Author: Jennifer Krabbeler

Window film enhances driver safety and comfort for companies that prioritize a driver-centric culture.

Signature Graphics is the sole brand activation organization that can also supply and install window film. We specialize in fleet-based media solutions for our partners, and as we install their unique branding to those vehicles, we can also provide a means to ensure their drivers’ comfort and safety.

UV Protection & Enhanced Driver Comfort

Employees are a company’s most valuable asset. Protecting them on their routes demonstrates your commitment to prioritizing their health and wellbeing. In an article from The Huffington Post Canada, “driving has been linked to an increased risk of skin cancer due to sun exposure through the windows, which do not filter UVA rays.”* Window film offers superior UV protection compared to SPF by blocking 99% of ultraviolet (UV) light, equivalent to an SPF of 1000. This helps provide vehicle occupants with significant protection from harmful UV rays. For companies concerned about driver retention or looking to cultivate a driver-centric culture, enhanced comfort can serve as an incentive and a differentiator from your competitors. Signature Graphics’ window film series features a light tinted film capable of rejecting more heat than many of the darkest tinted films available in the market. In a thermal study conducted by 3M, there was a maximum temperature reduction of up to 20°F for a tractor with crystalline window film installed.*

Tint Your Vehicle’s Windows without Changing Your Vehicle’s Appearance

The Crystalline Series features a proprietary, multilayer optical film nano-technology that combines over 200 layers in a film that is thinner than a Post-it® Note. This unique technology is the reason a clear film can reject more heat than darker films. This equates to being able to see clearly and safely without changing the appearance of your vehicle. Avoidance of modifications to vehicle appearance is especially beneficial for companies with leased service vehicles. With six levels of tint to choose from, you can go from virtually undetectable to noticeable, and for those that choose the latter, Signature Graphics can easily remove the film at your vehicle’s end of the lease. For both leased and owned vehicles, UV rejection capabilities can prevent the fading and deterioration of interior fabrics and leather.

For Any Vehicle Make and Model

This solution can be applied to any vehicle make and model, including vans, pickups, tractor cabs, straight trucks, and is particularly beneficial for fleets residing in the sunbelt states. Our Signature Certified Installers provide national installation coverage, utilize templates to ensure a perfect fit for your fleet’s windows, and take into consideration the timing of application by installing during your vehicle’s downtime. The film resides on the interior side of your vehicle’s windows, which prevents exposure to the elements and ensures they look as good years down the road as the day of installation. Additionally, our films are durable, virtually maintenance-free, and backed by a limited lifetime warranty. The Crystalline Window Film Series was issued the first sun-control window film patent in 1966, and our innovative window film products have helped provide protection from the sun’s harmful rays for 50 years.

Signature Innovation

A core component of what Signature Graphics offers to our partners is innovation. Our services are aligned with those of a brand caretaker more than those of a large-format graphics printer, and what we strive to provide to our clients is consistent innovation in the pursuit of ensuring they achieve their brand goals.

*3M Crystalline Thermal Study
**Source: Bill McElligott, Delivery Truck Driver, Has Severe Sun Damage On One Side Of His Face: Read article here.

Ready to start the process? Call us at 219-929-3107 or request a quote today at: https://signatureinc.wpengine.com/request-quote/.

We proudly use 3M^TM graphic films and overlaminates.

After being in the business for 30 plus years, Signature Graphics has a few tips to make sure your next fleet branding project is implemented successfully. Vehicles can be a challenging medium to work with without industry expertise. Unfortunately, many designs lose out on marketing opportunities by failing to implement the hallmark of a good vehicle graphic design, an easily understood message.

FORMS OF COMMUNICATION

Consider how you want your audience to communicate with you and incorporate that aspect into your design (social media, QR code, website, phone, etc.). Keep your advertising copy as minimal as possible. We recommend the standard formula of web address, phone, and a description of your service or product offering. Legibility is a crucial factor, as well. Ad copy should be large enough to read from a great distance.

SIMPLICITY OF DESIGN

The best fleet graphic designs focus on a simple message that is quickly understood. When your audience, and your vehicle, are traveling down city roads and highways it can be difficult to relay multiple messages and content to them. Take care not to overcrowd your concept. Simple compositions enable your message and brand to immediately stand out.

