Vehicle wraps could drive traffic to large and small
businesses.
By Tor Black mobile marketing expert from
http://www.Amstand.com and http://www.GetWraps.com

Now Tivo & D.V.R.s lets you skip TV commercials, Satellite
Radio is commercial free, Internet killed phone book ads and
newspaper print ads, internet now has spam blockers and
popup blockers stopped internet ads. So where are companies
going next to keep your attention? Car ads!
As you sit in traffic you have to look at them. They are
often mistaken for custom paint of murals or called custom
car graphics but the proper term for them are called Vehicle
Wraps, (vehicle wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com )
they take vehicles and shrink wrap an ad all the way
around it (wrapping every nook and cranny). And it is the
hottest growing form of advertising – it was even featured
on an episode on NBC of Donald Trump’s the Apprentice.
It started in the 90’s with wrapping buses. (bus wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/buses )
These are the
city buses that have ads covering the entire bus including
the windows. It is expensive so it didn’t take off
immediately and only large advertising firms and advertisers
with major budgets took advantage of this form of marketing.

In the mid-nineties bigger business started to wrap semis
and tractor trailers. (semi wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/specialty-truck )
With long distant drivers and millions
of miles driven the impressions caught the eyes of large
companies like fast food chains. So next thing you know you
see a giant Big Mac driving down the road.
By the late nineties the mid-sized businesses like produce
companies started wrapping their box trucks and refig trucks
(box truck wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/specialty-truck )
with pictures of juicy vegetables. The construction industry
started jumping in with all there service pickup trucks and
cube-truck wraps. Soon there was 50-100 local trucks and van
wraps with pictures of beautiful houses with the builders
name or icy mountain tops with a local air-conditioning -
plumbing company driving around town all day they took off
like wildfire.

In 2000 the word for those “in the advertising know” was
wraps, wraps, wraps. Every business with any size fleet
wrapped (fleet wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/fleets )then from 1 van wrap to 25 fleet vans ponied up the
cash. From florist delivery vans (semi wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/vans )
covered with gorgeous
flower arrangements to pest control companies putting giant
gross bugs wrapped on their sprinter vans both gained the
desired effect of getting their potential customers
attention while going about their daily business.
In the early 2000’s the wrap industry started to explode.
Then small business and home based business figured out the
return on this form of advertising and wrapped SUVs ( SUV wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/suv ) and
started wrapping mini-vans and even car wraps. Now
minivans wrapped with multilevel marketing elixirs and SUVs
and Hummers wrapped with the local realtors face are now
more and more visible.

The show cars are wrapped now placing designs and graphics
all over their customs. Euros and drifters as seen on “Pimp
My Ride - MTV show” and the “Fast and Furious Trilogy“ are
wrapped. Wraps are the new airbrush paint job of the 2000s.
Even NASCAR wraps (racecar wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/racecars )
their racecars so sponsors get the most
visibility and can be replaced instantly if in a
fender-bender! Their even putting trailer wraps on their car
transport trailers!
What’s next?
Plane Wraps? Boats Wraps? Motorcycle Wraps? Personal Car
Wraps? Personal Truck Wraps? Building Wraps? Yes, Yes, Yes,
Yes, Yes, and Yes. They are already being done as we speak.
Planes have been wrapped with world cup soccer ads,
southwest airlines did a supper successful campaign by
placing two different sign of zoo animals wrapped on either
side of the plane and it gave the appearance the fleet was
twice as big. Get Wraps pioneered boat wraps (boat wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/boats ) in Florida
gaining popularity on the offshore boat racing circuit by
wrapping those long curvy expensive high-speed rocket
boats. (This is very hard on the material as the water
beats against the boat as it speeds at over 100mph!) The
bass fishing tournament industry now requires all boats
wrapped as the few that were wrapped seemed to get all the
camera time on ESPN 2 and all other televising stations. Now
that is proof of the power of wraps! (This was just a real
world observation, of course there have been many
independent studies on the effectiveness of vehicle
advertising verses other media and even cost analyst
comparisons and roi numbers if you want to see then click
here.) Motorcycles wraps and ATVs wraps (bike wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/motorcycles )are gaining
popularity in the past few years. But the most talked
about craze is personal car wraps and not what you might
think. Yes some people are wrapping their cars with flags
and such but the most hype in this industry is the get paid
to drive some company’s ad around on your car for money or
“free car” type websites. There are advertisers wanting to
hit certain markets but the supply is a lot less then the
demand. Anther popular use of wraps that’s gaining
nationwide is the camo wraps or camouflage truck wraps.
(truck wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/trucks )
Hunters are lining up to get this done to their personal
trucks. What’s the strangest thing we seen wrapped?
Building wraps? (building wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/buildingwraps )
No that’s been done hundreds of times in
every major city. Trains-Monrail systems? Nope that’s gotten
to be normal already. You ready? Musical instrument wraps!
Yes ! Guitar wraps and drum wraps (musical instrument wraps see: http://www.getwraps.com/whatsnew )are the hot new thing!
These wraps are so versatile and effective who knows if it
will ever end……
By the way these wraps are very difficult to apply even with
the best material 3M Scotchprint material controltac with
comply (flexible non-damaging print material for wraps). ( 3M vehicle wrap material see: http://www.getwraps.com/3M-certified-authorized-man ) So
this spawned a whole new artisan or craftsman the Certified
Professional Wrap Installer. And
an International Association of Wrappers to network and refer business. (see: http://www.vehiclewraps.org ). There is even a trade school
for this specialty field called aptly The Wrap Academy. (wrap installer certified training See: http://www.wrapacademy.com )

For more information about wrapping (not the hip-hop kind),
wraps, how they work, materials, installing, what they cost
or any questions on the industry check out the blog at
(see : http://vehiclewraps.wordpress.com) .


Tor Black writes for several sign, printing and digital graphics magazines, blogs and websites. He is an industry expert in the niche market of mobile advertising. He runs 7 shops in Florida producing large format digital prints some in business for 20+ years. http://www.Amstand.com and http://www.GetWraps.com His specialty is vehicle wraps and he has written courses, given speeches and presentation on wrapping and even started the first technical school on how to wrap vehicles - http://www.WrapAcademy.com