Tag: Car Wrapping

Vehicle Signwriting: What are the Benefits?

Being a business owner means no end of tasks and concerns to tackle and take care of. Of these responsibilities, advertising and business promotion is perhaps one of the most costly and time-consuming. Many businesses choose to consult a marketing agency – a choice which inevitably involves paying substantial fees and handing over the future of your business to people that you have never met, who themselves lack the intimate knowledge of your business necessary to draw up a plan that properly responds to your needs, values and goals.

Vehicle-based advertising offers a way out of this conundrum. Forget using a paintbrush and a pot of paint to literally write your advert onto the side of your vehicle – the long-established art of vehicle signwriting has moved on leaps and bounds in recent years.

Vinyl for High Impact, Long-lasting Signage

The use of vinyl instead of paint carries with it a wide range of benefits. For one, it’s far less time-consuming and doesn’t require the trained and talented hand of an artist. Indeed, you could apply your own vinyl lettering depending on the complexity of your sign, but for larger vehicle signage covering the dips, gaps and raised surfaces of the side of a van, the skills of an expert can be a godsend.

Modern vinyl sheeting takes advantage of the latest advances in technology, including special egress channels on the adhesive side to allow air to escape, making those annoying bubbles a thing of the past. Certain kinds of adhesive are also available which allow the installation technician to move the vinyl sign around on the substrate before activating the adhesive once the perfect location is found.

As a result of not requiring an artist, modern signwriting that makes use of vinyl is also much more cost-effective, with a typical sign likely to set you back hundreds, not thousands, of pounds. More complex and detailed signage, including that done with full or partial vinyl body wraps, can carry a larger price tag, but also allows us to demonstrate another compelling benefit of vinyl – its longevity.

Some vinyl wraps can last up to five years, and lettering is even more long-lived. Standard vinyl letters last from four to seven years, while higher quality premium vinyl can last up to an entire decade, ensuring that your investment in vehicle signwriting provides a healthy return for many years to come. Vinyl is highly durable and withstands the elements of the notorious British climate without difficulty.

Whilst your sign may last for ten years, we’d naturally recommend changing it and giving your vehicle a facelift slightly more frequently to ensure that your sign keeps turning heads and attracting the right kind of attention. And, unlike painted signs, which require very expensive full vehicle body resprays, vinyl can simply be peeled off with the right tools.

But how effective is it as a form of advertising? Read on to find out why we believe it’s one of the best forms of business promotion available, ticking every box and making the lives of business owners much easier.

Widen Your Reach

When you buy an advertising slot on the radio or rent a billboard, your advert appears at a particular point in time or space respectively, after which it disappears. If your advert failed to attract much attention to communicate your message during this short window, then your marketing investment was wasted.

When your advert occupies space that you already own for an unlimited amount of time, and is attached to a mobile vehicle, then you have overcome the constraints on time and space that the above traditional means of promotion carry. This allows your sign, and thus your message, to reach a far wider range of people than would otherwise be possible.

And this expanded reach for your promotion isn’t inconsiderable – marketing research suggests that on a busy high street, around 3,000 people will come into contact with your sign every hour. If your vehicle spends the day parked outside a shop in which you’re doing work for the owner, the number of people that you could reach would number the tens of thousands. This demonstrates the unparalleled power of vehicle signwriting.

Boost Awareness and Favourable Sentiment

It goes without saying that by transforming your vehicle into a mobile billboard, your target market will slowly become more aware of your company and what you have to offer. This is an excellent benefit in itself for one reason – studies have shown time and again that consumers are far more likely to purchase from a brand that they’re familiar with, even if they haven’t personally tried their products or services before.

There is an array of additional benefits from increased brand awareness as well. One piece of market research that focussed on brand awareness from vehicle signage in particular found that around three quarters of respondents claimed to have a favourable opinion of companies and brands that they encounter through vehicle signs. Consumer perceptions of these businesses typically include that they are well established and successful firms.

This in turn makes consumers more likely to seek to purchase your goods or services, as well as recommending you to their friends – even if they haven’t personally required what you have to offer.

Cost-effectiveness

Vehicle signage, measured by cost per impression, comes out far cheaper than all other forms of advertising – this is a well known fact. But few people think about the additional financial benefits. By turning your vehicle into a moving advertisement, you can transform unproductive time, such as a traffic jam or your daily commute, into potentially productive time well spent.

And your usual productive work time is multiplied further – while you’re busy working away, your vehicle will also be silently but strongly promoting your firm’s unique proposition to a whole host of potential customers. Call us today on 01273 417057 to see how we can help.

Marketing with vehicle wraps and car graphics

Marketing with vehicle wraps and car graphics: hidden cost benefits?

You naturally view your company cars and vans as machines; tools to help you run the business. This is accurate, but it misses the whole picture. Whereas a piece of equipment such as a drill or a hammer is designed to carry out a couple of functions at most, your vehicle exists on a different plane. It fulfils multiple tasks, from holding the rest of your equipment overnight, to enabling you to travel from place to place to be able to work in the first place.