GO BOLD

There is a lot of visual noise that your vehicle will be competing with to grab your consumers attention. Go bold with an eye-catching and vibrant color palette that adheres to your brand’s guidelines.

TAILOR YOUR DESIGN TO A VEHICLE TYPE

Your design needs to take into account the body lines and contours of the vehicle it will be installed on. Every vehicle is unique and a design crafted for one may not necessarily work on a different make and model without design modifications. Most brand activation companies have a database that is populated with numerous vehicles and can assist you with ensuring an appropriate fit for your design.

MEASURING ROI

Use An Alternate Landing Page
We recommend creating a unique landing page and incorporating that url into the design of your vehicle graphics. Most companies are already tracking their website’s analytics and this is an easy solution to measure the effectiveness of your vehicle advertising strategy. The only traffic that will have knowledge of this web address, will be those that have seen your vehicle.

Use An Alternate Phone Number
You can also consider getting a second phone line for your business. By displaying this number on only your vehicles, you will know that every call made to this line was generated by an impression your vehicle graphic made.

Run a Promotion
Promotions are a powerful advertising tactic for vehicle wraps and they make measuring the effectiveness of your advertising campaign easier. Any individual that mentions your promotion, when requesting your services or products, encountered your vehicle.

SEEK AN EXPERT

Signature Graphics has garnered a loyal and trusting following, as a brand solution provider, because of our strict adherence to brand guidelines, unwavering attention to detail, and enthusiasm for design. Should you have any questions, we would be happy to share our expertise.

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How Do You Ensure Your Concept is Accurately and Expertly Conveyed?

Crafting Brand Buzz

Businesses spent close to $600 billion on brand activation efforts in 2016. By 2020, that number will skyrocket to nearly $740 billion. Is your brand making similar investments in activation strategies to keep up?

We get it – marketing and advertising budgets are the first to be placed on the chopping block during annual reviews, making it even more important that the spend that is available, is used wisely.

For companies with physical storefronts, indoor and outdoor signage is often the first brand identifier. Signage helps portray a number of vital images, including:

• Who you are.
• What you do.
• How you’re different.
• Why you’re worth it.
• Why you care.
• What’s in it for the customer.

All of these facets of a company play into future customer loyalty, brand trust and business performance. Once customers can confidently identify the above brand differentiators, they become active stakeholders in the business.

HOW SIGNAGE TIES INTO REVENUE

At Signature Graphics, we’ve found that custom, specialty graphics utilized effectively on signs, banners, logos and decals produce a number of tangible benefits, such as:

• More phone calls.
• More web traffic.
• More sales opportunities.
• More impulse buys.

And it makes sense. Signage can pique interest, create lasting impressions, form relationships, answer questions and dispel rumors.
The Economic Center, at the University of Cincinnati, conducted a survey that measured the impact of signage for business owners.
Their results found that:

• Roughly 60% of businesses reported that changing the design or enhancing the visibility of their signage had a positive impact on sales, number of transactions and profits, with an average increase of about 10%.
• 38% of large companies with multiple locations identified branding/image as the most important purpose of effective signage, while small firms and single establishments perceived signs to be most important for making their business stand out and for helping customers find their location.
• Legibility was chosen by both consumers and businesses as the most important characteristic of signs.

When signs evoke the imagery of strength, creativity, authenticity, excellence and caring, they resonate with shoppers and passersby. These are the types of advertising messages businesses want to implant into the minds of the public, and by doing so, business owners stand a better chance of creating brand uplift, a phenomenon that can lead to higher-than-expected revenue and increased lead conversions.
With the level of brand activation spend forecasted this year, it’s clear companies are making a concerted effort to revise and revamp their brand identities. In today’s age, these initiatives typically make waves in the digital sphere, with brands overhauling websites, email marketing campaigns and content strategies. However, businesses that rely more so on foot traffic and traditional customer interaction – retail, hospitality, etc. – physical signage is paramount.

Signature Graphics has a host of brand planning, design management and graphic installation services that take the burden of brand activation off your plate. We can display custom signage on any surface or building, and even on sidewalks and vehicles. If you have the space, we have the signage!

