It stands to reason: if you want to attract the attention of people who drive a lot, you should put youradvertising on the road with them—literally. That’s why so many car washes are wrapping theircompany cars, vans and trucks with advertising printed on vinyl film. Some may wrap just part of the car, butmany apply graphics to doors, hood, trunk, roof… even bumpers and windows.

“We use a vehicle wrap on our company pickup truck and have had awesome responses to it being seen aroundtown. Why not use a company vehicle as a mobile billboard?” said Keith Champagne, who manages twolocations of Sparkle Clean Car Wash in Laconia and Meredith, New Hampshire.

“We use our web address on the truck as well as our ‘smiley guy’ logo to attract attention andadd branding,” he said, noting that parents often tell him how much their children love his car washbecause of the appealing mascot.

“We also own billboards, and the vehicle wrap is a much cheaper alternative because it is mobile and can bebrought anywhere,” he said. “We try to bring the truck to as many events as possible: charityevents, parades, promotions. If anybody asks us for a donation to an event, we will come with our truck with themascot riding in the back.”

Champagne said the biggest benefit is reaching people outside the car wash. “I’ve had people come upto me to talk about the truck or the car wash. I’ve had an opportunity to speak with them and either turnthem into a customer or a repeat customer as well as to get feedback on how my business is operating and howpeople perceive it. People approach me freely when they see me out and about with the truck.”

Beth Martin is the marketing director for Flying Ace Express Car Wash in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. She also brings herwrapped service van to special events, like a community “trick or treat” outing, when children areinvited to climb through the specially-decorated van.

Jason Frank of Splash Car Washes in New York and Connecticut said additional exposure was one of their goals withtheir wrapped vehicles, as well. “We decided many years ago to have the vehicle wrapped for use atmarketing events, charity events and parades, and we have used it to tow a mobile billboard.” He said theyeven used it tow around cars — the ones they have given away during promotions over the years. It isworking so well for them, they just had the wrap redone about a year ago.

Epic Shine Car Wash in Idaho has gone the route of wraps, as well, and embraced them very early on. HeatherParedes said they wrapped a Ford F-150 truck with their original Epic Shine logo and design soon after openingtheir first location. After they rebranded, they had a van wrapped that reflected the new logo and broughtawareness to some of the community events they sponsor, such as Make-A-Wish, St. Jude’s Children’sHospital, Eagle Field of Honor for Veterans and more. “We wanted to share our commitment to innovation,water conservation and concern for the environment,” said Paredes.

Barrett Webb, operating owner of Mister B’s Express Wash in Murfreesboro and Lebanon, Tennessee, originallyadded vinyl lettering to the company truck, a 2007 Nissan Titan. “It was cheaper but smaller, and it didn’tcatch as many eyes,” he said. After a few years, he switched to a wrap that covers everything but theroof.

A popular feature of the design is the company’s logo, a friendly, big-eyed bee. “We definitelywanted our little bee on there,” said Webb. “We park it out in front of the washes every now andthen just to get a little more signage on the street.”

Webb, who has personally been driving the car for several years, said, “It’s hard to miss me at Lowe’sor the grocery store. For us it seems like a pretty cheap form of advertising. We need a truck anyway; we mightas well have some advertising.” He said the wrap cost about $1,500 and has held up well for the past threeyears with little maintenance: “We have an express exterior car wash, and we just run it through a coupleof times a week. We haven’t had any problems.”

Carolina Pride Carwash Systems & Solutions has close to 30 company box trucks and vans circulating throughNorth and South Carolina. “They’re used by our service techs, installations crew and chemicaldeliveries, and the majority of them are wrapped,” said marketing director Mary Hester.

Carolina Pride leases its fleet, so vehicles are wrapped only for a few years at a time; thus they always lookfresh and in good repair. “It means a lot to our customers to have a fully branded truck do an installwith them,” Hester said.

There are numerous other benefits. “On the back of one of our trucks, it said, ‘Follow Us to aGreat Car Wash.’ It actually helps our customers,” she said. Also, “we certainly have peoplewho call us because they’ve seen our trucks and they’re interested in getting into the car washbusiness or they want to buy some new equipment.”

Hester said, “It’s not free advertising, because you pay anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 for a wrap,but it pays for itself once you get that truck out on the road. Maintenance is really low; if I see it peeling,I’ll look at it, and if it’s just lifting up a bit, I’ll use a bit of adhesive.”

Swiftwater Car Wash in San Antonio, Texas operates two wrapped vehicles: a Ford Focus and a Chevy Silveradotruck. “We just wanted it to be like a mobile billboard for name recognition,” said owner PrestonColdewey. Because the company is growing, the vehicles highlight things that won’t change—like thewebsite and certain key services—rather than things that could go out of date, like a list oflocations.

He warns that wraps should not be left on for longer than their recommended lifespan, especially in locationslike his that see hot or cold weather extremes. He is currently involved in the process of removing a wrap thatcracked into small pieces when he kept it on longer than the two years the manufacturer suggested. (Some wrapswill last for five or more years.)

Nonetheless, he said, “if you look at it as a marketing tool as opposed to just making our vehicle lookbetter, you’re talking about two years’ worth of marketing that gets driven all around the city.What you’re getting out of it is quite big in the marketing world for the money you’re putting intoit. It isn’t even close to sponsoring a sports event or a billboard.”

Jack Anthony is the CEO of Jack Anthony Industries Inc. DBA 7 Flags Car Washes in Vallejo, Calif. The companybegan applying decals to its vehicles a decade ago, and then switched to wrapping about four years ago.

“One of the things we really promote with it is our unlimited monthly pass plan for $20,” he said.“Our vehicles are out and about all over the city. We used to pay to be on buses and other types ofvehicles. This is one form of advertising where you pay for it once, and then it’s yours for as long asyou own the vehicle.”

Anthony’s company has five vehicles in total: one truck partly wrapped with just the logo and four fullywrapped vehicles. Initially, Anthony said, he was concerned that maintenance might be an issue; however, “they’veheld up very well. We try to wash them on an ongoing basis. We can’t put the pickup and ladder racksthrough the conveyor car washes, so they use self-service.”

He believes brand consistency is important; since the company has adopted a new logo, its monument signs arebeing upgraded, and the vehicles are essentially being patched to match. “What they see on the monumentsign is the same as what they see on the vehicles, so you get the same message over and over again,” hesaid. “We’re very happy with [the wraps]. It gives us brand identity and it shows that we’re avery professional organization, and customers can trust us.”