James Heller

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a chance to weigh in here, and a lot’s been happening. Not just for Wrapify — we’ve launched in Chicago via a major campaign with GhostBed, made a bunch of new hires, moved into a larger HQ — but there have also been a few noteworthy news and trend pieces that deserve closer attention.

These developments speak to both the larger advertising picture and how Wrapify’s success is the result of the demands of the current marketing marketplace.

First, Advertising Age this month reported that revenues for U.S. ad agencies are better than ever —  an increase of 6.5% to a record $46.8 billion  in 2015. For the first time, digital’s share of agency revenue surpassed 40%. We’ll get back to that in a minute.

Similarly and correspondingly, outdoor advertising also saw its best year ever, accounting for $7.3 billion in revenue. According to our friends at the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, outdoor advertising spending rose 4.6% in 2015 from the previous year. The category has now seen 23 consecutive quarters of growth since the recession.

The two biggest outdoor advertisers were McDonald's and Apple, who held the same spots in 2014 as well. The top ten list rounds out with Verizon, Warner Brothers Pictures, Metro PCS, Coca-Cola, Geico, Universal Pictures, Chase, and Samsung. All great brands.

These facts endorse Wrapify’s ongoing faith in the “Feel the Real” marketing movement….while the other trend is just waiting for reality to catch up to virtual fantasy.

We remain confident that outdoor advertising is going to continue to blossom and expand, while digital may have reached its peak and will plateau. If not in 2016, then next year, as more and more marketers come to terms with the fact that at least half their digital spend is wasted.

Again, let’s go through the list:

• Google confirmed — in a neat infographic, no less — that  56% of all publishers’ ads are never “in view”
• Comscore says that 46% of all online advertising is never seen
• Hacked PCs are faking literally billions of ad clicks
• The use of ad blockers is growing fast, and the biggest number of users corresponds to the key demos of high earners and millennials.

Wrapify has already seen digital dollars flow our way. It’s happening more and more each month, as brands wake up to the fact that half their digital ad spend is wasted. We expect the deluge to hit just about the time reality catches up with this ad-tech bubble (did any of you read Disrupted?).

Wrapify’s not based on technology simply for its own sake, or to create bots to replace people, Wrapify relies on both technology and people, and embraces each to make a proven idea work better in this new age. Car wraps have been around for a long time, but it’s taken Wrapify’s proprietary technology to create an “Uber for advertisers” that delivers a clear understanding of ROI and the ability to track your campaigns. Not to mention our popular SWARM option, which brings advertisers the power to dominate an event or small area with a fleet of Wrapify cars.

But we also involve the human element. Wrapify would be nowhere without our drivers. We’re proud to be helping everyday Americans supplement their income with hundreds of dollars each month. And there’s no shortage of interested Wrapify drivers!

Wrapify has been an enthusiastic fan of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America’s (OAAA) “Feel the Real” advertising campaign since its launch last September — how could we not be?

With 1,400 creative executions across 20 media markets, “Feel the Real” was smart, fun, put the association’s money where its mouth is, and dovetailed with Wrapify’s central premise: that advertising you can physically see in the real world is more reliable and effective than the majority of digital marketing.

So we were extremely satisfied to read the OAAA white paper released this week, validating pretty much every point about the strength of out-of-home advertising, as well as revealing the half-mirage that is digital advertising.

The purpose of the “Feel the Real” campaign was two-fold: prove that outdoor advertising effectively influences the people who see it, and show how digital  advertising results are often “gamed” by bot-views, questionable and near-hidden ad placements and other deceptions.  

For the first part of the equation, “Feel the Real” targeted people who work in advertising, during Advertising Week. The campaign launched with big, stark, loud black-and-white-and red billboards, posters and bus ads (no car wraps though, unfortunately, LOL), proclaiming “This Ad is Real,” and other similar messages.