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About Retail Graphics

How Does Branding Impact Retail Identity?

Strong beer marketing begins with great design. Competition is fierce in this market and creative branding and packaging can make the difference in consumers choosing your brand over any other selection on the shelf. But, if your branding efforts include strong packaging alone, you are missing out on a prime opportunity to expand the reach, frequency and impact of your advertising campaign. By using a marketing strategy that incorporates your vehicles as well, you can put them to work in engaging and persuading consumers to buy your innovative brews.

Whether you operate a fleet of 100 trucks or rely on a single van to deliver your products and services, graphics can transform your fleet into a cost-effective media asset, powerful enough to help drive brand awareness, sales and business growth. Consider this: a single intra-city truck with graphics can generate up to 16 million visual impressions in a year (per American Trucking Association). In fact, study after study ranks mobile media as the most cost-effective and influential advertising media available.

KEY STUDY FINDINGS:

• Fleet graphics generate a large number of impressions — in this study, an average of 6 million Prime Daily Effective Circulation (DEC) per truck, annualized.
• Mobile media advertising offers the lowest cost-per-impression of any major advertising medium.
• Routes and messages can be optimized to target specific demographic groups.
• Fleet graphics add a valuable dimension to the advertising marketing mix.

Vehicle graphics have the ability to reach an incredibly broad area for a much lower cost than other traditional forms of media, such as television or publications. When your vehicles are done with their deliveries for the day, the brand awareness does not stop once the vehicle is parked and the driver goes home. It builds as long as your vehicles are generating visual impressions.

REFLECT YOUR VIBE & ATTITUDE

This brand identity, that you have worked hard to craft, should be carried consistently across all your advertising campaigns and this includes your company vehicles. As strong as your product labeling is, your branding consultant should be able to carry the tone of that advertising across the medium of your vehicle. By soliciting the assistance of a professional branding agency, your brews will maintain their competitive edge across your advertising campaigns.

QUALITY COMMUNICATES QUALITY

Remember that your consumers are buying your beer because of the quality of your product. Your brand story or advertising might have initially enticed them to visit, but it is your beer that keeps them returning. This quality should extend to your branding as well. Quality marketing communicates quality in your brand. Seek a vendor that understands this concept for branding that does not cut any corners.

BRANDING EXCELLENCE

When you are looking to brew up business and brand awareness with your fleets, contact Signature Graphics for premium exposure. Our expertise goes beyond the fleet, as well. Signature Graphics combines impressive creative talent with the latest print technology and equipment to deliver brilliant, large-format vinyl graphics for practically any application.

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Street Smart Advertising

Crafting Brand Buzz

Strong branding is essential in the customer-centric world of today. But devising a brand aesthetic that appeals and resonates with consumers is only half the battle. Businesses also need to inject their brands with signage, graphics and all manner of promotion that builds their profile and attracts interested eyes.

Businesses have to embody their brands in every facet, and being quick to react isn’t just a matter of policy or process, but also practical action. Fleet graphics are a key asset to responsive brands that want to reach customers whenever and wherever they can. Intuit cited Outside Advertising Association of America statistics that show 95 percent of Americans are reached by media targeted at drivers and passengers, like a vehicle wrap promoting your business at the stoplight.

Yet there are many considerations to devising a fleet graphics strategy. Aside from the evident factors like choosing your visuals, the colors and the material, the quality of the vendor relationship must be factored into decision-making. Fleet graphic projects take regular maintenance and monitoring, and businesses with a brand to protect, conceptually and physically, need a partner able to provide the necessary support to ensure their graphics generate value.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT VENDOR

The vendor variable is an important piece to an overall fleet graphics project. Finding the balance between a product that is high quality and service that is delivered by accessible, experienced and trusted professionals will prove all the difference in the success of a fleet graphics initiative.

