Travelled through and grown-up in countries like Canada, USA & Australia, vehicle wrap is a concept fast catching in India bringing forth opportunities in abundance for the country’s graphics solutions providers.
Vehicle wrap is a growing market opportunity as it feeds into the industry-wide trend of customisation and personalisation. However, it’s not a new trend as people have been customising cars and spending serious cash since the 1950s. Over the years, it got aggravated offering users the chance to customise and personalise their belongings wherein the modern-day digital print technologies are playing vital role. Whether for professional or personal use, vehicle wraps show individuality and create an impressive aesthetic – as for businesses, they create brand recognition and drive traffic, while for personal use; they show the owner’s personality.
Sign & POP World tries peeping in to the world of wrapping in order to find out how the industry and its players evolved over the years and what are the driving factors behind this unique face-over of vehicles – be it cars, buses, truck, trailers, trains, or airy carriages. As usual, we endeavoured bringing in many names from both the sides – material suppliers as well as installers, the solution providers – but the extremely busy fleets find it tough to respond in time thus loose what could have been an addition in their businesses, promising an extended market reach to their potential customers. Finally, we ended up with 3M, Avery Dennison and CASHurDrive, who shared their professional insights to help us bring forth a digitally printed document on wrapping advertising for our valuable readers.
Starting with 3M that believes car wraps are not just for the fashion but a trend becoming popular among the car owners across the spectrum. Some choose a wrap for enhancing aesthetics and some for practical, functional uses. It’s a second skin for our 4-wheeled friends. 3M’s range of 76 wrap films bring users an even greater number of out-of-the-ordinary finishes, textures and colour options to create customised vehicle wraps that stand out from the crowd. Wraps with 45 of these films can be installed within 3 to 7 days at any of the 3M Car Care Centers. The rest are exclusive and are available against order like for instance the 1080 series superior dual cast film is available in Carbon Fiber, Matte & Gloss finishes.
Wraps are easy to remove, and leaves minimal adhesive residue on removal without damaging the paint of the car thus giving options to the car owners to personalise and re-personalise. It was rightly pointed out by Rohit Ramdey, Technical Specialist – APAC Region, Commercial Solutions Division, 3M India Ltd who sees personalisation as a global trend where individuals these days are eager to look different to stand out from the rest. In the wake of making style statements, people’s choice of personalisation has gone beyond phones, laptops, or even custom-made clothes to touch vehicles. “Personalisation of vehicles started almost 80 years ago in the western world, but caught up in Asia only in the past decade. It’s a concept, dates back to 1930s when people preferred giving wooden/natural look to their vintage vehicles,” he informs.
Going forward, Ramdey adds that vehicle personalisation touched the heart of Gen X that wants to be expressive with everything it does. “For instance, tattoos which were limited to villages as part of tradition have now become a great form of expressions and style statements. For the trend of personalising vehicles, in India it flagged off when people started differentiating their bikes, helmets, number plates, etc. with the help of stickers. This got extended as now we have people wrapping up their vehicles partially or completely. Interestingly, major part of our population is young with increased disposable income aiding to their respective capacities to spend on personalisation,” he says advising that personalisation as a concept in India started with jewellery and apparel, which latter extends encompassing other personal belongings to reach vehicles.
The wrap market is surging faster than expected nowadays as the drivers of the market sense it in time. CASHurDRIVE that claims to be India’s first and the only On-Vehicle Advertising company, aims to ease the burden of rising fuel cost and soaring inflation rates. CASHurDRIVE promotes eco friendly methods of advertising wherein the Company is free from the menace of cutting down trees to make the billboards or spoil a Landscape or deface something. As the cars are already running on road and the agency just pastes Vinyl Wraps that don’t spoil the paint of the car once removed. Interestingly, this concept is a big hit in countries like Canada, USA & Australia and rakes in thousands of dollars for per ad, while in India it’s still in the nascent stages.