The targeting was both general and cheekily specific — posters near FCB, Havas, OMD, Mindshare and other offices literally read “Hey FCB, This Ad is Real,” for example (depending on the agency near the signage, obvs). A few even called out specific ad agency influencers by name — Ogilvy’s Lauren Crampsie, we’re looking at YOU! (and your 150K Twitter followers) — asking for promotional tweets in return. Of course they got ‘em!

One consistent across all the campaign’s outdoor ads was to direct people who saw them to FeelTheReal.org. Nearly 30,000 unique visitors checked out the site — an amazing number for a campaign targeting a narrow B2B category of professionals — during the seven-week campaign, with clear correlation to the 20 markets where the ads ran, and engaging visitors for more than two minutes a visit!

We won’t go into all the details — there’s a small separate sideline integrating a printed binary code that when deciphered ties in with the FX series “Mr. Robot,” for one fun sideline — because we hope you’ll to read the OAAA white paper. But we will talk for a minute about the digital side of the campaign, which was both ingenious and a bit sneaky.

As a counterpoint to the “real,” the OAAA also engaged web traffic brokers who promised they could deliver more “targeted” traffic in a week than the OAAA had earned in seven weeks, while promising to do it for $250 or less. A bargain in the making at outdoor advertising’s expense, right?

Nope. Not even close.

To test, the OAAA created three mirror sites — FeelTheUnreal.org; FeelTheFake.org; FeelTheBots.org — and bought three tranches of traffic from three of the highest reviewed traffic brokers (who shall remain nameless).

The web traffic brokers’ results are, shall we say, unsettling. The mirror sites got a lot of traffic, but little to zero engagement. One broker’s outreach brought a “targeted audience” that lasted exactly 18 seconds. For Every. Single. Visitor. Think they were “real”?

Another got 50,000 visitors, exactly one of whom took the survey on the site. We think that one person actually was probably (without the “air-quotes”) real.

Again, there’s a lot more information to share about the bots, ghosts, and invisible nobodies who swarmed the fake OAAA sites, but we’d rather you check out the whole white paper because it’s loaded with worthwhile information and a hoot to read to boot — just to take one headline as an example: “If a bot clicks a non-viewable ad, does the ad blocker hear it?”

But of all the impressive analytics in the white paper, perhaps the most relevant figure is one that’s already been widely reported in Forbes, Adweek and elsewhere: More than $7 billion of digital advertising is completely wasted on ads that nobody sees.

And that’s why “Real” matters. That’s why Out-of-Home matters now, arguably more than ever. And that’s why Wrapify is revolutionizing the outdoor market.

Wrapify doesn’t dismiss digital or technology…but we don’t worship at its altar simply for technology’s sake, either. Wrapify uses digital technology to make something that’s proven to work even better.

It’s why places like Business Insider and Tech Crunch have called Wrapify “The Uber for advertisers.”

We’ve taken the proven old-school idea of wrapped vehicles, added crowdsourcing, the sharing economy, proprietary technology, and analytics, to create a genuinely disruptive outdoor advertising platform that’s proving to be a winner for brands, drivers, and the marketing experience.

Drivers get paid regularly by the mile through a unique mobile application that tracks their movements. Brands like eBay, Harrah’s and  Petco get real-time visualized dashboards of cars’ impressions, so they know how many people are seeing their messaging.  

Wrapify’s got case studies and numbers to back up our success just as much as the OAAA’s white paper does for “Feel the Real.” But we wanted to make this more about them than us, so we’ll just leave it at that. Hopefully you won’t 🙂

February 1st, Wrapify entered New York. Now, creating a Wrapify campaign couldn't be easier (and more cost effective) with the unveiling of Wrapify’s 2.0 platform update!

Our story so far: Wrapify’s unique outdoor marketing platform has been a magnet for well-known national brands — eBay, Petco, Harrah’s, Quest Nutrition and others. We’re immensely grateful for these clients. They’ve helped us break out as a business quickly. It’s been gratifying.

But we’ve also had a lot of conversations with smaller businesses and startups who immediately grasped the power of our innovative idea and wanted to ride along….but couldn’t afford a broad campaign.