Particular advantages business should seek from their vendors include:

• Certification and warranties: Credible practices and reputations are hallmarks of a good vendor. Having bona fides like G7 Master Printer certification and a warranty backed by industry authorities like 3M ensure you have a reliable and accomplished partner.
• Quality materials and service: Fleet graphics, being outside most all the time, need to be durable and able to perform in the roughest conditions. Finding a vendor that supplies the most high-quality materials with the most skilled and knowledgeable service ensures project success.
• Transparency and empowerment: Not only should vendors be upfront and available, but they should also grant clients the tools to communication and connect them with needed resources in a certain situation.

BRANDING MANAGEMENT

Making sure your concepted brand is accurately and expertly conveyed through fleet graphics is a top priority to address. Again, businesses can’t do it alone in this arena, and having a vendor to provide high-quality services is central to effective brand management. Specifically, companies will want to consider assurances on:

• Manufacture and approval: Having insight into production and your vendors’ capabilities helps you design the best possible graphic. Including a proofing and approvals process to ensure a clean representation of your idea is also crucial.
• Vehicle services: Since you might not have the tools and skills to apply the graphic, having a vendor who does is important. Working with a vendor that offers full service for prep, installation and removal guarantees a high quality of work.
• Supportive tools: Connecting you with resources to support is a responsibility of the vendor. Syncing up with a partner who can provide progress reports, inventory and fulfillment services and other means of support will be important to the fleet’s success.

BRANDING EXCELLENCE

Given the strategic and practical importance of working with a capable vendor, firms will want to consider Signature Graphics when exploring their own interest in fleet graphics. With a number of certifications, a trusted staff and high-quality services, Signature graphics is able to work with clients along every step of the process to craft a unique approach that delivers them value.

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Fleet Branding

Building a Winning Brand Reputation

What strategy are savvy marketers using to:

• generate brand awareness;
• display their brand narrative;
• target a broader, mobile audience;
• and communicate quality in their branding?

They are using the strategy of organic marketing to grow their businesses. Organic marketing utilizes the assets, that you already have in play, for marketing purposes. One such asset is your company’s vehicle or vehicles.

PREMIUM EXPOSURE

Vehicle branding is a particularly effective strategy for beverage and food companies. Such companies have a broad audience and, by employing a moving billboard, they have the ability to reach this audience where they spend the majority of their time, out of home. The average American spends an enormous amount of their time behind the wheel. When compared to other forms of advertising media, fleet graphics offer a lower cost alternative and generate a substantial number of visual impressions. They offer a unique opportunity to engage your audience and share your compelling narrative.

QUALITY MATERIALS COMMUNICATE QUALITY IN YOUR BRANDING

Your brand is the most valuable asset of your company. When you are looking for creative exposure of your brand, keep in mind that high quality marketing communicates premium quality in your brand. To communicate quality to your consumers, your branding needs quality messaging, materials, and application. It is vital to your image to find a branding partner that makes it easy to find balance between a product that is high quality and service that is delivered by accessible, experienced and trusted professionals.

THE EFFECT

What is the effectiveness of vehicle graphics, you might ask? A study by the American Trucking Association and Robinson, Yesawich, and Pepperdine found:

• 75% of people surveyed developed a first impression about a company and its products from truck advertising
• 91% of people notice ads mounted on the side of trucks and can recall the ad days later
• Nearly a third of people would base a buying decision on the impression they got from the vehicle
• Vehicles are the best way to provide targeted, mobile coverage over an entire marketing area
• Ads are viewed by business customers as well as retail consumers

BRANDING EXCELLENCE

Signature Graphics combines impressive creative talent with the latest print technology and equipment to deliver brilliant, large-format vinyl graphics for practically any application. We assist our partners in leveraging the power of their assets for marketing purposes. As a branding company, we tailor solutions that give our partners maximum exposure for minimal investment by using our broad marketing knowledge to develop effective fleet graphic programs.

Our Partners Experience these Powerful Benefits:

• The most powerful warranties backed by industry authority, 3M
• Coast-to-coast, border-to-border Signature Certified Installation and servicing
• Utilization of the highest quality materials, printing, and technological processes
• Creative services & design crafted by branding and marketing experts
• Detailed installation guidelines
• Approval processes, including proofing, so you know exactly what to expect

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Fleet Branding

Building a Winning Brand Reputation

How vital a role does project management play in a fleet brand activation campaign? If you have a budget and a deadline that must be met, it plays a leading role. Projects are naturally chaotic and proper management organizes that chaos and ensures goals are met from conception to completion. If you are in the developmental stages of a branding campaign, you should keep in mind the following to help you allocate resources and establish target dates.