There is another function that your company van or fleet can fulfil: that of advertising. Vehicle branding has been used, in one form or another, since the days of horse-drawn carts, when signwriting was a highly skilled job that involved literally writing with paint on the side of the vehicle. These signs were basic in every respect, from the materials used, to the kinds of designs that were possible. Most vehicle signs simply featured the trading name of the business and perhaps a slogan.

These limitations have been swept away by advances in technology, and the possibilities and effectiveness of vehicle branding have increased dramatically as a result. One of the most exciting and still not particularly widely adopted methods of vehicle branding is that of vehicle wraps. This technique involves designing the graphics on a computer and printing it directly onto a sheet of vinyl, which is then ‘wrapped’, or stretched, over the vehicle, possibly covering the whole van or just the bonnet or rear doors.

This creates the possibility of using photographs or very detailed, engaging computer graphics for your sign, where previously your design would have been limited by the physical skill of an artist with an airbrush or paintbrush. This, in turn, means that the role of the company vehicle as a mode of transport has also been redefined to include its potential as a mobile advertisement, alongside the van’s more traditional roles.

Vehicle wraps and car graphics present an exceptional mode of advertising with very few negatives. And your business may be overlooking an outstanding advertising opportunity if you view your company fleet as purely means of transport. Out of the many benefits, cost is likely to be the make-or-break issue for most business owners, so we’ve broken down the costs below and compared them with other modes of advertising.

Cost-benefit analysis

The 21st Century businessperson has a wealth of marketing tools at their disposal. The most commonly used marketing channels tend to be the traditional ones, such as radio, billboards and direct mailing, alongside print media, such as newspapers and magazines. Pay-per-click advertising and a social media presence are also growing in popularity, but may be of limited use for a small business dependent on local custom.

The relative price of a form of advertising is measured by the cost per 100 views. Direct mailing is one of the most expensive forms of marketing, coming in at £1.95 per 100 views. Radio adverts aren’t significantly cheaper at around £1.20 per 100 views. Vinyl wraps and car graphics, by contrast, can cost as little as £0.04 per 100 views.

Hidden benefits

The cost benefit is greatly magnified when we consider some of the corollary effects of the use of vinyl wraps as a marketing tool. The cost of a car graphics solution is a one-off sum, as opposed to the repeat hire payments required to make a print or radio campaign effective. High quality vinyl, by contrast to the short-lived effects of a radio slot, can last for up to five years and your van will be viewed by up to 3,000 people a day if you drive in a city, making for an incredibly high reach.

If you drive around the same area during your working day, you can effortlessly achieve a saturation effect and create a high level of brand recognition, which is vital for a local business in a competitive environment. People tend to choose to buy from companies that they have heard of over unknown entities. Likewise, if you travel all over the country, an advertising wrap helps you to engage a vastly broader selection of people than you would ever be able to reach with conventional marketing modes.

These advantages constitute hidden cost benefits. Vinyl wraps do involve a significant one-off outlay, but this is an investment which is offset and outweighed by the extra earnings and business that it generates.

Other hidden financial benefits are only realised later on in the life of the vinyl wrap. Other methods of applying graphics to cars inevitably involve spraying paint onto the surface of the vehicle. When you later come to resell your company fleet to make way for newer models, if your graphics are painted on you will have to pay for an expensive respray before any resale can take place. With vinyl, however, the wrap is simply peeled away in a far easier and less costly process of removal.

The upshot of this is that your vehicle’s resale value is protected by the wrap. Modern vinyl wrap technology includes the use of an over-laminating protective layer to safeguard your graphics. This layer also protects the underlying paintwork of your vehicle from scratches, abrasions and stone chips. These are highly important considerations with positive financial implications should you choose to resell your vehicle at a later date.

Conclusions

Any undertaking of a marketing campaign is an investment which will hopefully produce a high enough return to justify the initial expense. With the use of vinyl wraps for car graphics, this is far easier to achieve compared with traditional advertising methods.

At The Sussex Sign Company, we have over two decades of experience in the business; expertise that we can put to use by assisting you in making the right choices in vehicle signage solutions. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like any further information, on 01273 417057.

The Sussex Sign Company explains the pricing for vehicle wraps

Dependent upon your requirements, design sensibility, and time frame, the budget for a partial wrap on a small vehicle can cost from £500 to £1,200. A full wrap, van wrap then the price will start at around £1,200 for a small van and rise to a maximum of around £2,500.

Does it really take three days?
If you want a first class job done and we are fully wrapping your vehicle then yes, we do really need it for three days. After all, you don’t want the wrapping media lifting after just a few months do you? It takes a long time to clean your vehicle properly and take off all the items that need removing to be able to fully wrap your vehicle.

