Feature: Ads On The Road

Those involved in truck advertising are among the few people to greet news of worsening motorway congestion with enthusiasm. With conventional billboards banned from motorways, until recently the only way of reaching motorway travelers with posters was at service stations. Truck advertising provides a roughly 96-sheet equivalent space that sits alongside people in traffic jams, and its popularity is growing.

Glen Wilson, client director at Posterscope, estimates that there are now 9 or 10 UK companies offering this medium, whose deals with fleet operators enable campaigns to be run according to geographical region or a specific route.

It is fairly easy to convert existing 96-sheet creative to the medium, but production costs for truck sides can be high, so advertisers tend to run campaigns for months, rather than weeks. However, supporters, such as Jonathan Bramley, managing director of In Your Space, point out that mediaspend can be around half the cost of a 96 sheet. Carl Tooney of Nationwide Advertising also claims that since the nature of this advertising is that it moves- trucks travel an average of between 300 and 600 miles per day- “5-10 trucks can do the same work as 50 billboards.” Customer testimonials and repeat bookings seem to back these views up.

At present, accountability for the medium is via the satellite tracking and logs of the trucks’ journeys. However, Glen Wilson predicts that in order for the market to mature it will need to provide accountability in terms closer to the industry standards.

“The idea has good potential, but it’s not yet first choice in an outdoor schedule” he contends. “At the moment its use is tactical- a rail company suggesting motorists should take the train instead, for example” He predicts consolidation in what is currently a crowded sector with little differentiation, and that a market whittled down to two or three companies could bring both a reasonable model for accountability and the necessary investment in research that could allow truck advertising to join the mainstream of out of home advertising.

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