How much would it extend a billboard’s impact if traffic weren’t hurtling past at 60 miles per hour?
     Plenty, say the half dozen companies that sell space on truck surfaces and have dubbed them "moving billboards." 
     The idea has caught on across the country with a few variations.
      Advertising has been used on company truck fleets for nearly 100 years. Who hasn’t seen a Coca Cola or Fed Ex billboard on the side of the vehicle in the next lane while driving down the highway? 
    But over recent decades, there's been an increasing trend toward selling the space on truck sides, much the same as a traditional posters or sheets are sold.
    Featured today are MobileAds USA which offers both local and cross-country options on the exterior of freight haulers to all corners of the country--and Wheels America Advertising (WAA), which actually plasters ads on their fleet of specially designed trucks that cruise both geographic area and events. WAA’s specialty is backlighting the advertisements.
      This is the third in a Media Life series on how to buy the new out-of-home venues. They will appear on Mondays.

Fast Facts:
     What: Full-size color billboards displayed on the sides, backs and tops of moving trucks.
     Where available: In urban markets throughout the U.S. and on many cross-country routes. 
     Who: A half dozen companies across the country. Featured here today are MobileAds USA, which claims to be the only company providing both cross-country and local, urban options for advertising and Wheels America Advertising, which offers backlit truck-side images.

How it works:
- USA offers urban and cross-country options. The urban routes typically use box or straight trucks, 20 to 24 feet long and 7 to 8 feet wide and offer both sides and the option of buying the rear roll-up door. Some tractors haul two trailers and both could post ads.
- WAA also offers long-distance, city-to-city runs, as well as demographically targeted urban showings. WAA runs campaigns for special events and currently is parking their moving billboards at major car races.
- WAA offers 8 feet by 14 feet display areas on each truck side. Truck backs, top fronts and grills can also be sold.
- Creative is provided by the advertiser and most messages focus on the same qualities that make effective billboards work-- simple text and a bold picture.
     USA uses full-color computer graphics--silk screen, lithography, vinyl inks and electrostatic prints-- in any number of colors. WAA uses DuraTrans, a translucent-based film that produces a continuous-tone print rather than a screen-print pattern.
- USA ads are handled by a Florida sales office and installers work in local markets across the country.
- Advertising can be demographically targeted. USA furnishes monthly logs to advertisers.
- USA does business directly with advertisers as well as working with advertising agencies and media buyers.


Markets:

 - USA - This company’s dual approach is broken into two segments - urban and over the road. USA’s urban markets are: Nashville, Detroit, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Seattle, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Chicago, Sacramento, San Diego, Boston, Minneapolis, Ft. Meyers, Tampa, Miami, Orlando and Jacksonsville (Florida), Houston, Kansas City (Missouri), New York City and San Jose.
- WAA can send their fleet anywhere. Currently sales are handled through their Scranton, Pennsylvania headquarters or sales offices in Providence, Rhode Island, New York City, and Santa Ana and Rancho Mirago, California. Additionally, there are WAA franchises in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Detroit and Denver.
- Both local and national advertisers use moving billboard campaigns.

Numbers:
- How measured? CPMs

-Research:
- USA says that advertising on truck sides and roll-up doors is the lowest cost per thousand of any measured media. For the 18+ adult target market, a 30 second spot in prime time has a CPM of $16.25, a #10 showing bulletin $3.25, but the CPM of a MobileAd truckside (2 sides) in about 65 cents.
- An average truck travels 50,000 miles a year with 81 percent of passing cars viewing at least one side. The average truck or trailer creates 5 million visual images annually according to a study by the American Trucking Association (ATA). Trucks on localized routes travel 25,000 miles a year on average and create 6.4 million impressions in a more concentrated market.
- An ATA study shows that 75 percent of people interviewed developed an impression about a company and products from truck advertising and 29 percent would base a buying decision on that impression.

- What products/categories do well?
USA: Almost anything. Dot.coms do well in national markets. "As a company policy we stay away from cigarette and gun ads," Sanderson says.

Making the buy:

MobileAds USA:
- Both truck sides are sold together. "It wouldn’t be effective to have an ad on just one side," says company president William Sanderson. However, an advertiser sometimes opts to place different products on each side. The company is also selling truck tops that are visible to people working and living in high rises.
- USA urban runs cost $2,000 per month per truck and can extend as low as $850 a month depending on the market and number of trucks bought. Over-the-road routes go for $4,000 a month for their largest semi-trailers and as low as $1,800 for a longer (than one month) contract with multiple trucks.
- Contracts run 3, 6 or 12 months but can stretch as long as 2 years. Typically the ad campaign changes on longer runs.
- USA gives discounts for multiple trucks.
- Truckers have a right to refuse ads, and sometimes do when there could be a conflict with the brand of cargo they’re transporting. "If their fleet supplies a restaurant chain they wouldn’t want another one (on truck side) in their parking lot," Sanderson says.
- "Our campaign is closest to rotary campaigns in the billboard market," Sanderson says.
- Lead time for USA is six to eight weeks including production.
- The average cost per thousand is 6 cents according to Mobileads USA
- WAA prices vary from $1,500 for one truck for one day to $1,300 for five trucks for one day (and gradual increases in between). One truck on a five day run costs $1,400 with five trucks for five days at $1,200. One truck for seven days is $1,350 and five for seven is $1,150. Weekends run $1,700 for one truck and $1,500 for five and monthly rates range from $1,000 for one truck and $800 for five. All prices are per truck with 10 hours equaling one day. Production costs also must be paid by the advertiser.
- WAA likes a ten day lead, but can get a campaign through production in five. The advertiser provides the art which is printed, heat laminated and installed on special panels at their Scranton, Pennsylvania headquarters.

What they’re saying:
- "If there’s a new billboard you’ll probably notice it the first couple times you drive by. But when a truck is on the road and in your line of vision and you have to look at it, you’ll get it at first glance, if the message is bold and simple." -- William Sanderson, president of Florida-based MobileAds USA
- "Stationary signs can’t offer the kind of interactivity that our MobilBoards can. Some of our magazine clients have taken it to the next step by supplying our drivers with complimentary copies of their magazine to give away at scheduled stops." --Henryk Strzeletz, WAA CEO

What’s already moving down the highway on trucksides?
- In Style and People magazines, USA Today, Warner Brothers, CBS, FasTV.com and iSyndicate.com.

Web site info:
- MobileAds USA http://www.mobileads.com
- Wheels America Advertising
 www.wheelsamerica.com
- Mobile Billboard Advertising http://www.mobilad.com/home.htm
- AdverTrailers http://www.advertrailer.com/