The Business of Transportation Graphics

Transportation graphics — which include wraps, windows, and other elements on cars, trains, buses, planes, and more — continue to be major marketing elements for brands seeking to build or maintain awareness of their products and services. Who hasn’t noticed a bus driving down the street with a mysterious wrap urging consumers to check out a new television show? Or watched a train go by with an ad for a beverage brand and realized they were thirsty? Who hasn’t been to New York or Las Vegas and noticed all the wraps promoting the diverse live stage productions? Who hasn’t seen a meme with a bus stop graphic that made people stop and take notice?

All those applications fall under the heading of transportation graphics, and they are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Tommy Le, the Western Region business development manager for perforated window film manufacturer Contra Vision North America, notes that the biggest trend he has seen in the transportation graphics space specifically is that brands aren’t just looking for a simple advertisement on the side of a vehicle.
“With the world of social media, it’s all about trying to create something that is very ‘wow,’” he notes.

Holiday bus wraps are a staple for many cities and towns across the country, and offer a blank canvas for brands to create eye-catching graphics seen by thousands every day.

“Before, brands would just wrap a bus or van and put their logo on it, but that isn’t enough anymore. Now they are trying to make something wild and out-there to get those views and eyeballs, to get people to say, ‘Wow did you see that?’ versus just a bus with a logo. For example, it could be an octopus drinking Pepsi, instead of just a Pepsi logo.”

That opens the door to shops looking to partner with brands from the idea creation to execution, with those who can bring creative ideas to the table for innovative ways to use graphics to create eye-catching moments more likely to earn the right to produce elements for the big brands. It is a way to get a foot in the door that could lead to winning more of a brand’s business over time.

And that matters, notes Michael Leonard, owner of North Carolina-based QC Signs & Graphics, who notes that in his city, as many as 10,000 eyeballs could see an individual graphic every day. “The ROI is very high when you talk about how many eyeballs see a wrap on a train, or on a bus driving around all day,” he notes. “Especially in an environment where there are so many places to go and channels to advertise, vehicle graphics are live and just out there. It is a strong visual, and a huge value-add to those who are on all those vehicles, since they are always in motion and out there.”

Beverage companies tend to make good use of transportation graphics, especially on trains and street cars. Not only do they travel on set routes that ensure a wide range of people see them passing by, they also catch the eyeballs of those waiting on platforms to catch the train itself. | Credit: QC Signs & Graphics

The end result, he says, is not just a lot of people seeing an ad but building up a lot of brand recognition as people on the roads driving by, on the trains, on the platforms, even pedestrians walking by all encounter the branding over and over again all across the city.

Building a Business Based on Transportation

For Leonard, vehicle graphics has become a major part of his business. He describes himself as a “corporate refugee,” noting that he did 20 years in retail before opening a sign company four years ago. Vehicle graphics weren’t necessarily the path he set out to walk, but luck was on his side, as the city of Charlotte was looking to change the supplier for its print needs. He put in a bid and earned the business.

“They were looking to switch suppliers for their print — everything from buses, street cars, trains, etc.," he says. "From the beginning, we were playing much bigger than we were — at the time I had one printer, and one employee. When we earned the contract, I doubled my staff and added a flatbed printer and router.”

He just recently added his tenth employee, and business has continued to grow, with the vehicle graphic contract opening a lot of doors for him.

But it wasn’t a matter of just being in the right place at the right time. Winning the contract took a mix of luck, skill, and perseverance. “They started with an emergency no-bid contract, and we were truly just one of the people that came up in an Internet search. We responded quickly, the head of installation called, and we set up a meeting and went to see them. I aggressively went after the contract as soon as I saw the opportunity.”

That emergency contract turned into an RFP, which he notes he had never done before, which in turn led to hiring consultants and hiring appropriately to ensure he could provide the speed and quality the city was looking for, and today he continues to provide all the transportation graphics for the city.

The system is an interesting one, with the city selling the spaces on their trains, buses, etc. programmatically, and then advertisers and brands getting their messaging out to the residents and visitors, with Leonard and his team not only doing the printing, but also the installation. Beverage distributors and healthcare providers are the biggest brands that use the program, although Leonard says it can vary greatly by season and time of year as the brands all try to create eye-catching graphics that will stand out.

Le notes that winning transportation graphics contracts is all about the connections — both making them, and then knowing how to use them. “I think it’s a little hard to break into,” he notes, “and I don’t think [most people] just all the sudden jump into wrapping a bus.” He advises shops looking to build a transportation graphics business to “start out small — maybe not a whole bus, but a transportation van, or a graphic for a local school.”

Then, Le says, build on that to start getting larger vehicles and more diverse vehicle types to expand the business over time. Not everyone can be as lucky as QC Signs & Graphics to win that major, all-encompassing project right from the start, and there are tons of local brands in any city or town that need delivery vans, work trucks, and more wrapped. It is a good way to get a foot in the door and start building expertise that can lead to bigger contracts.

More Than Printing

One thing that stands out about QC Signs & Graphics is that vehicle graphics aren’t just about printing beautiful images — the shop also must ensure they are installed correctly. And while wrapping a car in a shop bay has its own challenges, that is taken to another level when talking about wrapping buses or trains.

“Our crews have to install those overnight,” says Leonard, “because they cannot be installed during business hours. Right now, I have nine people rail-safety certified to be able to go into the rail yard and do whatever it takes to get the job done. If we must be there at 4am, we will be. And if there’s a problem with a train wrap and it has a seven-minute stop, we’ll be there as well.”

Those installations also require careful thought about the materials used — all vinyls are not created equal, and Leonard notes that it took some trial and error to find the right ones for the applications they are producing, especially for trains. But eventually, working with multiple suppliers, he says, they were able to get multiple materials certified for all the transportation applications they produce, making it easier to ensure they have what they need on hand when they need it.

That said, transportation graphics aren’t stationary — pun intended. “Every week we have something new, and it keeps us busy,” Leonard notes. “I had to hire two more production people, and two more part time, and sometimes I pull in anyone from myself as the owner, to the install team, to the project managers when we have multiple trains to get done. A full train takes 13 hours of pure print time, and then there’s the preparation, tiling, installation, etc., depending on the flow. It’s steady work and keeps us busy.”

In fact, the best advice Leonard can give to anyone looking to build or expand their transportation graphics business is to hire the right staff, because installers, especially, will make all the difference in the success or failure of that side of the business.

“You have to be able to handle the capacity, but also have the expertise on staff,” Leonard notes. “I couldn’t do this myself — I have a core group of impressive installers and professional production people, and having those people behind you makes it happen. You have to be professional, and always be on time — that’s key.”

This is especially true because Leonard admits that the margins aren’t “super high” on any one individual vehicle wrap project, but where the business succeeds is through volume, and having the right people and equipment to ramp it up. “Because the volume is there, it works,” he says. “But you can’t price it like you would someone coming in once for a specialty vehicle wrap.” It is all about the volume when it comes to winning — and keeping — larger scale transportation graphics contracts that span multiple vehicle types and locations.

Transportation graphics can be a solid business for shops that invest the time and money into getting the right equipment, the right people, and making the right connections in their local cities and towns. Whether it’s small projects working with individual brands, or larger projects producing all the transportation graphics produced for a city, the space has a lot of room for growth and creativity, and is a fantastic vertical to move into for anyone looking to diversify their offerings in the wide-format space.