Many folks local to the Lehigh Valley have very likely seen the WZZO radio station van running around the area for many years. I’m thinking that this has been on the road for over 10 years with its original air brush job. While this was really cool looking years ago; airbrush jobs are EXPENSIVE. We’ve witnessed custom paint jobs like this exceed the $20k mark. No only is there a high expense to unique paint jobs, but most are not easily removed. The usual solution when the vehicle is ready for turnover, is a new paint job. This may get costly in itself. Vinyl wrap advertising has surely become the solution.
Completed van, along with the Bearman and Keith (popular WZZO AM DJ’s.)
The advent of vinyl wrap advertising has truly created a excellent alternative to custom paint.
Watch us transform a formerly airbrushed GMC van with a fresh wrap design:
Get your free Vehicle Wrap Quote Today at: www.IDWraps.com
National installation and service available near you!
On a commercial context, wraps have all but replaced custom paint jobs. There are many factors driving this revolution:
- Wraps cost less. A quality paint job on a vehicle may cost 2x or more than a full coverage vehicle wrap. Gone are the days of the unaffordable vehicle wrap. Like anything, as time goes on, technology costs do go down over time. The wrap industry has made leaps and bounds when it comes to efficiency of equipment and skill sets. Our printers print faster and better and the installation labor force is sharing techniques learned from around the globe. Ultimately, these factors have driven pricing of vehicle wraps down to 1/4 the cost they were 15 years ago, when it all started. Back then, it was only the biggest national advertisers, like Coca Cola that were doing wraps. Today, the IDWraps.com team is wrapping for the big guys, but also for many single operator micro businesses. Yes the single employee plumber with one van is wrapping their van. The van wrap is often the fuel needed to grow these small businesses. If you compare the value of a van wrap to billboard advertising- this singular van owner could be getting $1000+ of advertising value out of that one wrap every month. In our town, billboards start at over $1200 per month. Yeowch!
- Wraps are removable. According to the Patriot Act: commercial vehicle owners are compelled, by law, to remove all identifying graphics from their vehicles upon sale or trade in. Not only is the law a good reason to remove your graphics, but you also don’t want some criminal or crazy person running driving around with your branding on the vehicle. Imagine someone tailgating and causing much road rage with your name all over the vehicle. Yeah, bad idea- right? These are surely the wrong people to be your brand ambassadors! Also, if we examine traditional vehicle lettering, we must consider the “ghosting” effect left behind when decals like this are removed. Everyone has seen a retired Uhaul truck that still has a shadow of the old branding that some loony may be driving around. The bit benefit to wraps, is that there is NO ghosting of letters left behind when removed. We’ve all seen retired commercial vehicles where lettering has been removed, yet the vehicle clearly has residue in the exact shape of the removed graphics. Take older Uhaul trucks for example. This is a popular used vehicle, as they are sold at a very low price when Uhaul retires each unit. More often than less, these trucks still spell out “Uhaul” after graphic removal. There is almost always grey glue residue, or a change in surface finish in the areas where the graphics were previously installed.
- Wraps protect your original paint. That’s right- when the IDWraps.com team covers every square inch of your vehicle’s painted surfaces- the original finish is protected from many hazards. When acting as a UV ray barrier from the sun, a vinyl wrap advertising installation absorbs all of the abuse that the sun may dish out. UV rays are responsible for paint fading and oxidation. This may be hared to notice on a daily basis, as all colors and paint pigments do change color and fade over time. This includes white. Yes, it is tough to imagine the color white fading, but white can actually discolor significantly after a few years in the sun. We’ve seen many white vehicles turn a yellow-ish color. Think of it like an atmospheric nicotine stain. The other significant hazard to your paint would be contaminants that may lay on the surfaces. Things like road salt, acid rain, and various pollutants can cause your paint to loose its luster after accumulating and attacking the finish. Wraps provide an air tight car cover which helps preserve the original paint condition. This, without a doubt, increases resale and trade values on any wrapped vehicle.
- Wraps are digitally printed. Digital printing associated with vinyl wrap advertising allows for unlimited design possibilities. When you have 16 million colors to choose from, and photo quality resolution at your fingertips, a wrap provider has clear advantages over painting. Want a photo of your mascot on your vehicle? No problem. The print quality has come a long way in the wraps industry. The IDWraps.com production team regularly prints photo enlargements and fine art on the same wide format printers we use to print vehicle wraps. Usually, the only constraint on our projects is the quality of photos given to us by any given client. We feel sometimes that the quality of cameras need to keep up with the level of print quality on our latex printers. It is always good to be ahead of the curve. Another excellent client benefit to digital printing is the ability to proof our work through the internet and through physical color proofs. The internet has made collaboration super easy. Our designers may email artwork to clients instantly for review and change advice. Once all artwork is finalized through email, a hard copy is printed using the exact ink and vinyl materials to be printed on the vinyl wrap advertising project.
- Wraps cost less to repair. In the vehicle wrap repair world, repairs come with much less fuss and expense than that of automotive paint. Of course, a new wrap will never fix a smashed fender. In these cases, actual body work is required. However, if you encounter perhaps a scuff, graffiti, or a small incident, wraps may create a bit of a buffer between your paint and the offender. With wrapping, there is no need to mask off large areas to protect from over sprayed paint. Also, the prep process is much more efficient than the painting process. Surprisingly, material cost of wrap materials are less than that of quality automotive paints. At IDWraps.com, we keep artwork on our servers for at least 5 years. This way, we’re ready to reprint any portions of a wrap should any part get damaged. This measure is also very handy when our clients get additional vehicles and they want a consistent looking fleet.
- Wraps are a fresh new medium. Commercial vehicles driving around with old school lettering tend to “blend into the crowd” these days. When your pelted with thousands of advertising messages every day; it is super critical to stand out in the ambiguous sea of automobiles on the road. Prospects have surely become numb to the visual of simple or even complex lettering seen on the road today. Wraps present a greatly improved visual experience. This experience is one that compels suspects to give you their sustained attention. Commanding attention is imperative if you are to move the needle on your sales. The sustained attention aspect is important as your advertising needs to be truly memorable. If executed with an effective design, vinyl wrap advertising can make a very solid impression. The best designs are ones that inspire conversations. “Say, Did you see that cool HVAC van?” These are the conversations that convert to increased sales. In the end, that’s what it is about. Driving sales is exactly what IDWraps specializes in:)
