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Fleet Advertising Media Group

December 22nd, 2004 - Truckside Advertising is not a new concept. For many years, package good companies, store owners and delivery companies have all been using the sides and rear of their trucks as a cost efficient, valuable advertising property to raise awareness and gain mass exposure in their communities. However, few companies have survived long enough to call it their main business. Fleet Advertising Media Group is one of the survivors.Advertising Media Group
FAMG has been in the Truckside Advertising business close to eleven years now. George Gearner and his co-founder, Tom Swiech, started developing the concept of fleet advertising back in 1994 after George’s wife, Sherry, utilized and designed the sides of commercial vans used by their local cable company. She had achieved so much success, in fact, that she had won several awards from the American Trucking Company and the Cable Television Industry. It wasn’t long before a savvy entrepreneur had the bright idea to make this a full-time profit center for any trucking company looking to add revenues to their bottom line.

George, who had been involved with several other successful business ventures, seized the opportunity and created a division that focused solely on Truckside Advertising. Within a short time, George found seven national trucking companies that wanted to participate. If he found the right advertisers, he had a fleet of trucks waiting and ready to deliver their message.

Of course, every business in its infancy hits a few road bumps along the way. He quickly found that only 75% of the fleet met the quality of standards that his company set for themselves. He also found that trucksides would not be the easy sell that they had anticipated. If they were going to survive, they were going to have to run lean and mean, stick with quality, deliver on their commitments and work only on commission, which in sales means that you may not eat for a while.

Eleven years later, George Gearner has stayed the course and is still as committed to the business as he was in the early days. He has served on the board of the OAAA and was chairman of the Truckside Council for four years before passing the torch to his successors, now Doug Frantin from StreetBlimps. During this time, FAMG, along with 3M, were instrumental in developing a methodology for auditing truckside advertising. Blessed by the Traffic Audit Bureau, the software was named MARG, which identifies the longitude and latitude data of the audited market every two minutes. MARG, they were hoping, would be the great hope that they were praying for to give credibility to a struggling medium.

George still remains hopeful, though at times, disappointed by the lack of acceptance from the advertising agencies. George recounted a few companies that had big corporate budgets backing them and were still not able to survive. “Though many companies have achieved a degree of success, its still not a booming market”, said George. “It’s an ongoing education process, but most advertisers that experience the benefits of trucksides, usually come back. Trucksides are larger-than-life and they're hard to miss.”

Whether the light is at the end of the tunnel, no one really knows, but advances in technology have made trucksides one of the most cost effective mediums for mass media exposure. In addition, FAMG can have trucks rolling in 48 States, Mexico and Canada in as little as three weeks from delivery of artwork.

Last Updated ( Monday, 11 June 2007 )

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