“Brains Over Bucks.”

Get Free Advertising From Your Vehicle

By Jeff Slutsky and Marc Slutsky

Bugged. Driving around town can be one of your best forms of advertising, according to Jeff Whiting of Help! Wizards, a Columbus, Ohio based computer consulting firm that makes house calls. In October of 1999, they bought their first vehicle. Instead of going with a white van as they originally thought, they decided to buy something that would attract more attention. So, they bought a bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Their “Help!Wizards” Logo is boldly blazon on both sides of the bug and their trademark “!” is on the hood. They’ve since added three more bugs to the fleet and have two more scheduled to the streets very soon. And the results? According to Whiting, they get at least one call a week directly from the exposure to the “Wizard Bug.”

More Bugged. An independent extermination company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, used an old hearse with a big bug on top as its vehicle. It got a lot of attention but many customers felt uncomfortable with that in their driveways.

Tagged. If you would prefer to make your point more subtly, consider getting promotional vanity tags for your car. The right message can generate some interest. For example, our Director of Sales for Street Fighter Marketing drives a company car that also turns some heads. The company car is a silver two-door, convertible Mercedes SLK 230 with license plate: “BIZ SMRT.” Not only is it a tremendous company perk but it draws a great deal of attention to our BizSmart column. Once she was stopped by a couple of police officers, not because she was speeding. They wanted to find out more about the car. Now they’re loyal readers of our column.

The plates that seem to make the most impact, however, are the ones that take a few moments for you to figure out. They engage you and then once you finally “decode” the plate’s meaning, you remember it forever. Here are some other tags that we’ve seen or have been submitted to us:

• “MR 2TH” we assume is a dentist.
• “I SUE 4 U” from a lawyer in California.
• “1099" or “W 2" is what we suggested to our CPA brother, Howard Slutsky.
• “401K” for an investment advisor specializing in retirement accounts.
• “BUYLOW” for a stock broker.
• “P8NTR” we guess is a painter.
• “MNIPUL8" and “Spine” are from Chiropractors.
• “EIEIO” suggested to a farm coop manager.
• “U P 4 ME” is from a urologist in New Orleans.

 

Bogus Fleet. One of the members of the audience of a keynote speech we were giving told us about the man who had one delivery vehicle. A friend of his who had a large fleet made fun of his single truck. So, he had some magnetic signs made with his company logo on it. He also put at the bottom under the logo “Delivery Vehicle #1" which went on the left side. “Delivery Vehicle #2” was placed on the right side of the truck. On the back was “Delivery Vehicle #3" His friend was amazed at how fast his fleet grew.

Street Fighter Action Plan

1. If you have trucks in your fleet, consider ways to make them bold billboards for your company.
2. If your business vehicle is used for personal use as well, consider using removable magnetic signs for after hours use.
3. Consider a vanity license plate that cleverly advertises your services.

 

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