Promotional wrapping: vehicles that are the campaign

A wrapped van does its job by being seen every day for five years. A promotional vehicle does its job in a weekend, in front of a crowd, and in every picture taken of it afterwards. That changes what you choose and how you wrap it. The vehicle needs a shape people stop for, the design needs to work from every angle a phone might be held at, and the film has to come off cleanly when the campaign ends.

• Land Rover Defender 6x6, with builds and structures on the back
• Airstream trailers converted into stages, bars and lounges
• Electric milk floats for sampling routes and zero-emission city activations
• Chevrolet step vans, Citroën HY vans and VW campers
• Open-top and closed double-decker buses for tours and launches
• Ice cream vans and carts, golf buggies, black cabs, G-Wagons and the Ad Rover electric Defender
• Claw machines, telephone box props and branded seating to go with them

Most of that list is available to hire from Hire Cube. If you have your own vehicle, we wrap that too.

Buying a vintage step van or a 6x6 for one campaign rarely makes sense. Hire Cube is part of the same group as Wrap Cube, so the vehicle, the wrap and the removal are one conversation. You choose the vehicle and the hire length, we design the wrap on a template of that exact vehicle, fit it before the hire starts and remove it afterwards, and the vehicle goes back for the next brand.

Because the same vehicles come back to us campaign after campaign, we know their panels, their awkward corners and how long they take. That is what lets a promotional wrap be turned round to a launch date without guesswork.

The most memorable promotional vehicles have something built onto them. The Defender 6x6 carried a Lego structure for a Nike activation. The Airstream opens into a stage with a lounge behind it. A milk float's flat bed takes a display build or a sampling counter. Those builds are designed and made by our sister company Cube Branding, usually in MDF, and wrapped by us so the vehicle and the build read as one piece.

If you are bringing your own build, tell us early. Film needs a sealed, primed surface to hold, and it is far easier to build that in than to fix it the week before the event.

A working van is designed to be read in three seconds from the far side of the road. A promotional vehicle is designed to be photographed from two metres away by someone who will post it. The whole vehicle becomes the image, the logo can be smaller, and the details matter because people stand next to them. We design on a template of the actual vehicle and show you the angles that will end up online, not just the side elevation.

Promotional wraps are usually short-life, so we specify film for the campaign length: a removable cast film for a few weeks or months, a laminated long-life film if the vehicle is staying branded for a season. Either way it comes off in sheets with heat and the vehicle is ready for the next campaign.

Promotional work runs to a launch date that has already been announced. Vehicles are usually wrapped at our Caterham unit before they leave for the event, but when a vehicle is already on site, or a change is needed between days of a festival, our installation team fits at the venue, anywhere in the UK or abroad. The Nando’s space at Reading Festival is the kind of job where the print was done in Caterham and the fitting happened on site.

1. {01}Brief. The campaign, the date, where the vehicle will be, and whether you need to hire one.
2. {02}Vehicle. Hired from Hire Cube, or your own. We confirm the exact model so the template is right.
3. {03}Design and proof. On a template of the vehicle, showing the angles people will photograph.
4. {04}Build. Anything built onto the vehicle, made by Cube Branding and prepared for film.
5. {05}Print, fit and check. In Caterham or on site, checked panel by panel before the vehicle goes in front of anyone.
6. {06}Removal. Booked for the end of the campaign, so the vehicle goes back clean.