Prague - Big world companies are ready to pay millions of dollars to get their adverts onto the hoods of cars involved in F1 or in rallies.
The others, though, will pay a small amount of money, but will take on an estate car of a normal citizen. Tens of thousands US drivers signed already agreements with companies mediating the "pasting" of the ads onto their cars.
Now all they have to do is to cash in a monthly income and that is not necessarily small. Depending on the car's age, size and mileage they can make hundreds of dollars.
NY Times says a Ford Expedition owner can get up to $800 more than 16 000 Czech Crowns.
"One of my friends read something about someone giving away free cars for being a moving advertisement, which didn't sound like anything that could actually happen," said Brian Katz in an interview for NY Times.
It sounded too good to be true. Nevertheless, he eventually found the offer and had his own car wrapped with adverts for several companies.
Czech Republic follows the lead
A similar opportunity also exists in the Czech Republic. There are companies compiling lists of cars whose owners are ready to have their car covered with adverts.
Mostly it depends on how old the car is, how many kilometres it travels a year, whether it's being kept in a garage or parked in a street, and how big an area on the car is on offer for advertisement.
For a small fee, the owner is then put on a database for companies looking for space for their ads to choose from.
How much it pays? A seven year old car, parked in the street of an average district town, driving a thousand kilometres a month and completely covered with adverts can earn up to three thousand Czech Crowns.
The only barrier could be the possible lack of interest from the companies to put their names or offer their services on private cars. And, of course, the owner might have to wait for his very car to be selected for ads.
A free car?
Some businesses even offer the interested parties a free car. Its leasing is then being paid from the income generated by the ads.
In such case you have to be extra careful and only sign a contract that would be to the advantage of both parties, without obliging the client to promise something he or she would not be able to fulfil.
The stipulations of such contracts tend to be relatively strict and severe. This is explained by the kind of service provided by the firm offering the car.
One of the conditions is that the car should drive at least 30 kilometres a day, or 900 km a month. Moreover, the car has to be always immaculately clean and the owner has to have mileage monitored on a regular basis.
The original Czech version of the article can be found here.