That’s been as frustrating for us as it’s been for them. Wrapify’s a startup, only launched last July, and despite our rapid rise, it’s not a journey we want to take alone. We want to support other startups, good ideas, and passionate small business people.

That’s why Wrapify has expanded our wrap options to full-car wraps to half-car wraps and panel wraps as well. We’ve made Wrapify more affordable, and we’ve redesigned the Wrapify dashboard to make the entire campaign process simpler and more intuitive to navigate.

Current three-month pricing is now: 

• Full Wrap: $1600/month
• Half Wrap: $1,200/month
• Panel Wrap: $500/month

It’s worth pointing out a panel wrap is two side panels of a vehicle plus the car’s rear window, so there is visualization from any angle.

A small business can put three panel-wrapped cars on the road for less than the price of one fully wrapped one, while getting all the same features and functions that fully-wrapped car campaigns receive.

These new wrap options come in tandem with Wrapify’s new and improved dashboard, which now enables campaign wrap choices to be made online, and expands and simplifies the information and insight for Wrapify partners.

People and companies have spoken, and Wrapify has heard them. We’ve expanded our wrap options for smaller businesses, and we’ve redesigned and re-engineered our dashboard to make it even better. 

Take a look for yourself here: https://a.wrapify.com

Got questions? Call us at 844-WRAPIFY, we’re here to help!

– James

February begins the next phase of the Wrapify story, as we expand into New York City and the surrounding tri-state area.

It was the natural next move after our breakout 2015, which ended with both Inc. and Business Insider calling Wrapify one of the year’s most promising startups. We finished the year well, with thousands of drivers across a multitude of continually running campaigns, but we weren’t where the heart of the advertising action beats. We needed to be in New York.

As of today, we are.

February 1, Wrapify officially began on-boarding drivers and scheduling outdoor advertising campaigns. We also secured our NEW East Coast sales office located on Fifth Avenue office, which opens March 1.

New York is the most prominent advertising theater in the United States. The New York market is the ultimate ‘put up or shut up.’ That’s why Wrapify expanded to New York, to prove what we can accomplish in the marketplace as the ‘Uber for advertisers.’

The same aspects that have made Wrapify successful in fourteen-plus American markets will be amplified in New York City. Our presence instantly creates additional outdoor opportunities in a region where the market for billboard space is extremely competitive.

The difficulty to command outdoor advertising space is a uniquely New York for marketers to embrace Wrapify, even further supporting previously innate reasons:

• Technology which enables a self-service platform with live geographic reach & impression data 

• Sharing economy that makes merchandising of personal vehicle for profit an option 

• Industry low CPMs — not just for outdoor, but all media opportunities 

• Ability to "own" a city with one cost-effective platform — on demand

The time is right for Wrapify to move into New York because the time is right for Wrapify. We are looking to change the advertising paradigm for everyone, and we know we need New York to make that reality.

It’s been an amazing and supremely gratifying year for Wrapify. A year finer than any we could have imagined, even in our most optimistic scenarios (I know, because I dreamed of them). It was capped this weekend, when Wrapify was named one of 2015’s top startups by Inc. and Business Insider. 

It’s been exhilarating to see the power of a good idea — an Uber for advertisers, where America’s drivers get a piece of the marketing dollar — embraced so quickly in the marketplace by brands and consumers. So much has transpired in such a compressed timeline, we thought it's worth refreshing everything that’s happened in the past 12 months, which have been pretty much a constant ascendant trajectory of success. 

