• by Swapnil Patel , September 29, 2026

After driving roughly the same route to work for years, passing countless convenience stores, housing developments and delivery trucks, I’ve started to notice Cheetos trucks more often.

They didn't suddenly appear. What changed was my daughters and their love for Cheetos. On our drive to school, Amani, my six-year-old, spots the bright orange branding  and erupts from the back seat. "Daddy, when I grow up, I want to drive a Cheetos truck and go into the back and eat 'em all up!" Little does she know she'd be caught orange-handed.

Cheetos is now more top-of-mind in our house than ever. When the truck passes by, I’m reminded of the brand again -- and there’s a decent chance more Cheetos end up in our cart at Costco.

How many other media opportunities are hiding in plain sight? We spend a lot of time thinking about the media we buy, but businesses also own assets that interact with people every day. How can they work alongside the media we're already buying to create more value?

Marketers use trucks to build awareness and consideration, but they can tell a deeper story, too. Domino’s, for example, has used its delivery trucks to communicate info about everything from digital ordering to the freshness of its ingredients. Their visibility and movement through communities around mealtimes can make them valuable media assets.

Recently, while walking to lunch in New York, I noticed a truck for shower filter company Jolie had a simple line: “What if we told you that your shower water was dirtier than this truck?” The truck was also intentionally filthy, making the message work because of the medium, while the medium worked harder because of the message.  By turning something as mundane, but ubiquitous and relatable as shower water into a provocative question, Jolie gave me a reason to see its brand differently.

Trucks are just one example. Brands have all kinds of assets they own that interact with people every day: packaging, storefronts, apps, receipts and transaction emails. The point isn't to turn each into another ad. It's to recognize when one can do something more valuable.

Start with three questions:

-- What are we trying to accomplish for the business?

-- What's happening in people's lives at that moment?

-- What assets do we already have that could connect the two?

Especially when budgets are under pressure, there's value in looking harder at what the business already has and how it can work alongside the media we're investing in.

Seeing the opportunity is one thing. Executing it is another. An old boss taught me that if you want a client to see the potential in something, quantify it. As media people, we're used to doing that with the media we buy. Bring that same discipline to the assets a business already owns. Get an estimate on  the opportunity, make the case for a test, and start small. Try it with part of the fleet or in one market. Test, learn and scale if it works.

None of this has to be either/or. It's a yes, and. The opportunity lies in thinking more intentionally about how paid and owned media work together. What makes someone see a brand differently, or try it for the first time -- and then choose it again? Or think about it at the right moment?

The answer might be the media we buy. It might be something the business already owns. More likely, it's how those things work together.