Months of work and a team effort by three South Hills, Pennsylvania companies has produced perhaps the area’s most unique transportation vehicle. A full-size Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority bus has been completely transformed into a forty-foot-long lawnmower on one side and a red wagon on the other.
The bus was covered by a full-color vinyl wrap advertising the South Hills-Mon Valley Messenger, a community newspaper that services the South Hills of Pittsburgh. The graphics were designed by ocreations and produced by Mon Valley Signs. With a daily route that begins in Donora and travels through the South Hills into downtown Pittsburgh, the bus is seen by thousands in the area every day.
After the newspaper changed their name to the South Hills-Mon Valley Messenger last year, they needed to re-establish their identity and chose transit advertising as one of their primary marketing tactics.
“We wanted to get people to notice us,” said Doug Haniford, owner and publisher. “It was important for us to continue to position ourselves as a neighborhood newspaper with a hometown feel,” he said. “We felt like the old-fashioned wagon and other images on the bus helps bring that feel to life.”
Ocreations, a South Hills design firm who has been working with the paper since its inception in 2004, designed the graphics with the goal of making the movement of the bus integral to the design.
“We had carte blanche to be as creative as possible and knew we had the capability to produce our ideas through Mon Valley Signs,” said Shawn O’Mara, senior partner at ocreations. By incorporating the wheels of the bus into the design of the wagon and mower they achieved their objective as well as portrayed the campaign theme of “news from your backyard.”
Mon Valley Signs, based in Charleroi, created the graphics on vinyl and provided detailed specifications on the measurements of the bus as well as all of the outside panels and clearances. “We covered every possible inch of the vehicle,” said Dave Zahand, president of Mon Valley Signs.
This process required months of close communication between all three companies.
“A lot of hands were involved, but everyone was working toward the same goal,” said Haniford.
The bus wrap will remain in place for up to five years and continue to increase the paper’s exposure within the South Hills and Mon Valley markets, as well as promote Mon Valley Signs and ocreations who are represented on the bus. The campaign strategy and design will be submitted for several marketing awards this year.
Mon Valley Signs has over thirty-five years of sign production and installation experience, and will handle any task from installing a simple yard sign to a 50,000 lb., 110-foot high billboard, as well as graphics, banners, signage, posters, decals, vehicle lettering and wraps, and more. They have on staff, factory-trained technicians and electricians to service digital, electronic and LED displays. They are located south of Pittsburgh in Charleroi, Pennsylvania.
For more information, visit www.monvalleysigns.com.
