How to make your vehicle wrap stand out at 75 mph

When it comes to designing or having input into vehicle wraps, this is one of the biggest mistakes business owners make: Failing to understand or remember that most of the time the vehicle will be in motion.  Remember, people only have 3-5 seconds at best to mentally digest what they’re looking at.  Therefore, a busy vehicle wrap with lots of information is not going to be remembered, it’s not even going to be seen.  The worst part is that all of the extra information is going to be a huge distraction from their company logo, which is the most important part!  If potential clients don’t remember your company name/logo the wrap is a waste of money, but worse than that it’s costing you clients.  The cost in terms of lost potential revenue can be staggering, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year PER vehicle!

If you think of your vehicle wrap in the same way you think of your website or a brochure, you’re likely to make some big design mistakes.

As you start the design process, think of your vehicle traveling at 75 mph, even at 45 mph.  It will be in motion, amongst a clutter of other vehicles in motion.  There maybe some smaller vehicles blocking the bottom half of your van.  Your vehicle may be turning a corner as the potential client notices it, seeing the side and rear for a total of only 3 seconds.   With a website or brochure you have a much more captive audience.  Their computer monitors are not flying around the room, they’re not trying to navigate rush hour traffic and not rear end the vehicle in front of them.  Potential clients will spend minutes looking at your website, not seconds.  They’ll have time to read. In a vehicle wrap – they won’t.

The reason this mistake is easy to make is because when the design proof for your wrap comes out, you’re most likely looking at it on your computer.  The picture of your design concept is sitting still, and you’re staring at it for 10 minutes, analyzing every detail. That’s okay, as business owners, that’s what we do.  We obsess over the details like no one else.  But understand that nobody else is going to do that.  Nobody is going to invest that much time in trying to understand what it is that they’re looking at.  You’ll be lucky if they spend 1/20th of that time contemplating what it is you do and why it’s relevant to their lives.

What’s the solution?  How do you avoid this mistake?  Simple:  While looking at the proof, after 3 seconds close your eyes.  At this point try to recall the feeling you got from the wrap.  Do not try to recall the information.  If your wrap is to be successful it has to create a positive and memorable impression in the heart and mind of the potential client (we’ll be talking more on this in future posts).  If you’re purely focused on a list of services you provide, there’s no context for why people should even contact you.  You’re not creating the emotional catalyst for people to want to contact you.   A list of services and or product lines is definitely emotionally compelling stuff.

A graphic that sums up your professionalism, friendliness, trust worthiness will do infinitely more that a proclamation of information.