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businesses of all sizes are increasingly turning to vehicle wrap advertising to get their message out. By wrapping cars, vans, trucks, and boats, their messages are being seen by thousands of potential customers. According to a recent market stat: one vehicle wrap can generate between 30,000 - 70,000 impressions daily. To get a better handle on this growing market we spoke to few output providers who are providing cutting edge graphics to things that move.
Wrapping with Media 1 Signs
One graphics house that is driving big profits from their vehicle wrap business is Longwood, FL-based Media 1 Signs. "Our forte is vehicle wraps. On average we produce about 70 a month. We had incredible October were we did a whopping 138 vehicles," says Dale Salamancha, owner at Media 1 Signs located near Orlando.
Media 1 Signs has been in business 22 years and has remained on the cutting edge of the sign industry. "I started out in my garage and then branched out from there," remembers Salamancha. Today, the company is headquartered in Orlando, FL and maintains a local and national client base. Operating out of a 12,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility with an ever-increasing staff of designers, artists, fabricators, and support personnel, Media 1 is dedicated to Salamancha's acumen of "superior craftsmanship and on-time delivery."
Media 1's vehicle ad wrap and digital printing division is complete with multiple design stations, factory certified installers, vinyl plotters, and laminators along with two 64-inch solvent-based Mutoh Toucan LT printers, which were installed about five months ago.
"We've been a loyal Mutoh user for about four years when we purchased our first NXPro. We've done 2.5 million dollars off that machine alone in the past four years! So that machine has more than paid for itself it really opened doors for us in this space. This year we decided we wanted to purchase a six color machine. We saw the Toucan LT and it was an immediate sale because of the great relationship we have with Mutoh. We purchased one at the ISA show than added another one a month later. The Toucan LT brings high resolution and productivity combined with speed and first rate image quality to deliver a top-notch, mid-range printer for our most demanding production jobs."
Salamancha reports that business has been so good of late that the ROI on both printers is already paid for. "In the last six months business has quadrupled. I think people are releasing how great of an advertising vehicle these wraps can be. We paid the first LT in about a week a two once we got it and second one shortly after that. Of course we sort of had upfront business in our back pockets which also helps. We had $25,000 in jobs lined up even before we had the printers delivered," he says.
And how does Salamancha explain this growth? "We've seen a boom in the boating industry. The bass boating industry is now requiring bass fisherman to wrap their boats in order for them to be certified as a professional in their tournament series. So we are picking up this business. We are not only wrapping their boats but the trailers and trucks that transport them too," he adds.
Special EFX is The School of Wrap
Check out the Roland DGA Corp. booth at almost any major trade show and you will witness the artistry of Digital EFX Wraps based in Louisville KY.
"I can still remember our first vehicle wrap," said Matt Richart, who co-owns Digital EFX Wraps with Dallas Fowler. "We printed a vehicle graphic featuring a boating scene. The water looked so realistic, it was unbelievable. From then on, we were hooked."
Three years and hundreds of wraps later, Digital EFX has found themselves on the cutting edge of an exploding industry with one of the hottest businesses around. Word of mouth has secured them a steady stream of design and installation business that is about 80 percent commercial and 20 percent retail. Their hallmark is a precision installation process that produces smooth, seamless wraps over even the most complex curves and rivets.
"We've wrapped everything from motorcycles to Hummers, inside and out," Richart said. "In fact, one of our favorite wraps was a Honda Prelude that included an interior wrap of the speakers, a job that took seven hours due to the speakers' compound curves."
The Digital EFX shop relies on a Roland solution including a 54-inch SOLJET printer/cutter, VersaWorks RIP software, ECO-SOL MAX inks and Roland's certified and profiled media including premium calendered vinyl and view-through vinyl for window graphics.
No Road Rage Here
Road Rage Designs was established in 1992 when President Mike Grillo grew tired of working for graphics companies that didn't offer the customer service and quality graphics that he knew he could provide. He teamed up with commercial artist Kris Harris and moved into Road Rage Designs' current Spring Grove, IL location. "Our mission is to make your business stand out from the crowd. We work closely with our clients to make sure we achieve the look that attracts attention and accurately portrays their unique personality," says Grillo.
