You see them on the road, parked at the curb or driving down the street wherever you go. You’ve probably had a chuckle at or even admired the creativity of a wrapped truck, trailer or bus. Catchy slogans, cute mascots, and ultimately brand recognition make commercial vehicle graphics an important tool in your toolbelt.
Crash Course
Here at Signs New York, we know how vital truck, trailer, and bus wraps — also known as fleet graphics — are to maintaining and growing your business. In this article we will outline the basics of vehicle wraps to help our readers catch up.
For the Pros…
For those of you with greater experience creating wraps on your existing vehicles, this blog will serve to illustrate how we can improve your experience — as well as your final product and bottom line — by adding greater value on your next commercial vehicle “facelift”.
What is a Truck, Trailer, and Bus Wrap (semi, tractor-trailer, coach bus, van, fleet graphic)?
A truck, trailer, and bus wrap means covering the entire vehicle exterior (including side and back windows of buses and vans using special perforated vinyl) without obstructing driver’s view.
Some varieties of vehicle wraps include:
Full Wraps, Partial Wraps, and “the 100-25-75 Rule”
- Full Wrap – this type of wrap covers 100% of vehicle
- Partial Wrap – As a rule of thumb, partials normally cover between 25% and 75% of the vehicle surface.
UV and Weather-Resistant Lamination
Known as the industry standard, these types of coatings are considered a must. We’ll go into more detail about this later in the article.
Custom-Designed to Your Specific Vehicle (not just the make and model)
Our wraps are custom designed to match your vehicle shape, contours, curves. This includes an in-person site inspection, or measurement. This helps to ensure any post-factory modifications are included when calculating the correct size of your wrap.
Custom-Designed to Your Specific Business
Additionally, all of our wraps are custom designed for your industry/sector with appropriate graphics, fonts and color schemes. We can also personalize graphics to your unique company culture and mission.
Advantages of Truck, Trailer and Bus Wraps
- Peace of Mind
A vehicle wrap will immediately give your delivery, service and passenger customers peace of mind. It shows your client exactly who is pulling up to their home, business or bus stop. This allows even a small start-up business to appear more professional and look more established.
- Enhanced Marketing
Advertise to potential customers within your service area as your work vehicle drives around. This allows for more accurate, effective demographic targeting vs other types of mass media marketing, such as online pop-up ads.
This is the difference between a “spray and pray” or “shotgun strategy,” where you can waste valuable ad dollars playing a numbers game with an audience that might not even live or work in your service area. Think of vehicle wraps as a more “surgical” or “sharpshooter” strategy. This way you can target an audience that needs and wants your products/services.
By speaking directly to the people most likely to be your customers, you can ensure they will be more receptive and more likely to respond positively to your message and brand. This goes a long way toward reaching more customers — and achieving your business growth goals.
- Wraps are More Effective than Other Ads.
According to Nielsen’s OOH Online Activation Survey from March 2017, out-of-home (OOH) advertising, including fleet graphics, generates nearly four times more views for every dollar spent than TV, radio, and print. This means instant savings and an investment that will pay for itself more quickly.
A three-month study in San Francisco by 3M showed that a vinyl vehicle wrap could generate up to 16 million unique impressions annually. This makes vehicle graphics an ideal method of advertising. When properly executed, wraps will both reinforce and enhance the entirety of your marketing efforts.
Why You Should Choose a Local Sign Company
- Experience
A local sign shop will possess greater local knowledge. This expertise can only come from experience. In short, a reputable local graphics company will know what works and what doesn’t.
- Reliability
A local sign shop is more likely to be there for you when you need them. Dealing with someone on the other side of the country will often mean there are a myriad of factors beyond your control — such as shipping/travel times and questionable subcontractors — that can go wrong.
- Reputation
An established wrap business in your area will bring a history of successful wraps used by hundreds of other local — as well as regional, national and global — brands. You should be able to view their gallery portfolio of completed jobs, many of which you may recognize and even admired.
Signs NYC is an all-in-one, full-service graphics company
All of our design, printing and installation are handled in-house. This allows us better quality control and greater ownership over the entire process. This means we can prevent problems before they start and get things done right the first time.
Responsiveness and Responsibility
- Responsiveness means we can make any adjustment changes to proofs and are more flexible with things such as appointment times, installation locations, etc. (We also have our own installation facilities conveniently located in the NYC-New Jersey area).
- Responsibility means ownership over production from start to finish. We can prevent problems before they start, as well as “owning up to” and solving any issues that may happen.
Custom Options for Trucks, Trailers and Buses
Signs NYC offers custom options for all our commercial vehicle wraps and fleet graphics, including:
- Bobtail – semi truck with a fifth wheel but no attached trailer. We can wrap an entire cab — including the rear windows — for full coverage even when you’re bobtailing.
- Tractor Trailer – semi truck with an attached trailer. We can wrap your entire truck from head to toe. Turn your 53-foot trailer into a roving mobile billboard that pays dividends!
- Bus – everyone knows what a bus is. Our full coverage perforated window wraps really take the spotlight here. Especially considering how many windows a coach bus has. Literal-free real estate for the taking to advertise and promote your brand!
- Lamination Coating – improves durability, extending the service life of your vehicle’s finish. Some of the advantages of lamination include:
- Protection against the ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun. This can prevent your valuable wrap from fading during its expected service life. At Signs New York, we guarantee your wrap will not fade during this time — or we will replace it free of charge.
- Lamination adds a few precious millimeters to vinyl film. This makes the wrap thicker and heavier. Lamination also strengthens the film, offering greater resistance to scratching and tearing. It also allows for an easier, quicker installation on our end.
- Coatings also offer protection from graffiti and chemicals that can vandalize or otherwise ruin your vinyl graphics.
Conclusion
In this blog post, we’ve covered the basics — including delving into a little more detail for those who have attempted to wrap your fleet vehicles in the past. Many don’t realize those vehicle ads are superior to almost any other form of advertising — especially at the regional, local and hyperlocal (neighborhood) level. Whether it’s a full, partial, truck, trailer, van, or bus wrap, a weather-resistant all-season graphic is just what you need to compete in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
For more information on all types of commercial vehicle wrap, continue following this series or simply contact the Signs New York team now.
