Delaware College Students Place Ads on 450,000 Cars

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Hey, what's up my friends? So glad you're here. It's Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. Got a really fun story for you today. I had to kind of shake my head and smile at the same time as I was doing the research for it.

Today's featured case study believes that we're living in a time now where if you own a car, you can own your own company. That may be a bit of a stretch or perhaps a well executed marketing promise, depending on your position. But what he's done is create a way for car owners to get paid for hosting ads on their cars. This story actually comes from a college student and working together with another student, they now have, wait for it, 450,000 drivers signed up and are in the millions of dollars of annual revenue. But of course, this started as a side hustle in college with low startup costs and no venture capital.

Pretty incredible in lots of ways. And one of the many fun facts about it is they now pay thousands of drivers up to $500 a month. So there are lots of people out there with cars. I don't know if you necessarily want to turn your car into a mobile billboard, but I bet somebody does. And as I said, there's certainly plenty of people who have signed up already.

It is definitely an interesting business model. And these guys are on the path to a lot of growth. So I enjoyed working on this story. Delaware college students place ads on 450,000 cars. I'm going to bring it to you right after this quick message from our sponsor.

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When University of Delaware student Greg Starr signed up for an entrepreneurship class, he wasn't expecting to walk away with a business. But when he heard a fellow student, Matt Nagaswamy, bring up an idea for mobile advertising, Greg jumped. This was an opportunity he thought was too good to be missed. The idea was simple and can be explained in four words. Put ads on cars.

Greg and Mac were inspired by how U-Haul had managed to build up such great brand recognition, even though they did no advertising. Except of course on those trucks they owned. To Greg and Mac, cars were an overlooked medium of advertising. They were able to get into areas that buses and billboards just couldn't. They even had a name in mind for the business, carvertize.

Why hadn't anyone done this before? As they found out, it was a simple idea, but one that was difficult to execute. They started by printing and distributing flyers on campus to see if there were people interested in putting ads on their cars for money. The reaction was mixed at first. Cars, like clothing, are usually seen as a reflection of an individual's style and personality.

But Greg and Mac soldiered on and started to get community institutions, such as schools and hospitals, onboard as advertisers. This provided proof of concept, but it was still doubtful they could turn it into a full-scale business. Their big break came later when they received a reply after emailing the head of economic development in Delaware. Greg had made a list of people to know by looking at the boards of universities, nonprofit organizations, and government officials. He then reached out by cold emailing them all.

This strategy yielded results when the Cabinet Secretary for Economic Development put them in touch with the local ShopRite CEO. It was the first big deal that Greg and Mac struck after a year and a half of hard work, and they were elated. But it was also time for them to prove that the advertisers were right in placing their trust in them. They'd never run a full-on campaign and were extremely nervous. With hard work and some luck, they managed to pull it off.

The next few early deals followed the same pattern. They would reach out to prospects, play the numbers game, and hope to get a favorable response. Although it was exhausting getting rejections and even worse being ignored, the strategy yielded enough results to keep going. But along the way, something else also happened. Word had gotten out, and sure enough, Greg and Mac were getting referrals.

It also helped when the duo switched their recruitment plan from handing out flyers to digital advertising. This significantly increased their reach and allowed them to onboard new drivers for new campaigns. Next, they made a decision that had immediate positive results. Greg noticed that Uber and Lyft drivers were already driving all day, and so it would be especially useful to have those rideshare drivers spreading the word about advertisers. When they decided to market specifically to these drivers, the size of their company tripled.

This was in 2018, and this year, the number of drivers with carver ties is set to double again, with the company on track to make $5 million in revenue. As they say, we're living in a time now where if you own a car, you can own a company. They back up that statement by typically paying drivers an additional $100 to $150 a month, and sometimes even up to $500 a month for bigger campaigns. As of now, they paid out over $1.5 million to everyday people just for putting an advertisement on a car. From handing out flyers as university students to now having brand names such as EA Sports and 7-Eleven on board, it's been quite the ride for Greg and Mac.

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Well, for anyone who thinks, you know, this is crazy, there's too much advertising already, you know, here's the thing, this isn't for everybody. I'm not suggesting that every car owner out there goes and signs up, puts ads all over their car, but I can see how it's ideal for a lot of people. Years ago, I remember reading the viral story of someone who sold the rights to a forehead tattoo, which I think is kind of ridiculous, so don't do that. I'm not encouraging anybody to do that. But the point is, if people do things like that, you know, putting it out on your car, not such a big deal.

I also remember the story I told in the book "Born for This" about a guy named Jason Zuk, who wore a different sponsored t-shirt every day for a year. He actually made a good amount of money doing that. He basically like doubled the amount that it cost every single day from January to December. I forget what he ended up at, but it was a substantial amount of money, and he also got a lot of attention, both for himself and for the advertisers. So, as I said in the introduction, I'm pretty sure there's somebody out there who wants to go and look into this.

If you do it, let me know what happens. And congratulations to Greg and Matt. It's no small thing to get 450,000 people to sign up for anything, let alone something like this. So, well done, and we'll look forward to hearing what happens next. All right, listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

The show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/892. Come and sign up if you want to put some ads on your car. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I'll be back again tomorrow. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the "Onward Project."