• July 26, 2000

Advertising's new frontier has become the truck in the lane next to you on the freeway -- or parked at the light across the street. Thanks to new graphic technology and a new breed of alternative outdoor-advertising firms, advertisers can now put their art and messages on moving truckside billboards right where their traget audience spends much of their time: in traffic.

"It's a high-impact medium," says David Margolis, president of San Diego-based Trykor Rolling Media Inc. The fast-rising popularity of such wraparound ads is boosting the growth of outdoor advertising generally, according to Margolis. Outdoor advertising's share of total ad revenues, now 2.3%, is up from 2% in 1990 and is expected to reach 3% in the next few years, according to one trade report.

This week and next, a 24-foot Lexus billboard will come to life on the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco, on the sides of a Trykor truck strategically positioned at key traffic points.