Real Solo Marketing Idea: A Pick Up for Your Practice
Talk about turning lemons into lemonade. That’s exactly what Orange County, California solo Brian Pedigo did, when he converted a lemon of a pick up truck into a professional and tasteful mobile advertisement. Here’s the backstory, directly from Brian:
I inherited this 1990 Ford F150 after my father in law passed away. We drove it back to California from Texas with a full load, and it broke down three times, requiring $6,000 in repairs. After repairing it, I decided I would be keeping it for quite a while. When I drove it to court or client meetings I was always embarrassed. The thing is trashy and old. Rather than continue to be embarrassed, I decided I’d “flip the truck” in to a mobile advertisement.
I got some quotes for a full “car wrap” from some companies. They were quoting between $2,000 to $3,000.
Rather than dump more money in to this dumpy truck, I decided to do it myself with some white automotive spray paint cans from Pep Boys. I bought some black lettering from office max, and I used an image editing program to make a B&W stencil of my portrait. I used an x-acto knife to cut out all the black areas of my portrait stencil (watched some how-to videos on youtube to make this happen).
Five cans of white paint did only one side of the truck… the black in the photo on Facebook is computer-generated and it was transferred to the truck via stencils and black spray paint. My total cost to make one side of the car an advertisement was about $75 and a couple days of work.
So far I’ve been gauging the reactions on Facebook only, which has been very positive from lawyers and non-lawyers. Once I hit the road with it we’ll see if it turns in to converting clients!
Personally, I just love Brian’s ingenuity. Who knows what a professional marketer would say about the project, but to my simple mind, Brian’s truck is memorable, professional and a real conversation starter. Moreover, when folks learn that Brian designed and painted the truck himself, they’ll view him as a creative, can-do type of lawyer who’s willing to get his hands dirty. Sounds like exactly the right kind of lawyer for the Average Joe clients who are Brian’s target.
What’s your opinion of Brian’s project? And if you have a novel marketing idea that you came up with yourself, please submit it at our Contact Page so that I can add to our growing installment (see our first Real Lawyer Marketing post here).
Good way to communicate that he understands his target market. I like the tag line, too.
At first this post sounded like he might be practicing in Texas. If so, he would need to file this advertisement with the Advertising Reveiw Dept of the Texas Bar, and add a bit more info to comply with Rule 7.04 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct.
I see from his website that he’s a California lawyer. I guess they aren’t one of those states that requires lengthy disclaimer language in adverstisements!
I think it’s great! … At first, I thought it was going to be a story about a mobile law office which really would not be a bad idea for certain practices.
But, back to Brian, solos have to be so much more schooled than big law; we have to be are own IT staff, secretarial staff, bookkeeping, auto detail man.To me, it makes the argument that we can think fast and relate to our clients.
Good points LawyerCoach — California does not have an ad review board. I was actually thinking of adding a fine-print disclaimer somewhere on the vehicle!
Doesn’t surprise me at all! I’ve known Brian Pedigo all his life and since he was young he’s ALWAYS been intelligent, innovative and ahead of everyone else. Smart as a whip and VERY trustworthy! He’ll study like crazy to help someone win their case and advise you on what is the best way to handle it. Doing this with the truck he inherited from his father-in-law, shows his faithfulness. I probably would have dumped it but he’s putting his heart and soul into using it to eventually help a lot of people. Isn’t that a great idea??!!
When I get to know you all better I will put up pictures of my various unique methods of advertising legal services:
1. A Car Magnet Sign on the doors of my Toyota Seqoia.
2. A Car Top Sign (Yes, a Pizza sign !) that said “Online Legal Advice $50 an hour” (This was 1999 and the dot.com mania !)
3. A Car Top Sign that says $499 Bankruptcy. Not yet used enough to see if it works.
Good luck. Get the business anyway you can ! Ethically of course !
Jim Swiderski, Esq.
7825 Fay Avenue, Suite 200
La Jolla, CA 92037
http://www.WhatIsTheLaw.com
I’d be curious to learn more about how these systems worked. Would you want
to write a short post about it for the site?
Carolyn Elefant
Love this. It would be good to use a tracking number on the truck so you can determine if it is actually drawing the clients. Positioning of “us against them” is perfect for the bankruptcy practice.
our own
Thanks for the grammar lesson. It only took three years for you to catch my error!