As the economy recovers and technology continues to offer consumers new ways to manage their on-the-go lifestyle, business owners and marketing directors are faced with the daily obstacle of trying to reach these exact consumers! So many vehicles, each with their own demo and factors to be considered. While your product/service may make some decisions a no-brainer, most don’t have that luxury!

While most mass media can still be used as such, the fact of the matter is that due to technology advances, the future effectiveness of each mass medium is now in flux. Not everyone can effectively predict the future, but having a sustainable mindset will have you ahead of the crowd! Where can you put your marketing efforts and know people will still see them?

For most consumer-driven companies, an effective marketing mix consists of a mass medium or two and some very targeted marketing efforts. My thought process is as follows. What is NOT going anywhere anytime soon? Better yet, what isn’t going to be invented to fragment the advertising industry any further! I can promise you a time machine or transportation portal certainly isn’t going to be invented anytime soon! Additionally, a new social media site may be unveiled, but the internet is here to stay! Therein lies two media that I personally feel are the most sustainable places to put your message. A solid presence on the internet (your website, new media, & Google Adwords) and on the streets that consumers of all demographics use to commute every day of their lives!!

Agree with me? Disagree with me? Where do you think is the most sustainable place to put your message in a world that is driven by the ability to cram as much into one day as possible?

If a business has a desire to create this, then maybe they need to blend old media with new.  Take our product for example, what if an advertiser used the massive reach of a transit campaign to promote a giveaway on their Facebook Fan page?  Using buses is one of the greatest tools left for reaching a large amount of consumers in your marketplace.  Putting this reach together with the ability to start a relationship with them through social media may be just the spark a business needs to impact the social media scene in a big way.  Imagine driving all over your market and seeing a transit campaign with 40-60 displays barking a brand and a contest to you.  Win (idea here).  Become a Fan to learn more.  Simple and effective.  Potentially thousands of people could join in the first week alone.  Making your online real estate even more valuable.

Media has changed in a major way over the past decade.  Consumers and their media habits have changed in a major way, but one thing that remains the same is a successful media strategy involves a mix of media.  So the next time the conversation turns to social media and getting results for your business; ask yourself how I can leverage the old media to get jump start on new media?

Have you seen any great ideas or ways businesses have leveraged transit advertising to impact a social media strategy?  If so we would love to hear from you.  Leave a comment below.

Have you seen those new Metro buses? Strike that, because of course you have. You can’t miss these monsters.

Metro recently rolled out five new articulated, or “accordion” buses that will help with the loads on Metro’s busiest routes.

They add capacity and improve productivity, Metro says, because they hold 50 percent more riders at about the same cost as a regular bus.

Those busy routes? Route 43, Route 45 and Route 47 in the Reading Road corridor.

“The articulated buses are workhorses,” said Marilyn Shazor, Metro’s CEO. “This is especially important now as we try to stretch every dollar to serve as many customers as possible with a smaller budget.”

To read the full article on the Cincinnati Business Courier website, click here—

How about taking your entire fleet of wrapped vehicles for a tour of your market?

Have your employees drive your vehicle wraps one after the next all around your market. Do you think 10-20 vehicle wraps will catch any attention? My bet is that it will act as a bigger media than some of the more traditional forms of media you may be purchasing.

How about rewarding your employees and turning it into a marketing event?

What if you gave all your employees tickets to a popular sporting event in your market? The only catch to the employee is that they have to drive their vehicle wrap and park in a predetermined location. Imagine the impact when you have 10-20 vehicle wraps hogging up an entire area providing a ton of advertising impact for your brand. And don’t forget to leave together. As traffic from the event lets out and the streets are full of cars and people your 10-20 vehicle wraps will be lined up one after the other providing huge exposure for your brand.

A recent example of a client using this approach was Century Honda. The company had changed it’s name to Kings Honda and moved locations. They used a wrapped box truck at their old location to serve as a billboard to notify customers of both their name change and the move. Now as traffic drives by, the truck is instantly visible and becomes a highly effective marketing tool.