July 16, 2020

The Vinyl Guys, based in Stourbridge, recently supplied a customer with an advertising livery that’s more than earning its keep…

One of the challenges that faces the sign and allied industries is that its customers don’t really understand the creative potential that’s wrapped up in the technology and materials that signmakers have access to. For that reason, signmakers’ customers tend to ask for what they know is possible, and signmakers do their best to supply it.

Alex Liggett and the team at Stourbridge based specialists The Vinyl Guys operate a little differently and, in addition to visualising in precise terms what the customer asks for, they go a little further and get other ideas on the table too.

A customer with a wasp extermination business came to The Vinyl Guys recently wanting a van livery to promote his business. He asked for something basic spelling out his business name and phone number but got something in his quote and offer that took the idea further. The Vinyl Guys drafted in the help of some extremely detailed photographs of wasps and suggested blowing these up to van-friendly proportions to better underline the purpose of the business. The customer loved the idea and decided to take The Vinyl Guys’ advice and go for it. Sale made!

The Vinyl Guys set about printing the elements of the proposed design, reaching for the Metamark MD5 and Matching Laminate to fully resolve the depth and detail needed. The print performs brilliantly. For some reason experts have yet to articulate, there’s ‘something’ about small things blown up to bigger proportions and digital print that just seem to work together. The wasps look formidable and reveal detail in the high-resolution livery that most onlookers will never have seen before. Make no mistake - this van is now a real head-turner.

The customer was no less than delighted with the work and, on his way home with the vehicle, a funny thing happened. Spotting the eye-catching livery, a driver in another vehicle struck up a conversation and, as it turns out, he owned a chain of shops and was looking for just the service the van now promotes to all in a mile’s radius. Another sale made - and it more than paid for the cost of the livery!

The point made is just how powerful brilliantly designed vehicle advertising can be. It’s further emphasised by the numbers of people who now want a photograph taken with the wasps on the van. The Vinyl Guys will be undertaking another very similar livery in the coming days. It’s for a relative of the original customer who’s in a similar line of work.