Imagine you're headed back home after a long and dreary day at work and
you can't wait to get home for that home-cooked meal. But there you
are, stuck in the ever-present snarling traffic jam and you're
seething. Then as you stop for yet another red light, you realize that
you're behind a bus. Nobody really likes being stuck in traffic behind
a bus..'in front' is fine and 'beside' is fine too but when a bus is
right in front you, you can see nothing beyond the bus. Nobody likes
traffic jams and that is precisely why bus wrap advertising works so
beautifully. In this day and age, TV stations and radio stations are
finding it a tad harder to bring companies to part with their
advertising dollars because there are so many other advertising options
these days.and many of them are far more cost-effective than
commercials and radio advertisements.
Given the example of being stuck in traffic, wouldn't you agree that
during the 3 hour traffic jam, the bus wrap advertisement behind the
very same bus would have exposed thousands of people who are stuck in
traffic to the message or product/service behind the advertisement?
We're just looking at end-of-the-day rush hour jam. What about the
morning rush hour and lunch time? The wonderful thing is that rush hour
traffic gives the bus wrap advertising time to work because there's
nothing these people can do but NOTICE the bus wrapping!
How
effective the bus wrapping is depends on the message and also how the
advertisement was designed. For instance, if it calls for action, did
it make sense, was it attractive enough and was there enough
information on the bus wrapping? Unless the people in the car had
traveling companions with them, boredom in the car is certain.and
within those few minutes of stopping for the red light, it provides
multiple opportunities for bus wrapping advertisement to work.
Bus wrapping commercials are affordable depending on the route of the
bus, extend of the wrap and also on the number of buses the
advertisement will be placed on. As with the example given above, the
most important thing about bus wrapping advertisements is that people
do not have the chance to turn off or flip to another channel when
they're sitting behind the wheel. Most of the time, the consumers who
come face to face with the bus wrapping commercial will take a look at
the advertisement and absorb the message whether consciously or
subconsciously.
Recently, Indiana University in Bloomington used the bus wrapping
advertisement method to help bring attention to their student
association and a group of fund-raisers and it has been considered an
incredible success. The bus wrap advertisement was placed on one of
their campus shuttle buses and in its red, white and black glory, the
advertisement was an attention-grabber indeed. While advertisers often
seek to promote a product or service via bus wrapping, the University
was hoping to help to spread the message about volunteerism,
sustainability and governmental relations.
The same way Indiana University is using this form of advertising successfully, advertisers can too.
