an ad on your car?

Filed in archive Entrepreneurship on February 14, 2004

Hamburg is one of Germany's most entrepreneurial cities. Often the strong presence of media companies and advertising agencies inspire would-be entrepreneurs. I recently discovered two companies that specialize in car advertisement. Both Cultcars and Mobil Werbeland are building up a database of car drivers in urban areas in Germany. They then match potential advertisers who look for an alternative form of advertising in order to reach their target group (ie golf courses or beaches). Car drivers may earn 60-80 EUR a month depending on the campaign.

Quite a lot of companies have tried to establish new forms of outdoor advertising and quite often it did not work out. Mainly because the new form of advertising (ie on cars) made potential advertisers reluctant as it's difficult to predict how it will reach the target group. Also many business models require strong upfront investments (ie plasma screens, projectors).

The mentioned companies may be lucky enough to avoid such traps. Using the space on a car for ads has become much more accepted and there are hardly high upfront investments. The database is building up without much marketing. Only sales to advertisers will take time and money - but no risk no fun.