Want to hear about one of the most productive commutes ever? As Red Dragon (Casey Binkley) drove home to Toronto once, he saw a truck go by with great branding on it. However, the two trucks following were blank, triggering his “aha” moment that blank trucks were valuable and underutilized space for advertising.
An Achiever of action, Red Dragon founded Movia, an out-of-home advertising business that wraps blank delivery trucks in advertising space for other companies, and he can count hundreds of brands like Casper mattress as clients.
As Red Dragon explains, moving billboards not only get two times the impression that static billboards on the sides of highways get, but they also have twice the retention rate. Dax suggests that when we see a moving thing, we register a change, forcing us to pay attention which ultimately results in better retainment.
The trucks are installed with Movia’s patented beacon technology that connects to the WiFi and Bluetooth of people in the vicinity to track where and when they see the ad. What’s more, the beacon tracks whether people, after seeing the ad, engage with the product’s webpage and if any of the products end up in their shopping cart.
There are two distinct data sets at play in this situation. First, Movia constantly listens for devices that are looking for a Bluetooth or WiFi connection and notes a unique identifier from that device (the MAC address) so it can gauge how many people potentially saw each truck.
Next, as Red Dragon explains, whenever we download an app onto our phones, we may permit it to know our location. And like most advertisers, Movia simply uses that location and matches it against its own signals to follow up with targeted advertising.
Movia has had great success in the travel, lottery, CPG, and even the entertainment space. They were hired to advertise the show The Equalizer starring Queen Latifah, around the city of Toronto. The ads, with their dark background, really popped against the white snow that blanketed the city. In a city of 6 million people, 78% of those who saw the trucks tuned into one episode, and more crucially for syndication purposes, 53% of the same group tuned in for two or more episodes.
Still, there is no complete replacement for human interaction. Another aspect that sets Movia apart is that people who are intrigued by the ads will engage with the truck drivers, who are equipped with handouts to give potential customers further information. This mix of pioneering technology, human nature, and human touch means that Movia has carved out a unique niche within the advertising space.
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Episode Quotes
- “It starts to create this community engagement brand extension play. When you’re driving down the highway and you see a billboard on the side of the road, you know that that’s a paid ad, but when you see a working delivery truck you don’t necessarily think that’s a paid ad in market, you think ‘Oh, that’s a delivery truck out in market actually serving a purpose.” (7:02-7:25 | Red Dragon)
- “The human element really sets us apart from a lot of other Out-of-home.” (8:04-8:08 | Red Dragon)
- “What’s unique for us, and what our patent covers, is the moving aspect. So we’re the leader in moving beacon technology.” (13:09-13:23 | Red Dragon)
- “You couldn’t not notice that if it was driving near you on the high street.” (19:54-19:58 | Dax)
- “Anything that’s moving tells your brain, ‘This is an exception, something’s changed, you have to pay attention to it. I think that’s where a lot of that recognition and recall comes from.” (21:42-21:52 | Dax)
