LIVERY DEVELOPMENTS
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it used to be that a vehicle could be any colour, as long as it was black. Today's reality is very different. What's more you can now predict how effective your livery will be—and earn even more money from it too!
Fifteen years ago, transport managers crossed their fingers every time a newly liveried vehicle went into the truck wash. Ten years ago, livery design was restricted by the materials available from the manufacturer. Even five years ago, the quality of the graphics was limited to a degree by the technology available to the designer. But nowadays, the materials and the technology are such that the only limiting factor is the designer's imagination.
Designer David Hulme, managing director of On-Line, says: You can do almost anything you want, using just about any colour. You just have to have to get the appropriate information on there. When we did the BBC Orchestra trailer, what was important was the music and that it was touring all over Europe. We used music notes in the design, with the logos and telephone numbers on the back. That's where most of the action is because people are following it down the road.'
Today's designers do not just develop liveries. Companies buy "concepts" and their vehicles carry messages which can boost their corporate image—and their revenues—in many different ways.
Washers and cleaning chemicals present no problem to modern materials and films. Diccon Ward, marketing manager of Supersine Duramark (SSDM) says: "The vinyl technology allows people to have graphics for small vehicles, panel vans, large flat-sided vehicles, rigids, curtainsiders. Then you have reflective graphics as well.
Night-time visibility
He adds: "You can have night-time visibility for advertising campaigns and the latest in conspicuity films which are designed with a safety element. You can profile the sides, the rear and outline them at night."
SSDM is one of the largest "converters" in the UK. A converter works with designers at one end of the design chain and materials manufacturers like 3M, Avery Dennison or Meyercord. It helps arrive at the best livery solution and produces the finished image.
Solution could be anything from straightforward lettering to a complete wrap using 3M materials that SSDM employed on the 340 vehicles and trailers of the Carlsberg-Tetley fleets (below, left).
"Many of our vehicles were effectively wallpapered on the sides and rear," says Stewart Moffat, prime distribution manager. Downtime is minimal thanks to the superior vinyls which are used. "At one time we had Tetley and Skol being done at the same time It took a day to do a trailer-and-a-half. They held the graphics for us. All we did was call the vehicles off."
Liz Edwards is 3M marketing development manager at its commercial graphics group. She says there are various technologies which companies can tap into. Screen printing is one of the more expensive processes and would normally involve a minimum order quantity to make it economical, as would preparation of films using unique pigments.
At the other end of the spectrum, someone with three or four trucks can benefit from 3M Scotchprint technology for a one-off livery. Edwards says: "This is a digital process which has been modified to take the kind of pigments that 3M knows so much about already. Rather than just have a name like "Reading Florist" on the side of their vans, they can have a graphic of the flowers, for instance.
"They get a picture of the flowers which customises the vehicle and will last for more than six years. It increases awareness of their business. People with few vehicles don't have to compromise on what they want. We have solutions for one van or 10,000."
The solutions are being used to achieve an increasing number of goals. An improvement in road safety is one aim which Boots The Chemist is achieving using its liveries,
Road safety
Operations manager, logistics, Martin Owen, explains: "We followed our company standard logo on a white vehicle, but we felt that if we could improve road safety while promoting the good image of our company we ought to do it. On an operational front, we knew about reflective materials and felt that we should use them wherever possible."
Boots uses a special blue and a standard white, which are both reflective paints. Just as importantly, it was the first company to kit out a complete fleet with red reflective amspicuity tape around the rear doors. Four years later, the road safety benefits to the public are no less diminished. Owen says: "We still receive letters from members of the public and police forces keen to express how much they think it has contributed."
Boots (below, right) also piloted 3M's latest software package, Movie (Measurement Of Vehicle Image Effectiveness). Launched in August, it uses traffic statistics available from the Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions and focuses them for the needs of specific clients. Movie can plot the number of people likely to observe each vehicle in a single year.
Owen explains: "The operators define whether they are regional or national, explain the days of the week and the times when they are on the road and which routes they are likely to use. All these affect the numbers and types of people who will see it. We put the information into the Movie software. The service is free of charge." It sounds like a good idea but what's the point? "It helps to justify the cost of investing in the fleet livery With Movie you can say X numbers of people are going to see it and therefore it is worthwhile spending the money."
Boots vehicles are on the road for up to 16 hours a day. More than 20 million people will have a chance to see each one in a year, according to Movie.
Some people may be counted several times, but if the companies are after brand awareness a little repetition doesn't hurt. SSDM's Ward agrees that it is a useful tool and expects to be using it, in association with 3M, to brand managers who control advertising budgets.
El by Steve McQueen. The power of advertising is such that a new company, National Coverage, thinks the sides of vehicles could be a significant profit opportunity for the operators who own them. Director James Main says: "We envisage a load factor of at least six months in the first stages for the vehicles contracted. On that basis they will get between £3,000-£3,500. The potential for a full 12-month campaign is £6,500-£7,000." He says obstacles which have stopped similar ideas taking off in the past included one-year contracts for advertisers which are impractical. "What we've done is liken it to any other form of outdoor media. On a billboard you can buy a fortnight. Our minimum period is four weeks, but after that it can be chunks of one week. We contract the haulier to make the vehicles available."
Vehicles get new curtains in a colour which won't clash with the fleet's existing livery or any future advertising campaign. Strict conditions are applied to the haulier with regard to care of the vehicle. by makers are typical of the companies which have expressed an interest. Given the consumer possibilities indicated by the Movie experience, this is understandable. A large number of potential vehicle sites have already been recruited. If this particular livery venture succeeds, hauliers will appreciate the colour of the money it provides.