Fast Facts

What
   Billboard-size ads mounted behind truck cabs for static or moving displays.

Who
  There are several companies offering mobile billboards. For this article, Media Life focused on billboard-size displays, speaking with New York-based Street Blimps, which designed its first billboard on wheels 16 years ago and has been a leader in the field since.
   Media Life also spoke to Ad Media USA, which has been on the road for 10 years with specialty signs that are elevated above traffic.

How it works
  The basic mobile billboard is mounted on a truck chassis and moved from one location to another. Blimps calls their units a Mobile Ad Fleet. Note that these moving billboards are visually very different from wrapped trucks, which are standard trucks of various sizes that have ads wrapped around parts of their bodies or entirely around. 
  Ad Media USA calls its program Billboards2Go. Creative can be provided by the advertiser or designed in house.
  “These are viewed at 15 or 20 feet instead of 300 feet like a billboard,” says Street Blimps president Doug Frantin. “Number one, pictorial has to be great. Number two, it should say very little but say what the advertiser means, and it should be able to be understood in a split second.”
  Those same rules of big, bold and to the point also apply to the creative for Billboards2Go, says customer service manager Bob Goodwin. “This is the kind of media that’s quick. There’s no luxury of time to read a lot of copy.”
  Contact information like toll free numbers and web site addresses are often included. Creative can vary on each side, though units almost always are advertising the same company on both sides. Live ad area is 10 feet by 22 feet on each side of the unit. Creative can usually be changed during the course of a campaign. Units are used both parked at events and on the road as moving billboards.
   Billboards2Go's units can extend 17 feet into the air.  In that position they are used exclusively in stationary campaigns because they are too tall to legally move on most roads.
  Advertisers are using mobile billboards primarily as part of a media mix. Says Frantin: “A client will come in and want a big bang, with mobiles in a mix with billboards and then come in with balloons or projection.” National advertisers most commonly use mobile billboards.

Markets
   Street Blimps are available in 50 states and Canada. Additionally, Street Blimps has production and maintenance facilities in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Orlando. 
  Ad Media USA has programs in Boston, Chicago, New York and Washington and will travel to other markets.

Numbers
   Street Blimps fleet consists of more than 80 vehicles. As many as 65 to 70 or as few as one can be used in a campaign. Ad Media USA has from one to a dozen units available, Goodwin says.

How is it measured
   Street Blimps are audited by the Traffic Audit Bureau. Ad Media USA uses pedestrian and vehicular traffic data provided by local municipalities. GPS tracking is used by Street Blimps and Ad Media USA.

What product categories do well
  In addition to brands and products, mobile units are used for special events, grand openings, trade shows, parades, political campaigns, street fairs and directional ads, or ads giving street directions to drivers and pedestrians for events.
  Ad Media USA is often used for state fairs and for liquidation sales. Street Blimps' Frantin says, “We’ve done sneaker ads to movies to AT&T and Fox News and water products and perfume and Microsoft. We’ve done just about everybody. If the creative is good it’s going to work.”

Demographics
   Groups are targeted by zip code and also by using data from business districts, census and other sources.
   “It depends on who the client is and if they’re trying to reach a large, general audience. In that case we can go to areas that deliver that audience like high traffic bridges, tunnels, transportation hubs or train stations,” Goodwin says. “If they’re trying to target a specific income group we can go into neighborhoods. We can develop a targeting plan in-house, or the client may know exactly where they want to go.”

Making the buy
Street Blimps: Lead time ranges from a few days to a few weeks. “We have our own creative house and the ability to flip things around in days,” Frantin says.
  Factors that affect cost include number of vehicles, length of campaign, location and production. Campaigns can run one to two months or as long as six months.
Ad Media USA: Lead time is six weeks for scheduling and production, but campaigns have gone up as quickly as 48 hours. Campaigns range from a day to a month with average programs running two to four weeks. Average cost for one month is $11,000 per unit.

Who’s already on mobile billboards
   Current and recent Street Blimps campaigns include the New Jersey Lottery, the California Lottery, Thrifty, Chiquita, Verizon, Western Union, Washington Mutual, Hostess, Toyota Scion, Canon, McDonalds’s and the New York Jets. 
  GEICO, Tide Detergent, Gateway Computers, Coca Cola, Oldsmobile, Dreamworks, Crunch Fitness, BBC and Outback Steakhouse have appeared on Billboards2Go.

What they’re saying
   “They used to be more of a promotional unit, for a bank opening or a convention or something like that. But over the years it’s become more for branding, even for new-product introduction. By adding GPS we added legitimacy. The units can report back and you can watch them on the web. We can target by zip code and use all types of data in the mapping systems. We’ve brought it to the level where people are so comfortable that mobile trucks are now mainstream.” – Doug Frantin, president of New York-based Street Blimps

Web site info
   Street Blimps at www.streetblimps.com
   Ad Media USA at www.billboards2go.com

Etc.
   Previous articles that have appeared in Media Life about this type of mobile advertising include “Now, moving trucks with moving cargo,” appearing in November 2001, and “When a big Kiss can stir up a lot of talk” in February of 2001.