Marketer quit posh job to advertise on trucks

By Njoki Chege

When people see traffic jam, they sigh in disgust and get worked up. But when Francis Gachagua sees traffic jam, he sees an opportunity to make money. After working as a sales and marketing professional for more than ten years, Gachagua quit his lucrative job as a general manager at Kenya Airways to start his own outdoor advertising business.

Motion Pictures has taken outdoor advertising to a whole new level. It focuses on Ad-trucks — trucks that go around town displaying different advertisements through a monitored computerised system.

So how did it all begin?

In 2008, he began his research. He sought what it took to set up such a business and what equipment and supplies were required.

Offers Gachagua: "I toured companies in Europe and US and took time to understand their operation model. I realised that at that time, there was no such company in Africa. Therefore I had to travel all the way."

The expensive research finally paid off, for in 2009, he began to buy the required infrastructure and last year, he set the ball rolling. But first he had to make a tough choice.

"I quit a lucrative job at Kenya Airways where I worked as the General Manager of the Great Lakes region. It was a tough choice, but I have never looked back," he reveals.

He began with seven trucks (Ad-trucks) and 13 members of staff. Today, he has 10 ad-trucks and 25 members of staff.

Crowded industry

"It was very difficult to penetrate into the market. People are used to the traditional advertising methods such as billboards, suburban slides and electronic methods. While people liked the fresh idea, it took a while for them to buy it," Gachagua explains.

Nothing had prepared Gachagua for this, since he thought people would love the idea and jump for it immediately, but they did not. He, therefore, had to invest a lot in educating consumers on why they should advertise their products with Ad-truck.

"We had to do physical demonstrations and interact with clients. It consumed a lot of time, but it finally paid off. People began seeing the rationale and gave us a chance," he says.

So what makes ad-truck so unique?

Says he, "The world has become mobile. The world is always on the go, therefore it makes more sense to take the advertisement to consumers. If you want your advertisement to be seen in Kibera, our trucks will be there."

According to Gachagua, while electronic advertisements and billboards tend to be ignored, Ad-truck capitalises on the ‘on-your-face’ advertising, which is very hard to ignore.

"A yellow truck with slides of advertisements shifting every ten seconds in itself is an attraction that a consumer cannot ignore. Secondly, we use the colour yellow because it is the most conspicuous, with the highest frequency in a spectrum. Thirdly, our ad-trucks have little flags with eye-catching movements," he beams.

Inside the ad-truck is a computerised system that regulates the motion of the advertisements as well as the amount of displays.

"We basically feed the system with the number of advertisements we want and dictate how long it should stay on, as well as the slide speed," he explains.

A slide takes approximately eight to 10 seconds before the next one comes.

Gachagua takes advantage of the photo film paper on which the advertisements are printed.

"It’s not just any paper that we use," he says adding, "We use a special paper — photo film paper that allows illuminated advertising. Ad-truck at night is very sharp and the resolution is very high."

While billboards are immobile and unflexible, Gachagua reckons that ad-trucks can reach your customers anywhere and anytime. A normal day at Motion Pictures begins at 7.30am. The trucks are strategically placed on all the roads leading to the CBD. A client is free to choose which road they prefer to have their advertisements on. The ad-trucks stay in traffic with you throughout the rush hour till around 9am when traffic subsides.

"After the traffic subsides, we cover the geographical area around the road you choose. For instance, if you chose Jogoo road, the ad-trucks will be on the Jogoo road traffic in the morning rush, and after the rush, the trucks move to the environs such as Buruburu, Umoja, Jericho, Kimathi…every estate around that road," he offers.

Parking Lots

When there is no traffic, the trucks take advantage of ‘hot spot’ parking lots where they park outside malls, petrol stations and any other public places. In the evening, the trucks go through the same drill as in the morning until they call it a day at 7.30pm. The ad-trucks are fitted with GPRS monitoring devices to give the clients an added advantage of tracking their advertisements.

"We have invested heavily in GPRS monitoring to give clients the opportunity to track their advertisements," he says.

The trucks are also on the lookout for social outdoor events such as rugby games, horse racing, and annual shows among others where the public cannot afford to ignore the advertisements.

"We are always on the lookout for events and then make arrangements to have our trucks there. That way, we maximise on all opportunities available," says Gachagua.

Besides taking the advertisement to the consumer, ad-truck also gives room for customer feedback, as Gachagua explains.

"We have a competitive advantage in regard to outdoor advertising because customers have the opportunity to approach us and give us feedback concerning a particular product. In essence, ad-truck has given the billboard not only legs, but also a mouth," he adds

At the moment, the cheapest package costs Sh45,000 which includes a month’s advertisement on the ad-trucks from 7.30am to 7.30pm. The packages are tailored according to the clients’ needs and budget. The company began in Nairobi, but the trucks have now ventured into Mombasa and Kisumu cities.

The company is also looking forward to customise the ad-truck to do displays for fashion and furniture.

The biggest challenge still lies in educating the market to buy the idea.

"One of the biggest lessons I have learnt is that when you come up with a new innovation, it is important to invest in educating consumers. Every innovation must be accompanied by education. For me, I spent the first year educating consumers on this new innovation," he says.

As Gachagua notes, the product has indeed outgrown itself and created an outdoor mobile space.

"We began with a tool for mobile advertising, and now we have taken outdoor advertising to a whole new level as we have created an outdoor mobile space," says Gachagua.