Marketing on the Move: From company vans to city buses, vehicle wraps reach the masses.

• Author: Shipe, O'Hara
• Position: MARKETING

Over the past two decades, marketing professionals have been running at a breakneck pace to keep up with technological innovations that are driving the world forward. The advent of the Internet in the early '90s ushered in a new era of content marketing on digital platforms. That landmark change was followed by the rapid popularization of social media, forcing marketers to again rethink their strategies, engineering brands with interactive, shareable personalities. Now a move toward artificial intelligence and virtual reality has marketers working to craft unique digital experiences catered to individual users.

With an estimated 3 billion social media users worldwide, an increased focus on digital marketing is undoubtedly warranted--but what has become of more traditional techniques such as printed products?

According to GiraphicWorks co-owner Victor Alexander, printed collateral still holds a prominent place in the Alaska marketing scene. Alexander and business partner Bonnie Moore recently celebrated twenty-four years of being in business and believe that the market for printed branding materials such as vehicle wraps is only getting bigger.

"We do printed banners and posters but honestly, I would say something like 50 percent of our business right now is going to vehicle wraps," Alexander explains. "It's a little bit of a seasonal thing because in the summer our shop is booming with vehicle wrap projects as the tourist season picks up and then it kind of slows down in the winter. But I'd still say, overall, vehicle wraps are accounting for a big portion of the work we do."

When Alexander and Moore began their business, they focused primarily on paper prints mounted on foamcore, but it wasn't long before they saw the market potential for vehicle wrapping. In 1997, after fielding requests from clients, the duo partnered with 3M to bring its products to Alaska.

"We had to get a certification from 3M to verify that we had the right printers, ink, and laminates in order for them to provide their long-term warranties. The vinyl used in vehicle wrapping is kind of a unique product, so it does take some specialty equipment," says Alexander.

Self-adhesive vinyl has only been on the market since the 1980s, and prior to the early 1990s only large clients like the US Air Force could afford the custom product. Improvements in production made custom vinyl more accessible by the late 1990s, but protocols for application had yet to be established. So...