According to Raghu Khanna, Founder & CEO, CASHurDRIVE Marketing Pvt. Ltd., the innovative idea of on-wheel advertising has caught the fancy not only of individuals but advertisers. The company that started with the simple idea of cashing on the owner’s personal vehicle through branding has grown today into one of the biggest transit media advertising platform bringing forth a non-traditional mode of advertisement to brands in order to create a source of revenue for drivers as well as the vehicle owners. “We have tried to bring both advertisers and vehicle owners together on the same platform so as to ensure that vehicles are monitored and the right advertisement reaches the right set of customers,” he avers.
All thanks to the dynamic moves and the call from the market. Today, the company has a formidable network of over 4,500 private vehicles, more than 6,500 airport cabs and about 2,00,000 autos on-board. “Apart from this, we are sharing excellent professional relations with the foremost airlines of the country including Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Indigo, GoAir and Air Asia. At CASHurDRIVE, we provide complete outdoor solution and have authorised rights for advertising on leading cab fleets like Meru, Mega, Wings, Fast Track and Easy Cabs. We are also working with IRCTC for train advertising projects, the latest being leaflet distribution inside Shatabdi for Make My Trip,” he explains adding that CASHurDRIVE plans to create transit media as an integral part of outdoor advertising industry.
But why should commercial printers be interested in vehicle graphics, an application traditionally done by sign shops and vehicle wrap shops? In fact, it has opened up avenues turning general people’s imaginations in to reality where additions from the designated thought processes of dedicated creative minds add further delight. People experiment with different designs including the complex curvy ones, which are not possible with paint. And here comes the role of material suppliers/manufacturers like 3M to make the face-over of the vehicles easy and convincingly commendable right from the beginning of the trend of wrapping them on. “We used to have products giving a natural wood feel to auto parts. Now we have products, which are stretchable up to 150% facilitating enough to cover the shape of even a complex car body part easily that too in an extremely low installation time,” Ramdey adds indicating that the best part is that this change is temporary and the owners can always go back to original or choose a new design to get wrapped on.
Divulging further on how the technological advancements are paving the way, Ramdey says, “We have constantly innovated the wrapping technology and products. Some of the recent developments include products which come with a non-visible air release channels for easier, faster and better final look. We have introduced a new printable reflective product which can be used to completely wrap the car and is reflective for a highlighted view during the night time. Besides the evolution of products, 3M has been actively providing education to Installers to able to do the installation effectively and without any error. 3M conducts these trainings across the country via its technical centres or its franchise locations of car care centres. These hands-on sessions help the installers not only to get knowledge about the products, but also grab an opportunity to practice their skills of applications.”
Wrap Advertising
Wrap advertising or a vehicle wrap describes the marketing practice of completely or partially covering i.e. wrapping a vehicle in an advertisement or livery, resultant of which is essentially a mobile billboard. Wrap advertising has been an increasingly ubiquitous practice in the 21st century and involves the use of large vinyl sheets as decals. The vinyl sheets can later be removed with relative ease, drastically reducing the costs associated with changing advertisements. While vehicles with large, flat surfaces such as buses, trucks, trailers, and light-rail carriages are often used; the wonder these days are the automobiles that are serving as hosts for wrap advertising, despite consisting of more curved surfaces.
How it is done?
Using what is known as a conformable vinyl wrapping material, a high-quality print or protective clear wrap can be moulded to almost any and every part of a vehicle. Typically, conformable material is used because it is the easiest to work with, especially on contoured surfaces. Using the proper adhesives when applying the material to the surface of the car is essential, otherwise the wrap can lead to adhesive failure in a few months after the application.
Elucidating the Concept
It needs an extremely creative bend of mind to materialise the basics simply by turning them in to the productive ideas. Most resourceful ones are born out of utter determination and this innate sense of wanting to solve users’ pain-points. “CASHurDRIVE started with a mottled idea of on-vehicle advertising. It rests on the idea that the fun and witty slogans capturing the attention of users on a daily basis can be en-cashed easily by advertisers. Despite being a simple idea, the thought behind it and the innovative approach have attracted huge amount of eye balls. For us, the idea of good marketing activity is to bring smile to the consumers, while trying to resolve the day-to-day struggle in their lives,” shares Khanna.
