Mobile billboards
A billboard that moves at walking speed.
Most out-of-home in Austin is aimed at people in cars. Ours is aimed at the ones on the sidewalk — at their eye level, close enough to read, close enough to ask the driver about.
"Mobile billboard" usually means a truck with a vinyl panel driving a loop. It works, up to a point. Here's an honest comparison of the three main options in this city, including the parts that don't favour us.
Static billboards
Good for sheer reach along a highway corridor, and unbeatable if your audience commutes by car. The problem is habituation: people stop seeing a board on a route they drive daily, and you're reaching a driver whose attention is legally required to be elsewhere. If you're selling something people research at a desk, this can still be the right buy.
Wrapped trucks
More flexible than a fixed board, and they carry a big surface. But a truck is a vehicle, and downtown Austin spends a lot of the year telling vehicles where they can't go. During festivals and closures the truck ends up circling the perimeter. It also can't stop where the crowd is without becoming a parking problem.
Pedicabs
Smaller surface than a truck — that's the honest trade. What you get in exchange is access, proximity and dwell. We ride inside closures, at three miles an hour, beside people who are walking. The ad is a few feet away rather than forty feet up. It stops where you want it and moves when you want it to. And it's carrying passengers, which changes how the whole thing is received: people wave at a pedicab, and they photograph the strange ones.
If your campaign is about reaching commuters on MoPac, buy a billboard and we'll tell you so. If it's about being unavoidable to people on foot downtown, nothing else gets as close.
The formats
What "mobile billboard" actually means on our fleet.
Full 360° carriage wraps
Fiberglass carriages, so the wrap covers back, sides and front — the entire vehicle becomes the ad. This is the version that photographs well and the one people remember seeing.
Panels plus branded riders
Rear and side panels across a wider fleet, with drivers in your shirts. Cheaper per bike, faster to produce, and it buys frequency — the same person seeing you repeatedly across a night.
The bike isn't the interesting part. The interesting part is that your ad is at eye level, moving at walking speed, through a crowd that is already looking around — and that it is carrying two people who are visibly enjoying themselves.
Where a mobile campaign runs
Districts worth putting a fleet in.
Beyond the big festivals, these are the parts of Austin where a street-level campaign earns its money week in and week out.
Sixth Street
Weekend nights · closed to traffic
The street shuts to cars and fills with people. It is the clearest argument for this format that exists in Austin, and it happens every single weekend rather than once a year.
Rainey Street
Evenings · compressed
Dense, young, and small enough that a handful of cabs registers as a real presence rather than background.
South Congress
Daytime and evening
The most photographed strip in the city, with the skyline framed down the avenue. Where you want the fleet if the campaign depends on people posting pictures of it.
Moody Center & UT campus
Event nights · fall Saturdays
Predictable surges before and after every show and home game. Good for a season-long presence in front of a consistent audience.
Questions
Straight answers.
How is this measured?
Honestly? Street-level out-of-home is hard to measure precisely, and anyone handing you a confident impressions number is estimating. What we'd actually recommend is putting a scan code on the panels — we built exactly that for SXSW Sydney — so you get real actions rather than a modelled figure. We also send photographs from the street so you can see the campaign running.
How many bikes can you run?
Up to 50 on a single campaign. For most buys the right number is a good deal smaller and concentrated on the right district.
Can we run a long campaign rather than one weekend?
Yes, and for a lot of local businesses it beats a festival buy. A few cabs working the same district every weekend for a month puts you in front of the same people repeatedly, which is how you actually get remembered.
Do you do the printing?
We handle printing and installation on the carriages. You supply the artwork; we'll tell you what needs adjusting to fit the panels properly.
What does it cost?
It depends on fleet size, format and duration. Call (512) 633-2405 and we'll quote it properly.
Get a quote
Tell us what you're planning.
The more you tell us, the more useful the answer. If a smaller buy at a different event would serve you better, we'll say so.
Want a fleet on the street?
Tell us the district, the dates and the budget, and we'll tell you what we'd actually do with it.