SCOPE

Think of your fleet branding efforts as an entire project. Projects are not exploratory exercises. They require clear process mapping to eliminate the risk of facing delays and overruns. Your project’s scope should define its goals, team, timing, and deliverables. Simply put, project scope establishes what you are trying to accomplish and the efforts you will make to deliver the outcome.

TIMELINE

Schedules are essential to keeping projects on track. Your fleet branding timeline needs to capture the tasks that need to be completed, such as the number of vehicles and their locations, and the dates those tasks need to be completed by.

BUDGET

Budgeting is instrumental in determining how much can be spent on each aspect of the project and in preventing runaway costs. To ensure your estimates are accurate, consider consulting the experts. Collaboration means you will benefit from those who have experience and knowledge outside your own.

If you see a fleet branding initiative on the horizon, reach out to Signature Graphics, Inc. Our thirty plus years of industry experience will help you establish accurate forecasting in regards to scope, timelines, and budgets.

Collaborate with the Industry Experts

A COLLABORATIVE JOURNEY

Knowing what brand activation does for companies, and how to get to that heightened exposure, is only part of the process. When it comes to capitalizing on branding opportunities, companies need a partner they can rely on. It’s this collaborator that must excel at honing in on target audiences and generating sustained media exposure, on top of overseeing day-to-day management of branding activation objectives.

Through a partnership with the experts at Signature Graphics, you can ensure your company receives the very best in vinyl wraps, decals and custom designs. Signature Graphics has built its long-standing reputation on the pillars of creativity and clean, simple design work, ensuring your brand generates continued exposure among your client base. From bright, bold colors to truly engaging design schemes, Signature Graphics understands the power these visuals can have for your brand, whether it’s for relaunching a brand or starting a new enterprise.

Brands must continually aim to ascend to the top of their respective industries. Brand activation is the path to that goal.

It starts by building perception among your clients and creating a sense of value that your brand holds. From there, it’s using that exposure to continue to reach out and develop relationships with clients. But none of that happens without one essential connection: a company like Signature Graphics to make the most out of the visual components of brand activation. With Signature Graphics, you can reach the mountaintop in no time.

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ACTIVATING TRUE POTENTIAL

To understand how brand activation, materializes in the real world, it helps to have a case study to examine. Based out of Surprise, Arizona, Catch a Wave Vacations helps plan everything from family vacations to destination weddings. The company described its use of car wraps as a kind of “moving billboard,” with people noticing how colorful and creative the wrap was from day one. And that appeal had real-world effects: As much as 65 percent of the company’s subsequent inbound calls came from people responding to the wrap. It just goes to show that this simple but effective approach can significantly increase a brand’s exposure, and that ultimately boosts its ability to close deals with customers.

Brand activation means that people recognize and trust companies more readily. But how does that awareness impact an organization directly? Once a brand enters the public, how does a company benefit in a way that matters to their bottom line or place in the larger marketplace?

At the most basic level, proper brand activation means you can better engage with the market, and that’s important not only for higher sales but an understanding of the latest trends and traffic within a given industry. Brands can also experience a greater level of media exposure, and it’s these newspapers, magazines or web shows that can assist an organization with effective outreach and generating added business. Finally, all of this attention is crucial for building a long-lasting relationship with clients and consumers. Happy customers can help further promote a company through a ripple effect, meaning more referrals with less overall effort.

Examining another case study better illustrates this point: In the mid-2000s, 91.3 Jack FM – a radio station out of Los Angeles known for playing classic rock – launched a car wrap campaign to help promote its afternoon “Jack Show.” The wrap, which featured the station’s logo as well as several brightly colored guitars, was a perfect choice: As audience numbers tend to peak during periods of high traffic, it made sense to employ a car-centric form of exposure to reach a target audience. And the move worked, as Jack FM was able to transform a simple decision into a noticeable bump in listeners. This decal was a prime example of awareness of your audience, which is a centerpiece of any meaningful activation.

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