Carvertising 2.0
Mobility & Transport
Short term rental cars for free are so 2004: how about cheap long term rental, or actually getting PAID to put advertising on your car?
We reported on nearly-free short term rental cars in Europe a long time ago; leave it to entrepreneurs and marketers from around the world to add some really interesting twists, turning a new corner in Carvertising. In Austria, CoolCar offers long term (12-48 months) rental cars decked out in ads, including the Mini One and the Citroen C4, for only EUR 199 (USD 249/GBP 135) per month if drivers make enough miles. The lease also includes insurance and service costs, and obviously provides an interesting alternative to buying or leasing a regular car.
And in Australia, KahDo cars offers this service to enterprising consumers in Sydney and Melbourne (Brisbane coming soon) for even less: a new Smart car for USD 26 per week, including all maintenance and roadside assistance. Advertising is changed at least once a quarter at a KahDo depot. Drivers also get access to free quarterly Club KahDo parties, as well as events and promotions co-sponsored by KahDo and its advertisers. The twist? KahDo actively hand-picks drivers (from age and lifestyle to the neighborhoods they tend to frequent), so it can pair its 100 branded cars with the appropriate representatives on behalf of their advertisers. The latter can also equip the drivers with other goodies and samples of their products, turning them into mobile and human billboards. (Sources: Gizmag)
Opportunities
Companies like CoolCar and KahDo are cleverly tapping into a consumer base that is much more interested (and savvy) in making some money on the side. It also doesn’t hurt that in many crowded European cities, car ownership is not necessarily seen as the ultimate must-have anymore, opening the door to a much more casual approach to car rentals.8th October 2005