Trucks roll as moving billboards
September 25,2 010, Cincinnati Enquirer
By Laura Baverman
A slice of Frisch’s famous pumpkin pie soon will be traveling down the highway on the side of a truck delivering goods to one of the chain’s 91 regional restaurants.
A few weeks later, that message may change to an ad for Frisch’s homemade vegetable soup or its chili spaghetti or strawberry pie.
Frisch’s is one of the first national customers of a new truck marketing system by Blue Ash-based Advertising Vehicles. The restaurant chain is using Advertising Vehicles’ newest technology to wrap its fleet of trucks with promotional banners, part of an overall media strategy with traditional radio, television, outdoor and print ads.
“We’ve used billboards in the past and know them to be effective,” said Karen Maier, Frisch’s vice president of marketing. “Advertising Vehicles created a system that accommodated our trucks. And we can now show our signature products that we haven’t taken advantage of promoting.”
Founded in 2003 by two local radio advertising executives, Ken Black and L.V. Semona, Advertising Vehicles has built a business around moving billboards. Since 2005, it has sold third-party advertising for local Metro buses, sometimes wrapping entire buses with printed vinyl. It has grown that business to earn transit contracts in Lexington, Louisville and Nashville.
Now, a new relationship with London-based Traxx, the manufacturer of a patented truck framing system, could help Advertising Vehicles grow revenue by 50 percent and develop national distribution.
Traxx has installed its system on 8,500 trucks in 10 countries. The system allows printed graphic PVC banners to be easily removed and replaced from the side or back of a truck.
Traxx chose Advertising Vehicles as its exclusive distributor in the U.S. because it already helps clients determine how to fit vehicle messaging into their traditional media strategy. Besides Frisch’s and Metro, its clients have included Graeter’s, Jones the Florist and Miller Brewing Co.
“We’re not here to change the way media is bought,” said Traxx CEO Ian Calderwood. “We’re here to extend the penetration and reach of it.”
Calderwood expects Advertising Vehicles to install frames on as many as 10,000 trucks over the next three years.
“We want to try and educate brands to use their trucks differently,” Calderwood said. “Ken and Advertising Vehicles are pioneering that market.”
Truck graphics had been limited in the past to a simple logo or brand message painted on the vehicle’s side or printed on a sticky vinyl lining. It cost too much to regularly change the paint or vinyl to adapt to company promotions or new products. And those methods couldn’t be used on older corrugated trucks like many of Frisch’s.
The Traxx framing system becomes part of the truck, and its banners can cover corrugated sides or rust. Companies must make an upfront investment for the system. They then pay the design and printing costs for each individual banner.
Advertising Vehicles can swap the banners out any time and at any place. It takes about 15 minutes to remove one banner and replace it with a new one.
“It gives me flexibility if one of my breweries or wineries wants to run their seasonal program. I can change it out for a new one when I want,” said Greg Flynn, operations manager for Evendale-based Ohio Valley Wine & Beer, which has a fleet of about 35 trucks.
Black has created a new company to help market the Traxx system, called Advertising Trucks. His existing sales team has spent much of 2010 educating clients about the new system and making early sales. In 2011, he’ll add to the local sales force and establish a broker network to sell nationally. Printers in other parts of the country also will be given the right to print and install the banners.
“We did a lot of research and decided this wasn’t here and it’s the best,” Black said. “2010 has been a year for people to test it and see how it works. In 2011, it will grow.”
