I Need your Opinion on an Idea

[moneydriven]

First let me say that I am new to this forum and I'm so glad to have a place where I can talk to other entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be.

I have an idea for a company that I'm really serious about and I wanted to get you guys' opinion on it. I can't give you the details, but it's basically going to be a mobile billboard (for ads) company.

The way that I plan to do it is a bit different from existing companies and because of my method, the cost of putting up an ad will be very low for me, which gives me the power to charge a lot less than my competitors. I've seen companies charge as much as $800 per day for an ad on a mobile billboard.

What do you guys think? How much money would you pay to have your ad show up on one of those mobile billboards (e.g., trucks)? Do you think this is a good area to get into?

[nado]

A couple of points I can think of off the top of my head:

1) Will the truck driving the billboard around be in a highly populated area? ... i.e. what sort of a reach can you achieve?

2) Obviously driving around the city with an ad on a truck isn't terribly unique, but more importantly it isn't targetted advertising. If the business advertising was based online they could spend a few dollars on AdWords and pull targetted traffic to their site.

3) Who will be driving the truck? ... if you are, then you're going to want to cover your time costs.

4) Something which would make the mobile billboard thing more effective and unique would be to interact with the public. If you've managed to get a cosmetics company to advertise on your billboard, get them to give you a bunch of samples. Then drive around to the most likely place where women will be and give out free samples, tryouts etc.

5) What type of businesses would you target? ...

"How much money would you pay to have your ad show up on one of those mobile billboards (e.g., trucks)?" ... I wouldn't even think of advertising on a billboard unless I had an advertising budget of millions I could burn. There are simpler, cheaper and more effective ways to advertise.

6) Decide on your business target, and survey them to see if they would be interested in a mobile billboard service.

cheers
nathan

[moneydriven]

Thanks for taking the time out to reply:

1) The plan is definitely to have it drive in a populated area.

2) I know mobile advertising isn't targeted but there are a lot of people paying a lot of money for it. The same goes for billboards on highways. They aren't targeted either, but there are still people willing to pay for them.

3) Initially I would be the one driving, but I would eventually hire someone for that.

5) Local businesses would probably benefit more from this than other businesses. Maybe I should focus on these. The type of businesses that advertise with mobile billboards ARE usually the ones that don't mind spending a lot on these types of ads. I'm planning to make it more affordable than the existing companies.

These are the reasons why I think I could make some money off of this:

1) There are already people out there making money from this, which tells me that people ARE willing to pay for the service.

2) I have a way to make it more affordable for those people who have already shown they are willing to pay a lot and for those that think mobile ads are only for the big million-dollar companies.

3) My method will allow people to have their ads display very quickly, meaning they can pay today, and have their ads display tomorrow.

[nado]

Sounds good.

However, I will emphasise again to do market research.

Don't assume anything unless you can back it up. I used to think "oh yeah these other businesses are making money doing the same thing so it will work"... but a good survey of potential clients will make all the difference as you will know whether or not the venture will work and you immediately have the details of potential clients whom you can pitch.

cheers
nathan

[moneydriven]

Thanks for the advice; Will do

[Sam Barona]

Hi, get in touch as i have a number of things that can help you cut costs, as well as offer far superior service to your potential customers.

Where are you based?

Sam

PS. really interested in this, so do get in touch. Could even explore investment.

[Sam Barona]

In fact, can everyone involved in outdoor advertising, whether static or mobile; digital signage, POS displays and exhibitions contact me?

sam@izly.co.uk