• by August 2, 2000

Just as you though out-of-home advertising couldn't get any more off the wall - golf hole ads, fruit sticker ads, bathroom ads - LA-based FreeCar Media has announced plans to wrap cars with creatively designed corporate branding messages and logos.

FreeCar Media will give selected consumers free new "branded" cars and give advertisers throughout the country a new out-of-home advertising option that allows them to select drivers whose lifestyles meet their target market demographics.

Advertisers will choose the drivers they want based on the information provided in a seven page online questionnaire. The chosen drivers will receive a new car, wrapped in ads, to use for two years - after which it can be unwrapped and purchased or leased. Drivers can also have their existing cars wrapped, with a compensation of up to $400 a month from FreeCar.

Statistically, the average person makes more than four trips per day and travels over 40 miles; highways are increasingly crowded and commutes are getting longer. FreeCar Media claims that it reaches captive consumers when their message retention is most favorable, increasing advertiser value.

For example, Gatorade might select avid-runners who frequent popular running spots; Charles Schwab, a young executive climbing the corporate ladder to success; and Disney, a family with three children ages five to nine.

In addition to targeting where their message is carried, advertisers can track and monitor their message exposure over time with FreeCar Media's patent pending Global Positioning Impression System, which is installed in every wrapped car.

"The outdoor-billboard model that exists today is two-dimensional and stagnant, in that it does not provide advertisers with a value-added relationship with the consumer," said Lawrence Butler, chairman and co-founder of FreeCar Media.

"We provide true value to the advertiser, in terms of broad reach consumer impressions, the ability to pinpoint desired target consumers, validated measurement and most importantly access to markets that previously were hard-to-reach, sold out or over-saturated. Additionally, advertisers are now able to advertise in geographic areas that previously were off-limits like college campuses and residential neighborhoods."