KEY POINTS:
Cash-strapped Americans, straining under the burden of the housing market crisis, are plastering their beloved SUVs and cars with magnetic advertisements, collecting hundreds of dollars a month in an effort to make ends meet.
Free Car Media, an advertising firm based in Los Angeles, came up with the scheme to give big-brand clients a new method of reaching consumers with direct marketing. Anyone with a reasonably new car, who fits the demographic of the brand, can make as much as US$800 ($1140) a month for driving a vehicle dressed up to match whatever product happens to be on offer.
Drew Livingston, the founder and president of Free Car Media, says when times are tough the number of registrations on his website goes through the roof. "When gas prices get higher, or when there are problems with the stock market we definitely see a spike in interest," Livingston said. "We are seeing that now with the housing market."
Cars wrapped in Livingston's hoardings are cropping up all over big cities such as New York and LA as big companies such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble have caught on to the car as an effective - and cheap - alternative to direct marketing. "Say we have a new detergent and we need to reach the mum with two kids doing the school run," Livingston said.
"We could do focus groups or direct mailing but instead we find one person on our register who meets that demographic and use her car. She drives to school, all her peers see the car, all the traffic she passes sees the advertising. It works."
With thousands of dollars of a student loan to repay, Brian Katz found it hard to make ends meet, even though he had a good job at one of New York's most exclusive health clubs. "I would not have been able to afford to drive a car had I not got one from Free Car Media," said Katz. "When I did my advertising with Free Car it was actually giving out free cars, hence the name. I got a new Chevy Blazer for two years." Katz's Blazer was festooned with the logos for Jamba Juice or Verizon Wireless.
There are 700 car owners on Free Car Media's books who are used regularly for advertising work, but that number is set to more than double once the summer lull is over. "We will have 1700 people in use by the end of the year," Livingston said.
-Observer
