Friday, December 5, 2008
Accidental Marketing
Converting cars to mobile billboards takes message on the road
Pittsburgh Business Times - by Patty Tascarella
Hot Metal Diner owner Wendy Betten has adopted mobile advertising on wheels with her distinctive cherry red van that includes pictures of sunny-side up eggs — and the company’s address — for all to see.
The Hot Metal Diner is in West Mifflin, but owner Wendy Betten has a mobile way to egg on existing and potential customers throughout Pittsburgh.
The diner’s van is a distinctively cheery cherry red; its name, phone number and Web site are served up lavishly on the sides, and the windows are detailed with a standard breakfast order of a pair of eggs, sunny side up, in a skillet.
“It’s like a moving billboard,” Betten said. “I get a lot of reaction to it.”
Betten bought her restaurant in fall 2007 and purchased the van about six months later. She kicked around the idea of some sort of outdoor board advertising, but ultimately couldn’t see it giving the best bang for the bucks. She designed Hot Metal Diner’s logo — eggs in a frying pan — herself and decided to put it on her own wheels. The owner of the auto detailing firm she tapped to handle the transformation was a tough sell.
“I had to talk him into doing it,” she said. “He kept saying, ‘It’s too much,’ and I kept saying, ‘No, it’s not enough.’”
Betten is a big believer in coordinating the use of her logo. Driven from the South Side, where Betten resides, to her restaurant daily, it consistently reminds fellow drivers and folks along the sidewalks where breakfast awaits.
“I might get a tattoo,” Betten said. “You never know.”
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