Take for instance; activation of Kellogg’s breakfast cabs in association with Meru Cabs became an instant hit with marketers. The thought process behind the activity was to delight a customer by ensuring that they are allotted a breakfast cab if booked between 5AM to 9AM. Apart from exciting a customer, the message drove home the importance of breakfast to kick-start a healthy day. Another similar activity can be the Maggi Cuppa Noodles campaign. Here the passengers were served the noodles along with the hot water for the noodle preparation. A thoughtful attempt to brace cuppa noodles memories. Additional initiatives have come in the form of in-cab product experience for an air purifier, road shows done for an amusement park in Bengaluru and many more in various cities, escalator branding for a telecom partner, in-flight cookie sampling for an FMCG brand, paper cups advertising to mention a few.
Speaking on why one should opt for CASHurDRIVE for the wrapping solutions, Khanna says that we are the one-stop-solution for any outdoor requirements. “I believe our core USP is the in-house production setup which is well supported by an efficient team of wrapping professionals pan India with offices established in major locations like Noida, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, etc. Apart from the vertical expansion, we even offer extended services and perform end-to-end branding solution. Also, we are a DAVP registered agency now. We have already started performing publicity assignments for them & it feels great that even Government/DAVP & PSU clients are showing their interest towards the media.”
Khanna assumes to be fortunate to have a strong designing & professional wrapping team which helps the company to perform even in odd circumstances. Since our core strength is transit media advertising, at many times team faces many on ground hardships like autos or taxi drivers strike, bad weather conditions or unexpected rain etc. but it’s totally operational support that helps the team bring any campaign live.
The Challenges
Limitations are everywhere, but keep changing faces irrespective of industries. For a start-up like CASHurDRIVE, the challenges initially were extremely personal. “As soon as I got my engineering degree, I got an offer from an IT company in Bangalore, and simultaneously received admission at London School of Economics for a Master’s degree. Though my visa and tickets were booked, I decided to pursue my passion. I took the proverbial entrepreneurial plunge focusing on translating, what was playing in my mind, into reality. For this, I got the desired support when my parents came forward with Rs. 20,000 to help nurture my dream. I set up the company website bringing on board approximately 25 web designers. The company got registered in Chandigarh and post that the business idea fuelled up immensely,” explains Khanna.
“Initially, it wasn’t easy to convince clients as the medium was new. People doubted on its credibility and effectiveness. Even the cab companies were sceptical about the business model, their vehicles maintenance, and perception about their fleet in the market. At that juncture, the biggest challenge was to assure them that the media can do wonders. It took time but gradually, the taxi operators agreed to associate with us. Apart from the basic wrapping concept, we can actually integrate many other engagement activities like Sampling, road shows, in-cab engagements for the promotional activities,” he avers.
If anyone believes, the past 7 years have made CASHurDRIVE what it is today. From being just an idea on papers to becoming a successful start-up, the company has wowed media and the industry alike. A strong in-house team of designers and engineers apart from a strong sense of belief and faith in the idea have given the momentum to grow phenomenally. Earlier, the industry didn’t have a business model where advertisers paid vehicle owners in return for advertising. “I was warned, advised and cautioned against the pitfall of an idea that did not exist. But our belief and collective team work kept us going,” Khanna asserts.
It is said that a leader challenges the status quo, knows the way, goes the way and shoes the way. “I believe in experimenting and have firm faith in the ideology that hurdles can be converted into opportunities if one sets their mind to it. I have nurtured my team with the same spirit and frame of mind. With strength of over 100 teammates, I try to motivate each one of them with a similar thought process – innovate, find that need-gap, bridge it and innovate again. I trust that Innovation multiplies the chance to learn and achieve success,” he reiterates.
The Suppliers’ Forte
The Industry keeps on adding new products thereby bringing numerous viable options for the solution providers when it comes to convincing the clients that the boundaries to be wrapped are getting stretched and you need to explore your own space to grab from the yet to be tapped productive market. “3M has been the pioneer in bringing products for vehicle wrapping with innovative technologies in products and applications. We are keen to innovate designs and finishes matching consumers’ behaviour. We create to meet their specific individual needs. As it stands, we have the widest range of finishes and colours that are available in Wrap films,” insists Ramdey.
