7. Do a Stunt Just to Get Attention
The above pictures of an art student and her graduation project got international press. The car was donated to her by a local junk yard and their name on the windshield launched them into world-wide notoriety, not to mention a huge spike in local business and sight-seer traffic. It might as well have been for a vehicle wrap installer. The hard part is coming up with an idea that will get noticed, but don't try to make it happen all by yourself. Always be ready to jump on a good idea when it comes to you. This car was already junk and not a huge loss for the junk yard, but a short-sighted owner might have only seen the profit they were losing in parts and scrap sales. Don't be guided by fear - build funding for some small, low-risk stunts into your budget and listen to people who ask for help with a project (especially hippie-looking art students).
8. Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously
Professionalism and understated elegance are essential if you're a funeral home or law firm. But a little silliness goes a long way, especially in a saturated or highly competitive industry where it's difficult to stand out. Great advertising gets maximum bang for every buck and a magnet with your logo/phone/website could be a total waste of time and resources. Take advantage of vehicle wrap technology and do something a little wacky.
9. Execution Can Make or Break Your Campaign
This vehicle wrap for a body shop was a very risky move that easily could've backfired. Instead, it looks impossibly perfect (and in fact won several industry awards). Potential customers will unconsciously equate the quality of your advertising with the quality of your service. If you can impress their socks off with a well-carried out vehicle wrap, they'll expect the same when they call you. And they will call. The inverse is also true — if the Carriage Shoppe had stuck one of those half-baseball-stuck-in-the-window things or some fake gun shot holes on their PT Cruiser, they could have seriously hurt their business. An obviously lazy ad campaign, especially one with as much exposure as vehicle wrapping, communicates that your service will be lazy as well.
10. Tap Into Your History
Take a cue from all the throw-back jerseys in professional sports. These are not just for fun — there's real strategy behind it. People need to feel like they're a part of a bigger story, we all want to be involved in history and join with something that started long before us and will continue long after us. Maybe it's some quest for immortality, maybe it's to help us know who we are and where we're from. Whatever the reason, it makes for great marketing. If you can convince a potential customer that your brand has a story or is a part of history in some way, capitalize on that. Did your great grandfather do the same thing you're doing now? Use his original logo on your trucks. Do you make your product the same way they did a hundred years ago? Highlight that connection to the past. Anything you can do to help your customers connect to a tradition and a legacy will get them emotionally involved in your product and turn them into evangelists for your brand.
