Sell Buzz 09/05

Looking for a fast-track way to break through advertising clutter? Maybe it's time to hit the road. A new crop of automobile-based media vehicles is offering several affordable ways to reach road warriors.

FlapMedia LLC now sells advertising on the mudflaps of trucks. For a reasonable $50 to $75 per truck per month, you get your message on a customized flap, reaching an average of 61,000 impressions per vehicle per month. For about $150 to $300 per vehicle for a four-week spin, AdFleet will put your message on the hubcaps of taxicabs in major urban areas as the cabs make their way around town.

In addition, Targeted Media Partners is rolling out interactive touchscreens in urban taxis, providing passengers with news, weather reports and other content merged with advertising. Reaching this captive audience comes with a much bigger price tag, ranging from about $7,000 to more than $50,000 per market per month.

The good news is, your message is likely to stand out with vehicle advertising, says Robert Fleege, president of Robert Fleege & Partners, a Columbus, Ohio, advertising agency that specializes in outdoor media: "Any time you get in on a new thing, it cuts through clutter because people haven't seen it before. Advertisers in the early phases are likely to get more attention because new [types of] media capture people's interest."

Quick Pick:

These three marketing books are worth checking out.

• Experience the Message: How Experiential Marketing Is Changing the Brand World (McClelland & Stewart, $34.99) by brand expert Max Lenderman shows you how you can make customers experience your brand.

• Magic Numbers For Consumer Marketing (John Wiley & Sons, $29.95) by John A. Davis will help you understand the best measurements to use when quantifying your marketing programs, even if you don't know your ROI from your CPM.

• Marketing Playbook: The Manual for Growing Organizations (Venture Marketing, $37.97) by John M. Fox is filled with 102 real-life marketing campaigns in vivid color and detail, plus valuable behind-the-scenes and cost info.