Auto Skins - digital clothing for your car

from Inventors and Remarkable People (112 articles)

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Auto Skins - digital clothing for your car

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November 5, 2005 Auto Skins is a product that has been on the Australian market for several years. Developed by the aptly named promotional company Decently Exposed, the AutoSkin is a digitally coloured skin for automobiles. You can have high resolution artwork emblazoned on the skin which is then bonded to the car and indestinguishable from normal paint other than by its photographic reproduction. The AutoSkin has the double advantage of forming a protective coating which can be stripped off to reveal the original, as-new unblemished duco the car came with. Over 2500 cars have been reskinned to date with corporate branders the logical first-movers, but an increasing number of innovative marketers and consumers keen to individualise their most public personal expression.

The skins sells for between US$1500 and US$3000 depending on the amount of real estate needed to be covered and the complexity of the design. They’ll work from your artwork and when you start making more than one, the price drops quickly. For US$3000, a luxury-sized car can be completely reskinned with digital imagery of your choice – that price includes the creative design, manufacture and fitting of the skin to create a new vehicle with a completely different look.

To date, the most cost effective billboards have been the diminutive smart car with its cleverly designed interchangeable panel system that enables rapid reskinning with almost no down time for the vehicle. The smart displays an intelligent, high tech, low footprint, good corporate citizen attitude that sits well with any brand and has attracted AutoSkins from a list of the most prominent and innovative marketers -McDonalds, Coca Cola, Nokia and Australia’s largest fleet, that of Australia’s telco giant Telstra.

For brand custodians, the scheme is a Godsend. Every pixel and PMS tone can be pixel perfect to any colour standard, exactly where you want it, be it on the windscreen or the bumper bar.

For the individual, it will mean the ability to have their car in leopard or zebra or crocodile skin, to tell a story, to display their artistic flair, and to put their particular individuality on show via their automobile.

Take a look at the detail in the Joy FM smart car. The Australian radio station targets a gay audience and the company took advantage of the intricate detail enabled by the AutoSkin to produce highly detailed artwork. When you first see the car you are drawn to it by its intricacy and it’s near impossible not to find yourself examining this rich tapestry in detail from a few inches away within 60 seconds of laying eyes on the car.

Powerful marketing? You bet.

And with such a vast canvas available, Joy FM was able to tell a very detailed story about what they do and the lifestyle it espouses and caters to.

For small and local marketers, the ability to re-skin a car regularly and very cost-effectively means cars will become local mobile billboards and we see many opportunities for every business to utilise the marketing opportunity. The National Gallery of Victoria uses the skins to promote its coming exhibitions. A local ski resort uses it to great effect.

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