George Gearner and Charlie Calisto have a lot to be happy about these days.

That’s because Gearner, president of Fleet Advertising Media Group (FAMG) in Roanoke TX and Calisto, marketing manager for fleet advertising at 3M, believe they are poised on the edge of a business revolution in what’s called “truckside advertising.”

At a press conference held at 3M’s headquarters in St. Paul, MN, Gearner and Calisto talked about how new technology and products developed at 3M’s Scotchprint Graphics Application Center may hold the key to unlocking the full potential of truckside advertising as a national business.

“We believe fleet graphics and truckside advertising are going to be the bread and butter of 3M’s Commercial Graphics Division,” says Calisto.

His confidence stems in large part from a series of fortunate occurrences. One is that truckside advertising has been proven to be a cost-effective media as compared to other forms of advertising, such as billboards and, television, radio, etc.

Second, the number of “impressions” truckside advertising can generate can now be accurately measured and audited to the satisfaction of the advertising community.

Finally, third, is 3M’s recent development of more cost effective graphics that can be applied and removed with less cost and time than with previous products. All three combined, says Calisto, add up to a potent formula for building more interest in truckside advertising.

“What’s been an issue is that we’ve had to take permanent forms of vehicle graphics and try to apply them to an advertising medium that is very short term,” he explains. “Now we have a product that meets that need.”

Calisto refers to 3M’s new line of Scotchprint graphics that can be applied and removed easier and faster to trucks and trailers than before, without chemicals or extensive labor.

“The application and removal of graphics has always been an area of significant cost,” he says. “What we’ve tried to do is find a way to take the cost out of that segment of the fleet graphics business.”

Gearner, who’s company has struggled to build awareness and thrive in the field of truckside advertising for 7 years, puts it more succinctly: “After 7 years, we’re about to see a profit from this business.”

Ads on trucks

First, though, it helps to understand where truckside advertising has been and where it is going.

Truckside advertising is considered part of what’s called the “out-of-home” advertising market, including such items as billboards and ads placed on benches and seats in public parks.

According to research from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), outdoor advertising has grown into a $5.2 billion business between 1970 and 2000. The largest share of that market -- $3.2 billion or 60% -- is spent on billboards, with “street furniture” and transit ads on buses and trucks each worth $88 million, or 17% market share per medium.

That share could change, however, based on research conducted by OAAA and Gearner’s FAMG. Advertising expenses are typically calculated in cost per thousand or CPM, as in how much it costs to reach 1,000 people. A 30-second TV spot, for instance, costs about $18.90 per thousand; a four-color full-page ad in a national magazine costs about $9.14 per thousand, while a 60-second radio spot during prime “drive time” hours is about $5.57. For truckside ads, however, the cost is about 65 cents per thousand.

Another issue revolves around growing pressures on the use of billboards. Many communities are seeking to limit their use because they have been labeled eye-sores. In some areas of the country, caps on billboard construction are in place and if existing ones are knocked over, they cannot be rebuilt.

All of this translates into an opportunity for truckside advertising to exploit – one that could be profitable for fleets. Calisto estimates that if just ½% of the 4-million or so commercial trucks on the road were to carry truckside ads, that would add up to a market value of $20 million. If 3% of those trucks carried ads, the market value would be over $120 million.

For an advertiser, on average, it costs from about $3,000 to $5,000 to design and produce a truckside ad and a further $2,000 to $3,000 a month to rent space on the side of a truck or trailer. The fleet renting the truckside space itself sees anywhere from $300 to $500 per truck or trailer per month, according to industry estimates.

“It’s an opportunity for fleets to make extra money,” says Calisto. “That’s gotten their attention.”

Ad Construction

There are several different types of truckside advertising technology in use. One is called “flex side” advertising, which use frame rails and rubber straps to hold a flexible fiberglass “billboard” to the side of a truck or trailer. 3M has been pursuing a different method, the decal system, where micro-thin layers of “film” with ads printed on them are applied to the truck or trailer side by hand and stick there via a semi-permanent adhesive.

For 3M, the initial issue with the decal system was that it’s premium materials, printing processes, and permanent adhesives were designed to attach decals, such as company logos and brand names, to the sides of trucks and trailers for years at a time. Truckside ads, however, required just the opposite – inexpensive, fast-printing systems that would be attached to the sides of vehicles for 30, 60, and 90 day ad campaigns.

“How valuable is a long-term product for short-term use at a premium price to the advertising market? Not much,” says Calisto. “That’s why we’ve developed a series of film product designed especially for this market’s needs.”

Those new products are 3M’s Scotchcal 3500/8655 and Scotchlite 5100 reflective graphics, designed for short-term, low cost use. They also incorporate several 3M patented items. One is ‘Controltac’ – a series of microscopic beads that allow the graphics to be placed on the side of a truck and maneuvered around without sticking. The most recent invention is what’s called ‘Comply’ technology – thousands of miniature air channels within the adhesive allow air to escape when the decal is pressed down, eliminating air bubbles.

Added to this process are 3M’s recent developments in digital printing, which has dropped the cost of printing large-format color adds from $40,000 per truck to $5,000 for a fleet of trucks.

The real key, however, is that these short-term graphics can applied and removed without chemicals or heat that could damage the paint of the vehicle underneath. Ads can be simply rolled over existing trailer and truck logos and then peeled off without any damage to those original logos, says Calisto. “That can cut the removal costs to as low as 50 cents a square foot,” he adds.

Applying Ads Automatically

One of the biggest potential boosters for truckside ads, however, comes from 3M’s newly designed Automatic Installation Equipment for fleet graphics.

Typically, truckside ads are applied by hand in vertical 4-foot sections – covering one panel or a trailer at a time. To cover a complete trailer takes on average between 15 to 25 man-hours, according to 3M, at a cost of $1.20 to $1.30 per square foot for application.

Now, however, 3M has designed and built a device called the Scotchprint Graphics Applicator, a forklift-style machine equipped with rollers that horizontally applies the graphics in two sections, reducing the application time to 4 man hours. 3M wants to eventually cut the application time on a 53-foot trailer down to 1 hour, minimizing downtime while truckside ads are applied.

“Using a machine improves the speed, improves the quality and especially the consistency of applying the ad,” says Dan Pohl, 3M’s business and technology development manager. “Applying graphics and ads manually takes a physical toll on a worker. This machine takes that away and replaces it with a big carrot – reduced cost and time for application and removal of graphics.”

Right now, the device can only apply graphics. It is in field tests with a trailer manufacturer at the moment, says Pohl, with two pre-production models set to be built later this year. Rather than force truckside advertising companies and others to buy such machines, 3M plans to lease them out, in order to further reduce the cost of manufacturing truckside ads, adds Pohl.

“We’re looking at commercial availability of this device by mid-2002,” he says.

Market Magic

With both new technology and products on hand to make truckside advertising easier and less costly, Calisto believes this advertising medium will begin to see real growth within the next five years.

“It should have taken off last year, but the economic downturn foiled that,” he says. “However, truckside advertising right now is $30 million yearly business – and 2 ½ years ago it was nothing. There is a huge untapped growth potential for this market.”

He also points to the growing recognition of truckside advertising benefits among the fleets. The United States Postal Service, for one, is now involved in truckside advertising, as its fleet of vehicles is coordinated by zip code – a perfect match for advertisers seeking to demographically target their message.

“Ads are being ‘wrapped’ on cars, buses, trucks, almost any kind of vehicle, faster and cheaper than they ever were before,” Calisto says. “It’s an advertising medium that’s ripe with opportunity.”