Tiny Cars, Big Message
Companies take to the road
August 22, 2008
By Martha Thomas
Photography by Bryan Burris
As advertisers flee traditional media, some put their logo on wheels.
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Kitchen Gadget
“People are always waving,” says Jenifer Gately, who drives a Mini Cooper, the urban, eco-friendly automobile du jour. “I’ll be at the gym and someone will say, ‘Are you the one with the Mini?’”
Gately’s vehicle is a rolling advertisement for her company, Canton Kitchens. “I love this car,” says Gately, who designs kitchens and oversees their construction.
As advertisers increasingly flee traditional media, some are putting their logo on wheels.
The British-made Mini Coopers — there are six varieties of Mini — came on the U.S. market in 2002. (The smaller Classic Mini was sold in the United States between 1960 and 1967.) The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the basic model is $18,700, according to the company’s website (www.miniusa.com). The small car is 12 feet long and 4 and a half feet high. Using 2008 EPA standards, the basic Mini gets 37 miles per gallon on the highway and 28 in the city.
Gately wasn’t always passionate about the car she drove. For years the Hampden resident was happy in a standard-shift Ford Focus. But after Canton Kitchen’s first year in business, the partners, Bill Curran and Dave Carey, awarded her a Chevy Tahoe. “It was a monster,” she says. “I had to get out of it backwards.” After another successful year, one of the partners asked if she was interested in a Mini. “It took me about three seconds” to say “yes,” Gately says.
Smart Move
Deni Tabor loves the attention her tiny car elicits. But it’s not her first unusual vehicle. For years she commuted by Segway from Federal Hill to her job with Streuver Brothers in Tide Point. She loved getting looks, waving to friends and strangers, beaming her characteristic broad smile at everyone.
Tabor had her heart set on a smart fortwo — that’s the name of the car — from the moment she laid eyes on one in 2002. But it took several years to land one. The car, which is made in France, entered the U.S. market only in January 2008 and comes in three models. The most inexpensive goes for $11,590, according to the company’s website (www.smartusa.com). The car is 8.8 feet long, 5.1 feet tall and 5.1 feet wide — wide enough, the website says, to seat two 6-foot-5-inch-tall people side by side with room to spare. The car gets 40 city/45 highway miles per gallon according to the old EPA standards and 33/41 under the new EPA system.
By the time Tabor finally got her smart car — she was the first to register one in Maryland — she had switched jobs and was working with her husband, Neil, who owns Ashley Companies. As chief operating officer and marketing guru, Tabor redesigned the firm’s website, ramped up the special events and put a logo on her car: “Ashley homes, the Smart Builder.”
The smart car is so small that Tabor can — legally — park it sideways between cars parallel parked against the curb (though she doesn’t, for fear a door will get crunched). It’s too tiny to fit on the wheel grooves at a carwash, but there is indeed plenty of legroom, she says. Tabor once bet William Jews, the very tall former CEO of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, that he could fit in her car. “He was shocked,” Tabor says of his reaction when he did. “He absolutely fit.”
Tabor, who lives in Fells Point, loves to drive her car to parties in Canton and other busy downtown neighborhoods. “I always find a spot right by the door,” she says. “And if there’s a valet, they’ll leave it right out front.”
More Minis
Lesley Horman, president of the Merry Maids franchise in Towson, diverted part of her advertising budget to buy three Mini Coopers, on which she affixed the company’s logo. “I’ve had people putting notes on the car. Lots of people wave,” she says. While some potential clients mention seeing the Minis when they call, she says, it’s difficult to quantify the effectiveness of the promotion on wheels. “It’s not as easy to track as a coupon,” she says. “But it gives us visibility and name recognition.”
It’s a Wrap
Using cars for advertisements is a growing trend, says Jonathan Irwin, president of RoadRunner Advertising, a Jessup-based company that “wraps” vehicles in adhesive vinyl printed with promotions. “You are in complete control: You own the ad, you own your car. You pay once and you can go wherever you want to go,” he says.
Irwin says that a wrap, which on average costs about $2,700, will last up to eight years. “It’s UV protected, so it won’t fade,” he says. Car wrapping is growing. In three years, Irwin maintains, “every time you go out and drive for 20 minutes or more, you’ll see a wrapped car.”
