According to the Harvard Health Watch, the average American spends 101 minutes in their car every single day. If you do the math, that adds up to 592 hours per year (or more than 24 entire days). With this statistic in mind, can you think of any better way to reach potential customers other than getting the word out while you drive right along side them?
Car wraps that promote a business have become one of the fastest growing forms of printed advertisement, more than doubling in frequency over the last decade. Now, vehicle wrap advertising companies make everything from wraps for emergency vehicles, specialty cars, to entire fleets for large companies. If you want to improve name recognition and grow your business with full vehicle wraps, we’ve put together a few design tips for creating an effective vehicle wrap advertisement:
- Invest in professional branding. The most important take-away you want your car wrap to convey is your branding. If your logo is outdated, designed by amateurs, or uses free clip art, even the most premiere car wrap will be limited. If you don’t feel confident in your logo and branding, let a graphic designer take a whack at it before plastering on the side of a vehicle.
- Stand out! Since car wraps are such an effective means of advertisement, there are more wrapped cars on the road now than ever before. To be memorable to other drivers, make a statement with your design. If you wrap your car in a flame design, you’ll probably find yourself next to another car with the same design at a red light once or twice. One really creative car wrap that we worked on was for a ghost hunting service that created a design similar to wraps for emergency vehicles, but with a powder blue background and some fabricated cracks and cobwebs. Using the wraps for emergency vehicles concept, but adding the haunted twist to the design made it a van that no one would forget.
- Be readable! Your goal is for people who driving by your vehicle to see your car and know what it says. Use contrasting colors that are easy to distinguish in motion. Shy away from thin and cursivey fonts that don’t pop. Above all, nothing should stand out more than your company’s name.
- Don’t use photos. Photos are great on billboards, online ads, and in a picture frame on your wall. They do not translate well on vehicles. Not mention, if you’ve followed step number one and have a fantastic logo, you don’t want a live action shot taking attention away from your branding.
- KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid. If your vehicle wrap is too busy for a passerby to easily distinguish your business’ name, location, and phone number, it is not serving its purpose. Make your awesome logo the king of your design, the supporting information easy to see and read, and anything else you include should only make that information more obvious.
Have you ever wrapped a vehicle to promote your business? Do you have any design ideas that worked well for you? Please share them in the comment section.
