Reach workers where they dine

Reach workers
where they dine

Belly up to the roach coach with a message

By Kathy Prentice

   Construction workers and others who patronized them call them roach coaches. Their owners prefer to call them mobile food-vending vehicles.
   From dawn until dusk they make regular stops at factories and construction sites to serve up hot and cold vittles.
   And while the quality of their food may be arguable, they're a great way to get a message across, especially in areas where billboards and other media can't reach.
   Traditionally, coaches carried ad posters.
   Now roach coaches also offer advertisers such options as sampling, leafleting and even full-body wraps.
   In between stops, these traveling billboards frequently pass through districts where other outdoor ads are prohibited, reaching a secondary demographic.
   To find out how to get your client’s samples served up with lunch, read on.
   This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.

Fast Facts

What
   Advertising on the exterior of food-vending trucks, including sampling, leafleting and vehicle-wrapping options.

Who
   Outdoor Advertising Systems (OAS), headquartered in Laguna Hills, California.

How it works
   The entire mobile food-vending vehicle can now be wrapped, in addition to the traditional vinyl posters placed on the broadsides, front ends, tailgates and serving sides.
   “It provides the wow factor,” says Scot Taylor, OAS president. “A full-wrap catering truck is almost the same size as a bus.”
   Sampling can be done by either having the mobile food operators hand a sample to each customer or by asking customers if they’d like a sample included in their food purchase.
   For example, a large food company recently ran a promotion where they offered a free slice of cheese with a sandwich or burrito purchase.
   “Beverage samples can also be distributed this way,” Taylor says. “Anything that is point-of-purchase works, like candy or gum. In the winter, even flu medicine.”
   Sample distribution by truck operators is an option for advertisers who are buying signage on the trucks.
   Samples can also be dispensed by making them available at truck-side displays.
    “Say an advertiser is breaking in a new line of razors. The operator simply stocks the display and people help themselves,” Taylor says.
   Display sampling, which doesn’t involve the operator handling the samples, is a value-added bonus for signage advertisers.
   There is an added fee for hand-distributing samples.
   Advertisers can also provide leaflets, which are displayed for distribution in polyvinyl holders outside the mobile units.
   Leafleting is available with or without a signage purchase, though advertisers buying signage have priority for leafleting space.
   “Leaflets are used by businesses like H&R Block, that aren’t a point-of-purchase product,” Taylor says.
   Leaflets often include a coupon or other special promotion.
   Leaflets are a value-added feature with a full-wrap buy.
   Creative is provided by the advertiser or developed in-house by OAS.
   Wraps and posters are full-color, printed in sticker format on high-impact Flexcon.
   Traditional broadside signage runs 40 inches high by 180 inches wide. Front-ends run 22 inches high by 54 wide. Tailgates run 27 inches high by 54 inches wide, and serving-side signage runs 20 inches high by 80 inches wide.
   Full-wrap creative is a cooperative effort between the advertiser and OAS.
   “There are four types of catering trucks and they all have punch-outs,” Taylor says.
   Branding and promotions are advertising goals.
   Target audiences include consumers purchasing food for breakfast, lunch, dinner and breaks, as well as vehicular and pedestrian traffic that see the trucks when they’re parked and when they’re on the road between stops.
   Approximately 90 percent of advertisers are national brands with the remaining slots open to regional advertisers.
   Zones can be cherry-picked to meet demographic targets.
   Ads on mobile food vehicles are usually part of a media mix, Taylor says.
   Mobile food vehicles offer exposure in areas where billboards and other traditional advertisements are prohibited.

Markets
   Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington State.

Numbers
   OAS has ad contracts with 4,575 of the approximate 7,000 mobile food vehicles nationwide.

How measured?
   Impressions per vehicle per month are determined using Labor Bureau statistics for the working population, number of working days per month, number of visits per customer and number of vehicles in a market.
   Video traffic audits are available.

Research

What product categories do well?
   Food and other point-of-purchase products are the top category.
   Automotive, entertainment, pharmaceutical, telecommunications and media also do well.
   Signage is also used for community service announcements and political campaigns.

Demographics
   Mobile food vendors reach workers at factory and construction sites.
   “These are the guys who are belly up to the truck,” Taylor says. “Our day-to-day customers are the higher-end working population.”
   Specific ethnic groups can be targeted.
   “We can target whites or African-Americans. We can target anyone in the working class, regardless of race,” Taylor says. “But currently most campaigns are targeting Hispanic males and females, aged 18 to 45.”
   Exposure to vehicular and pedestrian traffic also creates impressions, Taylor says.
   “Everyone from Lamborghinis to trucks drive by creating secondary general impressions.”

Making the buy
   Lead-time for leafleting is immediate. Sampling and most signage take 30 days. A full-wrap takes 60 days from art submission.
   Factors that affect pricing include the condition of the market, determined by competition for space, the number of vehicles, length of campaign and type of medium.
   Suggested minimum campaign is six months. Full wraps are month to month.
   The cost of a full-wrap is $7,000 to $10,000 per vehicle for the first month, which includes production.
   The cost of leafleting is $15 per month per truck, with or without signage. Leafleting is at no cost with a full-wrap. Advertisers provide leaflets and the displays.
   Stand-alone sampling costs $10 per vehicle, per day.

Who’s already on catering billboards?
   Chicago Tribune/Exito, Frito Lay, H&R Block, Lowes Hardware, Cox Communications, California Milk Advisory Board and California Health Department.

What they’re saying
   “As a newspaper trying to reach Hispanic adults, OAS was able to match our target. We made stops in selected zones. Anyone who stopped by the truck got a newspaper. This was a new medium in Chicago and it worked to be part of something innovative.” – Carmen Rodriguez, marketing and promotion manager for The Tribune/Exito when the campaign was placed last year.

Web site info
   Outdoor Advertising Systems at www.outdooradsystems.com

-Kathy Prentice writes about out-of-home advertising for Media Life, penning her stories from the resort town of Traverse City, in the upper reaches of Michigan.

Send to a Friend| Printer-Friendly Version
Cover Page | Contact Us