Brad Hailstone, general manager of Wiggy Wash, a group of four car wash operations in Utah, said his business hassimple but ambitious goals for the signage at its car washes. It wants the Wiggy Wash signs to “have a bigimpact and draw a lot of attention.”
“We focus on trying to make our signage stand out from other car washes and [have it be] unique to WiggyWash rather than your typical cookie-cutter designs,” said Hailstone, whose operations each feature a9-foot-by-12-foot LED video screen near the roadway, as well as a variety of banners and other signs. “Wefeel it’s important for [our signs] to grab the customers’ attention and communicate our messageclearly. We feel like branding and signage is a key part of being successful.”
Hailstone is far from alone in the car wash industry. Operators across the country have long considered theirsignage strategy to be a crucial component of their attempts to attract customers and spark sales. Car washeshave a variety of options for their signage choices, but increasingly operators are integrating digital optionsinto their spread of signs and putting them out front of their businesses. No matter the sign, though, theemphasis always comes down to one core goal.
“It’s all about getting the attention of those people driving by,” said Glen Sheeley, who isco-owner of the Wash Co. Car Wash & Laundromat in Middletown, New York, as well as other car wash locations.“We want to get their eyes on us.”
Craig Slowik Jr., general manager for Clean Image Car Wash in Plainfield, Ill., said the traditional approach oftrying to entice motorists by employing a busy array of signs can backfire.
“Obviously with the car wash industry, there’s kind of always been that stigma where every car washyou go to you see a million signs all over the place,” Slowik said. “So we try to do a ‘lessis more’ approach and try to stand out with quality rather than quantity.”
Slowik said Clean Image Car Wash aims to avoid the “overwhelming” feeling that a property infestedwith signs can induce and instead to focus on key messages most important for the business to convey.
“When there are lots and lots of signs, you don’t really know what to focus on, and you don’treally end up looking at any of them,” Slowik said. “But if you have a few in the right places, thenmaybe it’ll help focus customers’ attention better.”
Ben Barr, sales director, East region, Watchfire Signs, said he is seeing more car washes opt for cleaner, morefocused presentations of their signs.
“If they can keep it simple but bold, then they’re going to be more effective than having a plethoraof different types of signage that people can’t really key in on,” Barr said. “And peoplebeing able to focus on what you want them to focus on is really the key to success with signage in general, butespecially with car washes. There’s so much to offer and once the consumer pulls up to make a decisionthey only have so much time before they have to get into the wash.”
Barr said car washes have turned to eye-catching signs for decades in an attempt to draw the attention ofmotorists and be “more relevant” on the nation’s roadways. Previously, he said, operatorsopted for bright colors to do the job, creating large signs awash in reds, oranges, pinks and yellows. Today, hesaid, digital technology helps make car wash signs “pop” for passers-by, often working in tandemwith more traditional display and banner signs to create a look and atmosphere operators hope is inviting.
Stephen Stillman, president of Affiliated Resources, said his company has been in the LED moving message signindustry since 1982 and has been working with car wash operators for decades. He said car washes are uniquelysuited for LED signs.
“We have done business with many, many car wash operators and have found them to be the one single businessthat, in our opinion, makes more money from having an LED sign than anyone else we have ever done business within any industry,” Stillman said.
Stillman said the chief reason for the natural marriage of LED signs with car washes is that “nobody issaving up for a car wash.”
An often-cited advantage of digital signs is the flexibility they allow. Operators can put a wide array of messages on the screens, depending on shifting strategies and preferences.
“Many car owners make their decision to get their car washed out of impulse,” Stillman said. “Oursigns create that impulse. If anyone driving down a street sees one of our LED signs, their eye is drawn to thatsign, period. Almost every business has a sign of some kind. Almost all of those signs are static in nature andcompete with each other for the attention and eyeballs of every driver. The fact that the messages on our signscan move is the reason why eyeballs are drawn to them. Motion attracts attention, and repetition makes sales. It’sas simple as that.”
