channels. We didn’t.
- For those who risked driving with the posters on, they had to cut some of their campaigns short due to posters flying off whilst driving on dual carriage ways and motorways. They lost vital campaigning days whilst waiting for new posters to be printed. We didn’t.
In fact, our mobiles billboards were seen the most in TV footage over the campaigning period overall. We put this down to the vehicles looking good, the posters being picture friendly and us being on time for photo calls!!
| Please click an image below to view a larger version. |
| Competitor's posters after 8 hours |
POW after 1 week |
POW after 2 weeks |
POW after 5 weeks |
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What Should I Look For In A Mobile Billboard Company?
- Make sure they are established in the market place
- Make sure they are specialists in their field. (you wouldn’t go to a general builder if you wanted a boiler fitted – you would look for a plumber or a boiler fitter)
- Make sure they have got their own fleet of vehicles and they’re not just an agent for another mobile billboard company
- Make sure they don’t use agency staff and all staff have received full training
- Make sure they don’t use advertising trailers. The vehicles need to have rigid bodies
- Make sure they can cover the areas you want and that they will not be subbing the work out to another billboard company in another area
- Make sure they’re not using paste on blue back posters
- Make sure all their drivers are contactable
- Make sure they have their vehicles tracked so they can tell you where they are at any time
- Make sure they take pictures using digital cameras during your campaign
- Ask how your posters will be hung on their vehicles and they intend to keep them looking good throughout your campaign
- Make sure their vehicles are well maintained and up to the job of undertaking your campaign minimising the risk of breakdowns
- Make sure their vehicles are covered with breakdown cover just incase
- Ask them if they have the capacity to exchange vehicles in the event of a breakdown which results in your vehicle being off the road more than a day.
- Make sure they are able to account what happened everyday of your campaign – for example, how many miles were traveled, how many hours were they on the road, where did they stop and how long for, etc.
These are all important factors when considering using a Mobile Billboard company. The last bit of advice is the old saying –“You get what you pay for”. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Good luck with your hunting!!
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How large are the Moving Billboards?
We utilise standard 48-sheet posters. This means our billboards are 20 feet long by 10 feet high. By using standard poster sizes, billboard artwork from a traditional billboard campaign can be used for your advan campaign without any modifications, saving you time and money.
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How long is one advertising day?
We work to a standard 8-hour-day. We begin each advertising day at the time you request and finish after a minimum of 8-hours of on-site advertising. This does not include the travel time too and from the campaign location. If you add the exposure gained during travel time, an advertising day usually lasts between 10 and 12 hours. If your campaign requires additional or fewer hours, we will be glad to create a custom advertising package to meet your needs.
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What if I don't have artwork ready for a campaign?
Our award winning studio can create your billboard artwork - free of charge for most designs depending on length of campaign being booked.
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How long will my posters last after they have been created?
A set of vinyl billboards will last approx 1 year with normal use and care. The actual vinyl will last longer than 2-years, but the ink used to print the artwork will begin to fade from exposure to sunlight and other harsh weather conditions.
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Can I use photographs on my billboards?
Yes, we use high-resolution printing for all of our billboards. This allows you to use virtually any image and colours in your billboard design.
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How far in advance should I schedule my campaign?
We normally need to have at least 2-weeks to produce your billboards. However, we understand that time is something that business does not always allow. If you need to put your campaign together on short notice, we will do everything possible to make your campaign happen. We recommend scheduling your campaign as soon as you have a date confirmed. Our trucks usually book up several months in advance.
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Do your Advertising Media Vehicles have an outdoor sound system?
We use a mobile surround sound system that allows you to play CD's.
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What do we provide within the advertising price?
Our price is all-inclusive. We cover all expenses for the driver, fuel travel. What we quote is what you are charged. We do not have any hidden charges. You will only be charged extra if you add days, hours or additional locations to your campaign only.
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