Vehicle Wraps Revisited: 4 Important Tips to Know

With restaurant week approaching, we at IH Concepts wanted to reflect on our past work with restaurants and talk about a marketing tool that can take your advertising to the next level. While there are many ways to promote your business, one more indirect, yet effective, way to advertise is the use of vehicle wraps. Vehicle wraps are a great way to indirectly advertise your business and can make up to 80,000 impressions of your business per day. It allows you to highlight the main benefits of your company in a concise manner and showcase your work to a much wider audience in your community. Vehicle wraps are also a much more cost-effective form of advertising within local areas. 3M, the largest maker of vehicle wraps and graphic films, conducted a 3-month study on vehicle wrap cost and impressions. They found that the cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for vehicle wraps is $0.48, versus $3.56 for billboards, $7.75 for radio advertisements, $19.70 for newspaper, and $23.70 for a TV ad. Here are four tips for creating your company’s vehicle wrap.

1. Measure the Vehicle You Are Designing For

Cars are not flat and perfectly square. They have round edges, varying lengths, widths and heights. This can make the design and fitting of a vehicle wrap quite difficult. To alleviate some of the stresses associated with this, measure the vehicle that you intend to put the wrap on. This will give you insight into which areas of the vehicle to emphasize your advertising and show you what areas will be more and less difficult to apply the wrap on. While car brands have similar types of cars, they differ slightly in curvature and size. So, while a general car template would be useful, the car that you might want to wrap could be different than that template, which will alter the wrap and could cost you. When we do vehicle wraps for our clients, we take the extra time to get all the measurements necessary before designing and applying the wrap, it will make the process run smoothly and could save you money.

2. Use High Quality Photos and Bold Colors

When we worked with one of our clients, Caspian Grill, we advised them to have professional photos taken for their vehicle wrap. This vehicle wrap will be your first impression to your potential customers, so making the investment of using professionally taken photos will only benefit you. Consumers also “eat with their eyes”, meaning that before they consider choosing an option, they look for what is most appealing to them visually. By using high quality photos and bold colors, it will resonate more with your audience and help you stand out! A study has shown that 80% of consumers could recall relevant details about a vehicle wrap after seeing it only once. Furthermore, 91% of consumers could recall significant details when a vehicle wrap is seen a few times per week during commuting. This will extend your reach and recognition within your community and expand your customer base.

3. Keep the Message Short & Sweet

Because most consumers will be seeing your wrap while they are driving, it is important to keep your message short and sweet. Include the highlights of your business; what your top selling products are, using photos to your advantage, and ensuring that you include where you are located and what times you operate. With drivers only having a limited amount of time to read your wrap, it is essential to make your message concise, so it takes little time to read and understand your message. As a rule of thumb, limit it to 3-8 words on your wrap to ensure your audience can read it promptly.

4. Test-Fit the Design

Now that you have your car measured and a developed design in mind, it’s important to do one final test-fit on your vehicle. Doing a test-fit at the end will allow you to not only confirm the design, but also fix any fitting adjustments needed before you make the final investment. This tip is one of the most important, because it can either save or cost you upwards of $600 when making the purchase. For example, when we were working with our client, Caspian Grill, we did a final test-fit using tile prints and found that there were fitting adjustments needed towards the top of the car. Because we were able to catch this issue prior to purchasing the final wrap, we were able to save Caspian Grill $350.

Vehicle wraps, as well as social media, are becoming the new wave of advertising for businesses big and small. They allow you to indirectly advertise to different audiences within your community, while also being cost effective and will last for upwards of seven years. By following these tips, you can have a constant advertising stream for wherever you go!

Related IH Concepts Articles:

“Vehicle Wraps! Make Your Business Memorable and Increase Sales at the Same Time”

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