• FEBRUARY: Wrapify is founded in San Diego by four long-time pals who love cars and shaking up the status quo.
• APRIL: Wrapify is accepted into San Francisco’s prestigious Launch incubator
• APRIL: Wrapify is accepted into San Diego’s highly-regarded EvoNexus incubator
• JULY: Wrapify graduates from Launch incubator with rousing endorsements from the organization’s mentors
• JULY 14th: Wrapify officially launches in the marketplace
• JULY 15th: First Wrapify car, for social CRM platform Captiv8, hits the road in San Francisco.
• AUGUST: Wrapify graduates early from EvoNexus
• AUGUST: Drivers on the Wrapify platform pass 5,000
• AUGUST 27: Wrapify wins EvoNexus Demo Day 
• SEPTEMBER: Wrapify closes $1 million seed round
• SEPTEMBER: Wrapify opens San Francisco office
• NOVEMBER: Wrapify shows triple-digit growth month-over-month since launch
• DECEMBER: Drivers on the Wrapify platform pass 10,000
• DECEMBER: More than 135,000,000 total impressions are tracked and generated by Wrapify cars since launch
• DECEMBER: Driver payouts pass $45,000 since launch
• DECEMBER: Wrapify adds eBay to its roster of clients, joining:
  Petco, TriNet, Harrah’s Resorts, Quest Nutrition, HomeHero, Butterfleye, Unreel.co and Captiv8
• DECEMBER: Inc. names Wrapify a Top 25 Startup for 2015, amplifying coverage in Forbes, Business Insider, MediaPost, San Diego Union-Tribune, GeoMarketing, DailyDOOH, and others. 

As good as 2015 has been, we’re expecting 2016 to be even better. Trading up for a turbo, so to speak. We very much want to thank our Wrapify partner brands, our many supporters — both financial and emotional, friends and family — and of course our drivers. We would not be where we are without any of you.

The holiday season is one of gratitude and community, looking back and looking forward, a four-way stop of contemplation before making your next move. This season, Wrapify has much to be thankful for, yet so much left to do. We literally want to change the world.

Well, the world of Outdoor advertising, anyway. And we’re already pretty far down that road. Join us. It's going to be an amazing ride. 

One of my favorite moments when I’m out talking with advertisers or other people about Wrapify is the instant it clicks with them.

That’s the moment I can see in their eyes that they’ve snapped past their preconceived ideals and realized we’re not just another car-wrap company, but a technology-centric outdoor-marketing platform that offers strategic advertising opportunities never before available.

SWARM is turning out to be Wrapify’s most intriguing feature for marketers.

A Wrapify SWARM is exactly what it sounds like: a large number of vehicles all in one spot at the same time. Wrapify sends out notification to all wrapped vehicles who share one specific campaign in a targeted region. Once confirmed, numerous drivers show up at a specific time and either park near a designated spot or drive around one small tight area for eye-catching outdoor messaging.

Drivers get a bonus on top of their monthly pay, brands get an heretofore unprecedented opportunity for outdoor advertising in places that might have been previously off-limits or too expensive.

One example might be for a soft drink or energy bar, outside a professional sports stadium. A billboard a block away from PNC Park, say, will set you back significantly, but five cars parked for an hour or so right up until game time won’t cost you too much at all.

Or for an even more bravado move: Say your brand wants to be ubiquitous at the hot conference where all your smartest targets attend, but you don’t want to shell out major dough needed for a sponsorship. Instead, you hire 5-10-25 Wrapify cars to “Swarm” the event at a smaller investment with arguably a better and more memorable impression.

When I presented at the Launch Mobile event, we called a Swarm for Wrapify partner Butterfleye, the smart home monitoring camera.  Almost everybody in the audience said they saw the cars. Of course they did — Wrapify cars are bright, distinctive, eye-catching, and like nothing else on the road.

Can you imagine a Swarm of vehicles touting your brand around the Super Bowl stadium and city? At the Oscars? One of the upcoming political conventions? What would, say, a billboard cost for that day (not that you could even buy one)

The Swarm strategy also circles back to solving the advertising world’s dirty little not-so-secret: If you’re betting on digital, you better double down on dreams because as both Google and Fortune have recently admitted “56% of all online ads are never seen,” and “fraud is rampant.”

Wrapify cars are real. Swarm is real, squared. Maybe even cubed.

So get ready. If you’re in one of Wrapify’s 11 markets — with more on the way — you may soon see a colorful fleet of cars promoting a visionary brand. And when a friend says to you, “Wow, that’s pretty cool!” You can respond, knowledgeably, “Yeah, but it’s known as a SWARM.”