One of the things which makes 3M stands out is its sensitivity towards the environment. “All our products are useful and easy to use at the same time they are manufactured using the optimum amount of resources and are free from heavy metals and offer good fire retardancy in event of a hazard. We even have extremely conformable wrap solutions which are completely free from PVC just in case the consumer wants to go PVC free,” he highlights.
At Avery Dennison, it is constantly innovating to make custom vinyl graphics more exciting, noticeable and easy to install. Decades of experience and knowledge have gone into the products and technology to help users transform ideas into impactful messages. Supreme Wrapping Film ColorFlow Series transforms any vehicle into a work of art. Available in five colour shifting iridescent shades, the ColorFlow Series vinyl film delivers superior performance and conformability, while achieving a dynamic look that’s durable and easy to apply.
Another option providing an impactful, mirror-like finish is Conform Chrome films that enhance the look of vehicles to provide a truly premium result when creating striking accents and special effects. Now with three transparent Coloured Overlaminates (COL), Avery facilitates creating dazzling new colour combinations. Adding to it is the next generation digital inkjet print wrapping solution has arrived. Avery Dennison’s MPI 1105 Easy Apply RS™ cast film and DOL 6460 Premium High Gloss overlaminate combine to provide you with the ultimate performance for all your vehicle wrapping and durable outdoor graphics needs.
Fleet Branding
Fleet is one of the most visible and important marketing tools providing with large-scale, mobile advertising space at no cost. If owned billboard space, surely that space would not be left blank? In addition to enhancing the corporate identity through branding standardisation and consistency, branding fleet affords the opportunity of large-scale brand and product awareness – totally rent-free.
Having a fleet of vans, cars or lorries sporting smart vehicle graphics says something about your business. It says you are big, professional and profitable. Aside from the boost to your company’s reputation, there is all the extra promotion your vans or cars are doing simply by going about their daily work with your custom vehicle graphics on them. Reaching thousands of people every day, vehicle and fleet branding is both a high-impact and cost-effective way of promoting a brand, product or service.
Branding on trucks and trailers has always been there globally for ages. 3M have been a pioneer in providing printed solutions for such applications. Films that can easily go on rivets have been instrumental behind the success of graphics on trailers. Lately, there have been a lot of thrust in to the graphics on fleet as it is an effective mode of branding – be it trailers or company leased vehicles. Films or graphics provide an effective way to advertise complex designs with ease. One thing with commercial fleet is that mostly it is shared between companies. For instance, a particular automotive OEM truck/trailer delivers one brand’s vehicles on one way and while coming back it might bring another brand’s vehicles. This makes it difficult to implement branding in paint and graphics provide an effective medium to communicate it.
Fleet advertising ranks highest in effectiveness among the many types of outdoor advertising mediums available. Fleet wraps offer a high return on investment— with high market penetration and viewer recall. With Avery Dennison high performance films, promoting your business and branding your fleet vehicles has never been easier or more effective. The company offers vibrant and durable graphics that insure that your car, van, bus or vehicle wrap will look stunning for an extended period of time. Fleet graphics from Avery Dennison helps create a lasting first impression. The industry leading fleet wraps transform any vehicle into a creative statement and can be applied to cars, trucks, boats, vans or trailers. Choose from short or long term material to create or change your brand identity.
What makes a Great Vehicle Wrap!
Amidst all this what makes a great vehicle wrap? “To do a great vehicle wrap you need a great design, a product which can implement that design and a well-trained and experienced team of installers. Take for example, a full printed wrapped car, which was successfully demonstrated in Auto Expo. Another example of a Designer Wrap done in our Car Care Centre,” says Ramdey.
Elucidating it further, Sanjeev Oberoi, Asst. Technical Marketing Manager, Graphics, Label and Graphic Materials, Avery Dennison India Pvt. Ltd., opines that quality materials that are durable and designed to do the task at hand, not all PVC films are suitable for vehicle wrapping. “The quality of the workmanship is paramount, especially when you are referring to customisation, for fleet the workmanship must also be of high quality as well as durable. So, the installers must be trained in correct application techniques and procedure for the type of film they are using. There are a number of good template resources for vehicles, but a designer should not rely on the templates alone, they should actually see the car in person and make comparison notes against the template and design, as it doesn’t always translate the same once applied to a vehicle,” he says.
