Bumper stickers have been around almost as long as the automobile – it seems that people just can’t resist adorning their car with something humorous or a personal statement.  It seems that when Henry Ford said customers can have the Model T Ford in any color, as long as it was black, that customers took it upon themselves to take matters into their own hands – after all, the customer is always right!

Bumper stickers started life as an identifier – usually telling other motorists where the car was from – but rapidly was adopted by marketing men in the 1950′s and shortly thereafter, by the hopeful candidates in political elections.  As the 1960′s came and went, bumper stickers have become ever more humorous, more visible and much more popular as a sign of individuality, demeanor and driver personality.

Forget the internet with Facebook and MySpace which lure advertisers with the prospect of millions of eyeballs looking at their web pages – just think of how many more eyeballs are focused on the bumpers of cars every single day!

“Your message here” is very true when you consider how popular bumper stickers are, but just as with social media and internet marketing, there is one attribute you should be looking to emulate – the viral campaign.

Viral marketing seeks to get individuals to take part in a campaign but at the same time, the campaign is designed to encourage or require that other members of their circle of contacts (family, friends, work colleagues) are introduced and in turn, they participate too – one person introduces 5 more, they all introduce 5 more and so and so on.

Bumper stickers can also be used in this way, but they have to be engaging and it also helps if there is something unique about the bumper sticker which makes it a sought after item.  In turn, this allows you as the marketer, to leverage the desirability of the bumper sticker to engage potential customers directly in return for which, they get the opportunity to market your company or product on their car bumper!

Designing a bumper sticker for marketing purposes requires good design skills and a good insight into the minds of potential customers; marketing appeal must be subliminal as you are looking to latch onto an existing social trend and are in effect, gatecrashing someone’s private party.   An example would be where you design a bumper sticker providing a rendition of the flag or name of the state or town you are operating in; this forms the center focus of the bumper sticker but within the design your company and product are incorporated.  Use words such as “Limited Edition” to enhance the impression of exclusivity, and use the sticking backer to provide instructions on how a consumer can get more, e.g. by visiting a website and completing a survey.

Bumper stickers are long lasting pieces of marketing collateral, usually lasting as long as the car itself is on the road.  Bumper stickers are a small, moving billboard which you don’t have to pay for and over the life of the bumper sticker, it will be seen and read by hundreds of thousands of people, and even better, read repeatedly by a significant minority.

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