Can I take the wrap off when I need to sell the car?
All of our vehicle wraps are removable – this is a benefit of getting the vehicle wrapped. It also offers some protection against damage to the paintwork.

How can I be sure the material you use will last?
We have been wrapping and signwriting vehicles for over twenty years now, and have used pretty much every kind of vinyl there has been on the market. As a standard we only use 3M or Avery Dennison. These two manufacturers are regarded as two of the best vinyl manufacturers in the world today, and they also the most expensive. As a business we would rather explain why we are more expensive than our competitors than have to explain in six months why your vehicle wrap has failed.

Does the wrap last as long as the vehicle?
Our preferred vehicle wrapping media is either 3M or Avery Dennison which are widely regarded as the two best vehicle wrapping media companies in the world today, however the life of the wrap depends on many difference factors, not least, the condition of the vehicle prior to wrapping, how you keep your vehicle clean (what chemicals are used on it) and what part of the world the vehicle is kept. However, even when you take all the above into account, our vehicle wraps should comfortably last between 3-5 years.

How do I clean the vehicle?
The best way to clean your car is to wash it by hand, or better still get someone else to wash it for you J
All our vehicle wraps are laminated if it is a digital print, and if you have a solid colour change, then the material is colour fast. We would not recommend a jet wash or a mechanical car cleaner as the power of the jet wash can lift the edges of the vinyl on a power wash and the brushes can be abrasive to the material.

Do you guarantee your work?
All our work comes with an unconditional 12 month guarantee; however, manufacturer’s warranty on materials can come with up to 5 years, subject to various terms and conditions.

Is your company insured?
We hold Public Liability insurance of £10,000,000. We also hold a motor trade policy which covers our team members when they are driving your vehicle.

My vehicle has been repaired in the past, is this a problem?
As long as the vehicle has been repaired properly and the paintwork was keyed in properly and baked on, then this should not be a problem. However, if the repair job was not carried out properly or with regard to the manufacturer’s specifications, then this may cause a problem with adherence of the vinyl.

Do you wrap the door shuts?
In a word – no, all our wraps are kerbside wraps which means when the vehicle is viewed driving along the road or parked up, the vehicle is a different colour than the original colour. We do not advocate wrapping inside of the door shuts.

Image of – Full Colour car wrap designed for charities – Sussex Signs.Image of – Partial wrap with digital elements – Sussex SignsImage of – digitally printed partial wrap – Sussex Signs

Call us today on 01273 417057 or Email us from here

A list of the towns we work in throughout East and West Sussex is listed below.

East Grinstead , Crawley, Gatwick, Horsham, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Steyning, Worthing, Arundel, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis, Selsey, Chichester, Midhurst, Petworth, Portslade, Brighton, Hove, Newhaven, Seaford, Eastbourne, Bexhill, Hastings, Hailsham, Lewes, Uckfield, Heathfiled, Crowborough.

Get your charity noticed…

Promoting your charity can be hard enough, so many charities nowadays have chuggers, can shakers, high street shops, newspaper advertising, radio and television advertising such as Comic Relief, Sport Relief, BBC Children in Need, Text Santa and that’s only touching the surface.

The Professionalism of charities is in the news more and more these days and it has to be said, they are all for good causes, every single one of them. However, if you are a charity, how do you get exposure to hundreds of thousands of people day in day out, time and time again. It is a minefield, and as a charity, you need to justify spending your hard donated and earned money wisely. Negative publicity can cost you thousands in cash, let alone what it does to your credibility.

If you put an advertisement in a newspaper today, it is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper. Continuous radio advertising becomes a bit like wallpaper, hangs around in the background and is easily dismissed, and television is prohibitively expensive. Charity shops require staff and chuggers have a bad reputation. It has always been a horrendous task trying to get the message ‘out there’ to promote your charity in a good light and to incentivise people to want to support your work.

Sign-writing or wrapping your vehicles can promote your chosen charity or organisation to thousands of people every single day. In fact, professional marketers say that vehicle signwriting and vehicle wrapping is pound for pound, penny for penny, the most cost-effective method of advertising any company.

If your car wrap costs you £1400 and you keep the vehicle for four years, then the cost of your car wrap is only £6.70 per week or to put it another way 96p per day, less than the cost of a skinny latte and a lot cheaper than any other advertising you could possibly do for your charity. Can you imagine how many people will have seen you advertisement over the four years!

Take a look at the recent vehicles we have wrapped for the Cats Protection League. I am sure you will agree they look fantastic and a brilliant advertisement for the charity, and much more effective than chugging.

Call us today on 01273 417059 or Email us from here

A list of the towns we work in throughout East and West Sussex is listed below.

East Grinstead, Crawley, Gatwick, Horsham, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Steyning, Worthing, Arundel, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis, Selsey, Chichester, Midhurst, Petworth, Portslade, Brighton, Hove, Newhaven, Seaford, Eastbourne, Bexhill, Hastings, Hailsham, Lewes, Uckfield, Heathfield, Crowborough.