Avery Dennison is a worldwide leader in adhesive technologies, display graphics and packaging materials used to engage customers and manage inventories. The company’s car wrap and graphics solutions feature over 500 opaque, metallic, translucent film colours in a cast and calendared series. Avery Dennison custom vehicle and car wraps are designed to give its customers the flexibility of changing the appearance of any vehicle – car, truck or van while protecting the original finish. With a wide variety of solid car wrap film colours, printable options and finishes, the personalisation alternatives for personal vehicles or business fleets are endless.
The Evolution of Wrapping Technique & Materials
Advancements in plastics have led to new types of vinyl designed specifically for wrap advertising, including vinyl sheets that feature bubble-preventing air channels. Microscopic glass beads are used to prevent an adhesive from functioning until the user is ready. The beads allow the material to be repeatedly lifted and reapplied during the wrapping process, without compromising the longevity of the wrap. The vinyl is heated with a heat gun or torch for the purpose of moulding the material around objects.
Wrapping is used as a less-permanent way of applying its operator’s standard livery. This has become particularly common in the UK where, since the privatisation of British Rail, it has become quite frequent for trains to be transferred from one company to another, requiring many changes of livery. Wrapping are nowadays being used for vehicle customisation, and race cars often get vehicle wraps as they are lighter than paint.
“Digital print is an excellent choice for personalised wraps. Digital print offers high quality wraps with absolutely minimal MoQ and turnaround time. Digital print offers to customise the process of personalisation to perfectly meet each and every individuals’ specific need. I would say advancement of digital print technology has been a catalyst to growth in printed vehicle wraps,” says Ramdey.
Explaining the nuances with printing techniques, Oberoi explicates, “Certain types of digital print inks are more suitable than others, it’s important to understand the manufacturer’s ink capability, not only when it comes to durability, but also when you are confirming the digital print. Rigid UV cured inks are not suitable for conforming applications, whereas highly flexible solvent, eco solvent and latex inks are more suited to vehicle wrapping. The technology has evolved very quickly and now there are very flexible UV-cured inks available for vehicle wrapping.”
“Obviously digital printing is a boon for the industry as it helps in high quality prints & is economical as well. It’s not only flexible but also quick. One can convert mass orders within few minutes. However, general printing techniques such as Solvent and Eco-Solvent are commonly used for vehicle wraps. There isn’t any special technique but surely one needs to take care of colour contrast, creative sharpness, artwork cutting and related finish. Even creative lamination plays a very vital role especially in outdoor/transit media as weather is uncertain factor here. Also, it helps in creative longevity & prevents the same from fading & dust,” shares Khanna.
The Cost-Effectiveness
“Getting a vehicle wrap is really cost-effective and the cost really depends upon the size or rather area of the wrap, complexity involved in the job work, and the duration for which the wrap is sought. On 3M films, if you just do a roof wrap you could easily get it done via our Car Care Centres for a nominal cost. This is completely backed by a 3M warranty for the performance of wrap,” says Ramdey.
There isn’t any doubt that transit advertising is a very creative and innovative way to reach your potential customers as well as its effective too. “The biggest strength of the media is that it’s an affordable medium and cheaper from other promotional mediums such as print, electronics or online. Practically, there isn’t any specific charge for any fleet or vehicle. It totally depends upon the quality of vinyl, printing type, vehicle model, size, location and total area of wrapping.
“To explain it further let’s consider cab/car advertising where area of branding & total sq. ft. area differs from Model to Model. For Instance one can move ahead with Bonnet/Dickey wrap for Etios but it’s not with Indigo Xl. Similarly, Eco car than it comes in two variations like Cargo and Passenger van,” says Khanna.
Conclusion
It’s aptly clear that be it personalising vehicles or using the same for advertising purposes, this face of the business is opening up new avenues for graphics solutions providers in India – a country which is on the run for growth and development. The need is to create awareness among the potential customers and convince them how this form of advertising offers a lower cost per impression value than branding otherwise. Also, they need to associate with the solution providers to help create a market which is waiting with lots of opportunities.
