"I've often thought that trucking companies, especially contract carriers, could attract significant business to this industry by simply mentioning that they were allowing or initiating a truckside advertising program in their fleet for the corporations they haul for," Campbell, president of Roadmark Inc., told Fleet Owner. Campbell, who has 12 years experience in truckside advertising, said the industry continues to struggle to emerge and mature as one of America's best forms of outdoor advertising.
"Trucks with the right mode of operation should be just as attractive to brand corporations as buses," he said. "And fleet operators would hardly have to lift a finger to sell, coordinate or manage such advertising programs if they delegated to companies like us to manage them start to finish.
Campbell said he had long figured that a "build it and they will come" approach will work with the truckside advertising medium, but discovered that trucking industry and truckside advertising providers need "good" inventory to sell to compete with local billboards, not long-haul, randomly dispatched trucks.
"As far as price, metro trucks are viewed by more people than local billboards, but for about 25% the expense of stationary boards," he said. "Compare the average 30-foot sheet billboard prices of about $2400 each per month to truck rates of between $400 to $800 per month on average and logic will eventually set in."
In the end, however it will take "strength in numbers" to really get truckside advertising into high gear, Campbell said, and that means fleets have to get involved on a larger scale.
