Parking Discs Offer an Opportunity for Ambient Media or Guerrilla Marketing

In the UK, Parking Discs are most often supplied by local authorities but is an opportunity being missed by the motor vehicle industry? You will find that car dealers have their names on a rear window sticker and on the rear number plate. This is to advertise to other drivers. However, to advertise to the driver and passengers in the car they advertise on the on the tax disc holder. A car wash will give you an air freshener with their name printed on it. They know that the best place to advertise to a motorist is actually in the car. Yet in-car advertising is one of the most overlooked opportunities in ambient media or even guerrilla marketing. So how come other suppliers haven’t cottoned on to the potential in a Parking Disc?

When a car insurance company presents a written quote it will probably be supplied in a folder with a brochure telling you all about the company. That’s fine in forming a first impression of the company but what if you have an accident? Where is their number and contact detail? Probably in a drawer at home. It could have been on a parking disk that spends a lot of its time on the car’s dashboard. The same scenario could be applied to a break-down service or a windscreen relacement service.

A parking disc doesn’t have to carry the name of the local authority to be valid. All it has to do is to point out the time of arrival in a parking space so that means that there is loads of space for advertising on a product that the actual driver might handle on a daily basis. Print can be applied to both sides so a parking disc offers about 4 times the space of a tax disc holder. The in-car situation provides an excellent opportunity for an ambient media advertising campaign and a parking disc is an obvious choice.

But that’s not all. How about at a car show? An exhibition, a race meeting or a motor vehicle event presents a perfect opportunity for guerrilla marketing but don’t waste the opportunity by handing out leaflets like everyone else; a parking disc is something that visitors will very hard to throw away.