An often-cited advantage of digital signs is the flexibility they allow. Operators can put a wide array ofmessages on the screens, depending on shifting strategies and preferences.
For instance, digital signs are a natural place to emphasize featured offerings or discount specials, convincingcustomers to pay more for some auxiliary offerings. Hailstone said Wiggy Wash uses its roadside video screens toadvertise open employment positions, and the response has been “great for applications.” Barr saidcar washes can use a roadside digital sign during periods of heavy lines by displaying an updated estimatedwaiting time to ease the concerns of wary potential customers, he said.
Sheeley said he credits the creative use of digital signs as one of his business’ keys to success. Sheeleysaid Wash Co. doesn’t spend any money on advertising at its Middletown location, instead focusing itspromotional efforts on the digital board that it hosts in front of its car wash. He said approximately 40,000cars pass each day, and he knows that an effective sign will capture business for him. Wash Co. pays diligentattention to the content of its digital roadside sign, emphasizing creativity and timeliness. Sheeley said heknows if he puts a hot wax special on the board then Wash Co. will see a 10-20% increase in hot wax orders thatday.
“It’s very cool that it gets such an immediate response, which is very rare in this business,”Sheeley said.
Clean Image Car Wash’s roadside digital sign is located on top of a more traditional sign. The digital signtypically promotes monthly specials or some key piece of Clean Image Car Wash’s service, such as itshand-toweling of vehicles. Slowik said the ability to adjust a digital sign without purchasing anything new,adjusting to everything from changes in strategy to changes in the weather, is well worth the higher upfrontcosts for digital and an ongoing service cost for access to the sign’s software. Slowik said updating thedigital signs is a “simple and straightforward” process.
“Digital is where it’s at and there’s no doubt about it,” Slowik said. “It allowsyou to always be updating your sign - updating prices, packages, anything. You just do it right then and thereand you don’t have worry about a timetable or about getting a sign replaced or any of that.”
Many car washes opt to feature digital signage in areas close to the customer experience, placing them not juston the roadway but in lobbies and near wash tunnel entrances and exterior entrances. For instance, Hailstonesaid Wiggy Wash has digital signs in its lobbies to promote various detailing services and specials, and thoseefforts have met with success.
At Clean Image Car Wash, a digital sign that customers encounter soon after pulling onto the lot advertises theunlimited monthly plan that is a current focus of the business. Clean Image Car Wash uses the digital sign aspart of an overall signage strategy on site that includes non-digital menu board signs that list services andprices. In addition, a 48-inch digital screen inside the shop displays specials.
Barr said the biggest challenge to digital signs is they depend on content. Operators have to ensure they havethe design, graphics, images and written content to make the signs worthwhile.
“We can provide a really nice sign that has flexibility, but if it’s not utilized correctly and itdoesn’t have good content on it then it’s not serving its purpose,” Barr said. “You canhave a really beautiful sign that nobody looks at.”
Operators have different approaches to populating digital signs. Some large operations with dozens of locationsmight have a marketing department that creates and supplies sign content for each location, while smaller, moreindependent businesses might assign the task to a member of the team.
Sheeley said Wash Co. prides itself on the fun that it has with its roadside digital sign. Rather than juststicking to specials, Wash Co. will post funny videos with themes tied to the business or weather or “justthings in general,” he said. These have included crowd-pleasing videos featuring cute cats and dogs thathave prompted pleased feedback from motorists - one even shouting at Sheeley from her car how muchshe liked a cat video.
“We try to keep it humorous and fun for people, and we try to keep it fresh every day so it’s alwaysnew for the people who are coming by,” Sheeley said. “They start to look for it every day to seewhat we’ve done.”
Wash Co. also put a GoPro on a truck and went through the wash and then ran the video on its digital sign so thatmotorists sitting at the nearby traffic light could get a look inside the car wash experience.
“Once you have the sign, you’re really only limited by your imagination,” Sheeley said. “Asmy dad always says, as long as they’re talking about us that’s all thatmatters.”