Grillo uses Avery graphics and likes Avery's new MPI 1005EZ media. "We've wrapped several vehicles with it now, and have found that it images beautifully, and installation is as easy as ever. Our installers raved about the added tackiness so the vinyl stays in place when it's installed, but still has the added bonus of the EZ air release technology. We recently wrapped a Corvette and a semi with the MPI 1005EZ and DOL 1000 overlaminate. We also did a job for unique Junior Dragster. It was wrapped with the Avery Dennison Silver Ultra Metallic printable vinyl MPI 5110 and laminated with the DOL 1000. It came out really sharp," Grillo adds.
Wrapping with the King of NASCAR
Over the past few years, NASCAR has become one of the nation's favorite spectator sports. It is also one of the most visually exciting of sporting events. John McKenzie CEO, MotorSports Designs, is considered to be the king of NASAR graphics. His company does all of the graphics for about 70 percent of the NASCAR teams' cars and haulers. Vehicle wraps have become SOP for NASCAR. The typical team starts the season with about 40 wrap packages for each vehicle in its garage.
MotorSports Designs based in High Point, NC, was established in 1982. "When we first started out all NASCAR vehicles were painted but, by the end of the first season we had 20 cars using decals and the rest is history. We were instrumental in moving most of the industry from paint to vinyl in less than two years," says McKenzie.
MotorSports uses 3M films almost exclusively for ease of installation and dependability. McKenzie likes to use 3M 180C product because of ease and speed of the application. "It holds up very well under the extreme conditions posed by NASCAR racing. We also utilize 3M's Comply v2 which goes on easily and quickly."
McKenzie adds that they also laminate (3M's 8518) all the graphics for the cars because of the protection against the grit and grime on the race track and the chemicals gas spillage that gets in the cars during the course of the week.
As for printers, McKenzie is partial to VUTEk equipment. "The VUTEk 150 is vinyl printing machine. It's a real workhorse and meets all printing our needs."
McKenzie says there is a big misconception about the amount of wraps they do over the course of a racing season. In most cases, they wrap a car for each race that it is competing in. "With all the money they spent on endorsements, the sponsors want to see a brand new car (in appearance) each week on the track. Each team has about 10-15 cars. So whether it's in a scrap or not we strip the car after each race, sand them back down and then steam clean them before we rewrap them for the next race.
When asked for some key wrapping tips, McKenzie says you first have to start with clean substrate. "You also have to make sure you clean the vehicle thoroughly. We use denatured alcohol to clean it. It sounds very basic but sometimes it overlooked," he points out.
On other tip he provides using torches as opposed to heat guns. "It's a big advantage in doing a wrap. We use the little hand-held propane tanks as opposed to a heat guns. It takes a little more skill and has a higher concentration of heat. Some applicators are afraid to use it because they might melt the car and or decals. It takes a little bit more patience to learn the technique but once you've mastered that you'll never go back to a heat gun again. We use them religiously on all our jobs. Those are two real keys. Vinyl is nothing to be afraid of. You just need to take your time and have patience with it," he adds.
The Titians of Transit
One of the West Coast's premier creative digital art and imaging facilities for transit advertising is IMagic. Based in downtown Burbank, CA, Imagic's unique blend of creative artistry and technology has made a huge name for itself when it comes to the design, production and installation of graphics for buses and trains. "At IMagic we continually expand our capacity for digital retouching, illustration, large-format printing, custom finishing and installation," says co-owner David Allman.
IMagic is a print provider for both CBS Outdoor and Titan Outdoor agencies. Allman says they have produced and wrapped a lot of trains and buses over the years.They offer their clients full wraps on buses and trains, traditional king-size posters, taillight displays and fullback advertisers. They also produce a variety of system-wide platform and station opportunities.
IMagic has used Flexcon materials on a number of vehicle applications, "We use Flexcon on a tremendous of Bus amount of work with Flexcon materials. We do the wraps on the L trains in Chicago using Flexcon media. In Chicago you need material that holds up to brutal winter," says Allman.
IMagic is a big VUTEk shop, we have two 2360s, a 3360, and a number of flatbeds. They also have an HP/Scitex XL plus an array of HP inkjet models.
"Wrapping a train is a very complex job. There are a lot more restrictions with security concerns and accessibility. We can only wrap on weekends and nights. For instance, in Minneapolis we can only complete a train wrap between 7 pm and 4 am. It's a tall order these trains can run up to 93 feet long. The city can't afford to have the train's offline for too long, so we don't time to spare. With buses you have more options because there are more buses in the fleet. Train wraps requires a good installation crew," he adds.
For more details about a compe-titive study 3M sponsored regarding vehicle wrap films, please visit www.wide-formatimaging.com.
author: BY BILL SCHIFFNER