Traditional billboards used to be the way to market products and services, but modern mobile billboards are changing the way businesses advertise to consumers.
One company, Movia Media, a tech marketing company that places trackable ads on delivery trucks, is having a lot of success with mobile billboards. They partner with trucking companies that make general deliveries five or six days a week. The trucks are outfitted with GPS, and advertisers can target potential customers and communities based on demographics.
“Every moving billboard comes with impression analytics for WiFi Bluetooth measurement,” said Casey Binkley, Movia Media’s CEO. “Essentially, every truck is outfitted with a beacon that picks up the WiFi or bluetooth signals on people’s phones. It’s an accurate and useful measure of who is seeing which ads, when, and where.
And what do they do with the information? “We take all this data and plug it into an online dashboard to show the advertisers where their trucks are and how many people are seeing their message,” Binkley said.
They know which devices, like specific smartphones or tablets, interacted with the ad and then can start sending messages to the device, such as an ad on Instagram or another platform.
Engaging tool
Advertisers who want to target Hispanic consumers can utilize mobile billboards as well. According to Simmons Research, Hispanic households account for 10 percent of all discretionary spending in the United States and are motivated by online ads at a 21 percent greater rate than non-Hispanics.
The mobile advertising works. One client, interior design company Modsy, used mobile billboards on 10 trucks over 14 weeks. They had 58 million impressions, which led to 1.2 million online impressions and a 14 percent higher online conversion rate.
The mobile billboards have been popular, especially during the pandemic, when many consumers are quarantined
“Now a lot of people are staying at home,” Binkley said. “Our trucks are a big, moving canvas, and we bring the messages right to the areas people are living.”
Giving back
Mobile billboards are a green option, too. Binkley explained that digital billboards use a lot of energy and create e-waste when they wear out. His mobile billboards use trucks that are already on the road.
To offset environmental impacts, his company partners with two environmental non-profits and plants 100 trees each month for every truck. They’ve planted 55,000 trees to date.