A company car is on the road anyway. Wrapped, it also works as an advertising medium, and in places where there is no billboard at all.
Below we describe what vehicle wrapping really gives you, what its types are, how long each film lasts, when the film protects the paint and when it harms it, and how to prepare the artwork so that it can be read from the road.
Where the advantage lies
A fixed advertising medium waits for someone to walk past it. A vehicle drives itself to where the audience is: to the customer, into a housing estate, onto the car park by a shopping centre, into a jam on the way out of town. The reach is created alongside work that has to be done anyway.
The second difference concerns cost spread over time. Advertising space is rented month by month, whereas wrapping is a one off expense that works for as long as the film lasts. With a properly chosen material that means several years.
What the company gains
- A medium that moves itself. Daily journeys, stops at the customer and parking in busy places are exposure at no extra charge.
- A one off cost instead of a subscription. There is no monthly invoice, there is one expense covering several seasons.
- Recognition through repetition. The same vehicle seen many times in the neighbourhood builds brand memory more effectively than a single impression.
- Credibility. A crew that arrives in a marked vehicle looks like a company rather than a random person from a classified ad.
- Local reach. The advertising lands exactly where the company works, which for a business serving its own area means more than a national campaign.
- Paint protection. The film takes on the sand, the small scratches and the sunlight.
- Easy change of content. A new service or a different telephone number means replacing part of the wrap, not a new campaign from scratch.
Types of wrapping
| Scope | What it covers | When it works | What to remember |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cut graphics | a logo, lettering and marks cut from film, with no background | contact details on a delivery van, a fleet in one colour | the cheapest solution, fitted in a few hours |
| Partial wrap | the sides, the rear, the bonnet or the lower band of the bodywork | when the budget is in between and the rear and sides are what count | it works best when the colour of the car goes with the design |
| Full wrap | the whole body including swages and curves | a change of vehicle colour, a strong graphic, a consistent fleet | it calls for cast film and experienced fitting |
| Windows | perforated film on the rear and rear side windows | when the graphic area has to be enlarged | visibility from inside is kept, while the windscreen and front side windows are subject to light transmission requirements |
| Removable carriers | magnetic panels and boards fitted for the working day | a private car used for business | only on flat, clean surfaces, they need taking off and washing underneath |
Films and their real life
- Monomeric film, from one to three years. It tends to shrink and does not take curves, so it suits flat surfaces and seasonal campaigns.
- Polymeric film, from three to five years. More dimensionally stable, it copes with gentle curves of the bodywork.
- Cast film, from five to ten years. Thin and pliable, it lies down over swages and deep curves. Full wraps are made from it.
- Protective laminate. Applied over the print, it extends its life and protects against sunlight and the brushes of an automatic car wash.
The periods given apply to Central European conditions and to vertical surfaces. The roof and the bonnet age faster, because they get the most sun, and the print on them is the first to lose saturation.
Paint: when the film helps and when it harms
Paint protection is often listed as a benefit with no reservation at all, and the reservations matter:
- The paint has to be original and sound. From a coating after body repair, or from a car resprayed later, the film can come away together with the paint.
- After respraying you have to wait. A fresh coating gives off solvents for several more weeks. It is assumed that at least a month should pass before wrapping.
- Remove it warm. The film is taken off heated, slowly and at a shallow angle. Pulling it off cold leaves adhesive, and sometimes a mark where it was.
- Do not leave the film past its time. The adhesive hardens over the years, and then even a good material becomes troublesome to remove.
- A touchless wash instead of brushes. The edges of the film lift fastest from brushes and from a jet aimed straight at the edge of the sheet.
Artwork that can be read from the road
A graphic on a vehicle is looked at for a few seconds, often in motion and at an angle. That changes the rules of composition:
- One thought per side. A driver in the neighbouring lane will see only one side of the car and only for a moment.
- Three pieces of information instead of ten. Who we are, what we do, how to get in touch. The rest belongs on the website.
- Large, simple type. Narrow, decorative letters fall apart in a quick glance.
- Contrast matters more than the brand colour. Light lettering on a dark ground or the other way round, with no shadows and no soft gradients under the text.
- Work around handles, hinges, mouldings and deep swages. In those places the graphic breaks and loses legibility.
- Leave an allowance for wrapping the edge and for the areas the fitter has to stretch.
You can see how the graphic sits on a particular body in the wrap visualiser. It is worth putting brand colours through the CMYK simulation beforehand, because saturated blues and greens change once they move to printing inks, and the finished file through the file check.
What to prepare for a quotation
- The model and body version together with the year, because the shape decides how much film is used.
- The scope of work: lettering only, part of the body or a full wrap.
- Photographs of the car from four sides, in daylight and from a few metres away.
- The logo in vector form and the brand colours.
- The expected exposure time, because it decides the class of film and whether a laminate makes sense.
If the vehicle is on a lease or on long term rental, wrapping usually needs the consent of the finance provider. It is also worth checking with the vehicle registration authority how a change of the vehicle colour entered in the registration document is treated, because a full wrap in a different colour changes the actual state.
Summary
Wrapping a vehicle gives local exposure for a one off cost, builds the credibility of the company and protects the paint along the way. The condition is matching the film to the exposure time and to the shape of the body, and artwork built for a short glance from the road.
The biggest disappointments come from two things: cheap film fitted for several years, and artwork that looks good on screen and from twenty metres away is only a patch of colour.
Planning to mark a car or a whole fleet? Take a look at our offer of vehicle wrapping. We will match the film to the exposure time and check the artwork for legibility from moving traffic.
