Hunt for Ad Space Creates Mobile Billboards

The nation’s largest fleet advertising venture was announced Nov. 1 between J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. in Lowell and Transport Media Network LLC of Madison, Wis.

Transport Media, owned by an investment firm, The Pyle Group, will provide advertising space on Hunt’s trucks, trailers and containers, providing coverage on a national, regional or metro basis.

The deal means an added revenue source for Hunt, since Transport Media is leasing the advertising space for a fee before turning around and selling it to advertisers. Specific financial arrangements, however, were not disclosed.

Jerry Walton, Hunt’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, called the venture a first for a major American trucking company.

“J.B. Hunt is excited and extremely optimistic about the opportunity to put our superior equipment and top-notch drivers to work for advertisers across America through Transport Media Network,” Walton said.

Transport Media founder Thomas F. Pyle, formerly owner of Rayovac Corp., said the deal offered a fresh alternative to traditional media advertising.

“Our traveling billboards offer a unique advertising vehicle that’s a full 53 feet of in-your-face impact for a low cost per impression,” Pyle said. “Americans spend more time than ever in their cars. It used to be that an advertiser could only reach this captive audience through stationary billboards or radio. A billboard strands your message in one spot, and a radio can be flipped off. Not so with fleet advertising.”

Pyle said marketers could target specific geographic areas for their advertising messages through Hunt’s dedicated route contract services. J. B. Hunt, a diversified transportation logistics business with revenues of more than $2 billion and 15,000 employees, blankets the nation with more than 10,500 trucks and 43,000 trailers and containers.