HOEI

I saw an article in the NY Times this weekend that pointed out how some companies are paying ordinary people to have their cars wrapped up like a NASCAR. The article states that folks get as much as $800 per month and free gas to place ads on their cars.  In most cases you are encouraged to obey the law and maintain a certain social standard.  That means no cussing, fussing, smoking, and certainly no consumption of competitor’s products or alcoholic beverages.  It is a good thing the cussing and fussing rules are have not been strictly enforced as a prerequisite for decals on the cars of Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Robby Gordon and a few other lively NASCAR stars or these guys would be sporting “Sponsor Wanted” on their cars.

That said, I have been pondering another idea and wondering if anyone has already tried this. How well does ad space on cars and road signs work for driving traffic to a blog and/or web site? No…Really? I know all the major marketing companies know the answers to my questions, but that data is hard to come by without forking over some fat loot. Has anyone tried it? If so, how did you advertise and how successful were you?

I have seen some pretty creative billboards recently that actually left me browsing the URL from the sign. I am sure there is some degree of success, but is it worth the investment?

A Reuters story on FoxNews.com tells of a new Honda hybrid that is expected to be priced at less than $12,000 USD.

Japan’s third-biggest auto maker aims to sell the Fit hybrid as early as next year for around 1.4 million yen ($11,790), or about 200,000 yen more than the gasoline-only version, likely making it the world’s first hybrid to cost less than 2 million yen ($16,840), the leading Japanese business daily said on Wednesday.

The model could be launched in the business year starting April 2007 and would be sold globally, the paper said. (Source)