Specially for branding purposes, every second that a branded vehicle spends in the traffic is quality marketing time which the sales force may literally be driving around in their business card! In addition to this unique advertising opportunity, branded vehicles are known to instill a sense of company pride amongst staff and drivers. Utilising the latest technology and high quality materials, a simple creative concept or branding idea is transformed into an artwork of uncompromising quality, ready to be applied to clients’ vehicles.
For Commercial Printers – Training is a Must
For vehicle graphics especially, it’s more than just laying down ink on an adhesive-based vinyl. A professional-looking installation is key to a successful project and a happy customer. It’s important for people looking to get into the wrap industry to understand the complexities it involves. Too often people think wrapping vehicles is easy so they get into the market without the proper education and training which leads to ultimate failure and disappointment through inadequate wrap jobs and unsatisfied customers.
For commercial printers looking to expand into the wide-format market, training is essential. It’s only through proper training and education can print shops and commercial printers make sure they understand the ins-and-outs and all the intricacies involved with the wrap process. This includes not only the installation but the design, layout, production, printing and finishing of wrap projects.
Experts believe that vehicle wraps are one of the more difficult offerings in the wide-format space—but it’s also one of the more profitable and rewarding. The sheer complexity vehicle wraps along with the number of different makes models and designs of cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, RVs and other make understanding how to properly wrap and finish a job very important. But the final output results in a professional, well-wrapped project for a satisfied customer.
But are specific vehicle wrap certifications necessary? In this market, where many shops may offer vehicle wraps or in markets where there are low-cost providers, certifications provide your customers with a certain level of comfort, knowing your shop is trained and professional. Certifications are what gives the customer and the consumer a warm fuzzy feeling about your wrapping capabilities and shows that you know what you’re doing when it comes to the wrap process.
Vehicle wraps especially are very personal and emotional projects for the owner of the vehicle. They want to make sure that those wrapping designing printing and finishing their pride and joy have had the proper training and understand how to complete the project for the best result. This makes it important for the print shop or the commercial printer to have that training and knowledge and be able to display that with the certificate to the customer base to provide the comfort level and confidence needed to promote their business grow their business and maintain satisfied customers.
THREE Benefits of Partial Vehicle Wraps
JMR Graphics is a leading designer and manufacturer of 3M trailer graphics and car wraps. JMR Graphics is an award-winning nationwide 3M-certified manufacturer of graphics with more than two and a half decades of experience. The company specialises Fleet Graphics, Vehicle Wraps, Architectural Wall Graphics, Promotional Window Clings, Floor Graphics, Event Signage, and much more. Of these, Vehicle wraps are a highly effective means of marketing to a large base of audience. Wrapped vehicles serve as moving billboards to brand a business and make them recognisable within the communities they serve. JMR Graphics highlights three benefits of partial vehicle wraps.
Partial wraps are cost effective with a huge ROI. Vehicle graphics have it wrapped up when it comes to getting a lot of bang for your advertising bucks. Any vehicle wraps are highly cost effective with a low overhead and a high impression count. Utilising a partial wrap is even more economical but will still attract much attention and drive results. Making vehicles work as mobile billboards means that the brand will make a large quantity of impressions and when used on a fleet, the vehicles will most likely increase the frequency in which the vehicle wrap is seen as well. Partial wraps obviously cost less than full wraps and are a great way to stretch a marketing budget, especially when wrapping multiple vehicles. The quality and duration will remain the same as full wraps, turning vehicles into impactful advertisements.
Partial wraps are perfect for limited time promotional advertising on a fleet. A huge advantage of vinyl wraps is their ability to be reactive to business needs. Partial wraps, especially, can be easily and inexpensively changed on vehicle fleets to address time sensitive marketing needs. Vehicles can be equipped with partial wraps to announce limited time promotions, new products or services, special events and more. Partial wraps are also great for recurring promotions that take place once or twice a year. Businesses can have fun with partial wraps and get creative by implementing audience engaging tactics such as adding a barcode decal for an enter to win or scavenger-hunt promotion.
Partial wraps make an impact statement. When it comes to making a message stand out, we often reference white-space to highlight the most important messages. Partial wraps can be used in this way. Using a partial vinyl wrap can make the focal message the hero by surrounding it with ample white space. Use partial wraps to make an impact when announcing launches, promotions, events or any other business focus.