Monetize Your Sexy Bumper

On my way to work this morning (yes I still have a day job – and you should too if you’re a blogger starting out) I saw a visual that got me thinking about a marketing plan. I normally space out on my twenty minute drive to work, its a pretty dull drive, on a nice straight highway. Basically I get on one exit and get off the next, so it works out nicely for me to be half sleeping during the drive.

Anyway, there happened to be an accident where a tractor trailer had jack knifed and was blocking basically the entire side of the northbound traffic. Needless to say I was stuck in some seriously slow moving traffic as people came to a screeching halt from 80mph due to traffic merging into one lane from three to get by the accident.

As I’m sitting there belittling myself as to why I bought a standard transmission instead of an automatic I see a beat up 1984 pickup truck in front of me with the tailgate up. Now I know you are saying to yourself at this point what does this have to do with marketing, right? Well, on this tailgate was a magnet bumper sticker, which had a single url on it.

Now normally I wouldn’t really go out of my way to mention something like this, but no more then five minutes goes by and I see another bumper sticker / magnet of the same url! I have no idea if the people driving the vehicles were related or not, but it got me thinking, how much traffic could you generate from a bumper sticker / magnet give away?

Like any other form of advertising, you need to be visually stimulating, but at the same time keep in mind readability since it’s going to be speeding by someone at highway speeds. Simplicity will aid you’re design here. A deep colored background with only a bold white url on top of it for example is easily readable and to the point.

If you put it on your own vehicle its free advertising to anyone who see’s it. You can get bumper stickers / magnets made up for cheap. Consider putting them on your local bus stop bench, college posting boards, downtown sidewalks etc. Obviously be curteous and aware of where you are putting them so you don’t get slapped with a defacement of property charge.

Have your friends, relatives, family etc put them on their cars. Perhaps put a tracking number or contest entry to track how many people are getting the url from the stickers. Mail them to friends in other states, countries etc. Basically you’re advertising potential is unlimited with this strategy. It may not be the most targeted demographic, but it will certainly widen you’re visual advertising reach.