Outdoor in it for the long-haul: RoadBoardz truck-mounted ads
Another in our series from meetings at the AAAAs in New Orleans: RBR/TVBR met with George VonAllmen, VP/Sales & Marketing for RoadBoardz, a company that specializes in truckside ads. Here, we ask:
Who are some of your advertisers? What is the pitch to them?
We are currently running specific routes in Ohio and Indiana for White Castle, the original fast food chain! We are also working with Great American Insurance, Paramount's Kings Island Amusement Park, Hard Rock Cafe, and Re/Max. Our Pitch-RoadBoardz offers targeted Mobile Media-it's new and non-traditional, but ultimately mobile and measurable!
Who are your trucking clients? What is the pitch to them?
We refer to them as "inventory":
* Third largest carrier in North America, eclipsed only by FedEx and UPS... providing "Complete Coverage" with over 750 terminals in/around the top 200 DMAs in the USA.
* Far and away the largest less-than-truckload, dedicated delivery fleet in USA, providing potential advertisers with the best recurring routes in any DMA for maximum daily effective circulations.
* Ranked number one in its industry for the third consecutive year in Fortune magazine's "America's Most Admired Companies" list, providing assurances of the highest ratings in driver safety and courtesy.
How can your ad medium be preferable to traditional outdoor?
And preferable to radio, TV, internet, newspaper, etc...?
Traditional Outdoor - It moves! Billboards have pushed their own decades-old technology in the last 5-10 years to attempt to overcome their client's biggest objection - static locations are very quickly overlooked (filtered out), especially by the (majority of traffic) daily commuters and nearby residents. They now move (some of) them bi-monthly of monthly. RoadBoardz are constantly on the move, but remain in the target market. Also, typically quicker start-up time, and always lower CPMs.
Radio/TV - Biggest advantage is you can't turn them off...or now (with the advent of TiVo and Satellite TV) you can't pass over, filter, or delete. And of course, significantly lower CPMs.
Newspaper - Many studies/statistics point to major audience dilution - especially the 18-38 yr. old demos, for all print, but especially newspapers.
Internet - Everybody's already there...and worse fragmentation than cable.
How does the Roadboardz model work?
How do you provide quantitative numbers for agencies and buyers?
We are in collaboration with Telmar - the world's largest supplier of media software to the advertising industry - to be THE model for the newest category of out-of-home - Truckside Advertising. They hope to have it incorporated into their latest upgrade, scheduled for an April launch. Very basically, we begin with a number of daily impressions per Trailer for the Top 200 DMA, ranging from a high of NYC at 100,000 (which includes foot traffic in Manhattan!), and scales down to merely 10,000 for the last quadrant. Depending on the reach goals, we then determine how many "pieces of inventory" will be required to achieve saturation goals. The "proof of purchase" is tied in directly to the GPS downloaded monthly "Truck Manifest" - showing all the trucks routing, delivery addresses, duration between stops, and total monthly "working" hours - guaranteed to be 150 or higher! In fact, for a slight upgrade charge per month, an advertiser can gain password access to the server which tracks this info., giving them the opportunity for an actual "real time" view of their inventory - "Oh look, there's our ad moving through Times Square at 1:14 pm EST."
Also, we collaborate/consult and encourage our clients to "put a hook" in any truckside campaigns that go beyond traditional branding. This is somewhat self-serving - we want them to be convinced of the effective ROI of truckside. Even if it is not a specific "call to action", we always push the issue. A recent example - White Castle used the rear door to introduce a new product - Breakfast Sandwiches - in certain targeted markets. We pushed for the individual restaurants, and found that breakfast sales were up over 30% the first full week of the campaign. Also, we look for opportunities to even push anecdotal evidence - the White Castle trucks featured "Honk if you CRAVE White Castles!!"
How much exposure/reach/frequency can you give a client?
With well over 750 terminals in/nearby every measured DMA in North America, our Yellow Roadway can fulfill any order.
How specialized can you make the exposure?
We have a proprietary report - GeoTrackz that shows graphically just how targeted we can make their campaign's routing.
The example, SEE IT HERE, was for a new beverage product launch - called "Simply Strawberries". In discussions with Cal Giant (the advertiser client) - the largest producer/shipper of strawberries in the USA, they defined their target end-consumer in terms of both age and income level.
Another factor that we always point out to advertisers that are pitching a retail/consumable product is to think of the trucks as typically being (mistakenly!) perceived as their own trucks delivering large quantities of product to the market place!! For this reason, we decided to show them the locations of grocery stores in the targeted DMA. Bottom Line - they are looking at a "map" that shows their campaign being driven right where they believe the exposure counts for the most!!
Tell us about the company's management and history.
RoadBoardz's founding team was two gentlemen who spent well over 40 years between them in the Trucking/Logistics related field. They were able to bring years of R&D (evidenced in our proprietary frame/vinyl system that is both safe/strong and flexible/changeable) and strategic alliances (the Yellow Roadway connection) to the table.
Current partners, George VonAllmen and Jim Coffaro, spent 40 plus years developing and managing pro-active Sales/Marketing organizations (George - in the Hotel/Convention/Meeting field) and multi-location, profitable Manufacturing/Distribution organizations (Jim - in the Engineering/Hydraulics field).
In a field dominated by either "Truck" background and therefore little advertising savvy (much less contacts/clients)...or "Advertising" background and therefore very little grasp of the intricacies/logistics of inventory (truck/trailer fleets) procurement/management, we are unique.
The "amalgamation" has been an unbeatable combination!
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