I’ve been seeing more and more “mobile billbords” you know the advertisments on the sides of buses, trucks, cars, ect. I thought “well I’m riding a lot in high traffic areas and have a good sized area inside the wheel of my 36’er, what if I could find a way to use this as advertising space and sell it.” I was looking into making a wheel disc with a slit across the radius of the wheel and a hole in the center big enough to fit around the hub. This disc can be easily taken in and out of the wheel and if weighted at the bottom would stay stationary while my wheel rotated around it, allowing people to read the ad. My only problem is I haven’t fingured out a way to cheaply put the ad on the disc, or even figured out what kind of material to make the disc with, I figured it would be a good idea to ask around and see if other people thought it was a marketable idea before looking any further into it, so I’m asking the Unicycling community. Do you think that this could work?
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I ride everyday for several hours in places that are high people traffic, not cars, although I do have a few routes that are high car traffic.
Hmm i am unsure if this would work - mounting it all in there so it stays still while the wheel turns could be quite a tricky project to complete!
Good idea though:)
I thought about somthing similar. Cicis pizza pays people to stand outside with signs all day that basically tell you to eat there. Well, I thought maybe I would give them a proposition: Let me ride up and down main street with the sign attatched to my back. I wonder how much that would pay though.
I’ve seen l.e.d. arrays made to fit over the spokes of bikes, designed to sense the rotational speed of the wheel and scroll a message the opposite way, rendering it stable to viewers. I’m stumped for coming up with that it’s called at the moment…
I’m actually in contact with a major marketing firm about advertising, I’ll keep you updated on the progress
Big opportunities… that’s all I have to say. Contact your local advertising/marketing firm and talk to them about using you as a billboard. If they like to have an edge over their competitors, they will seriously consider it.
Hey, don’t doubt the power of weird place advertising. I think it was in Malaysia that my Aunt and Uncle said they put stationary hub caps (weighted spinners) on the wheels of taxis.
Yes, I think it would work.
2 or 3 mm plastic sheeting should work fine.
An important proviso is that the ad must be very, very brief.
Basically you’ll just be offering a brand-awareness opportunity, not a ‘buy one get one free from now till sunday show your loyalty card to qualify - conditions apply’ opportunity.
But a large pizza with one slice missing and the pizza place’s name in large bold letters in the middle of 36" unicycle wheel?
That’s a sure-fire winner.
Find signage shops in your area and go ask them what kind of prices and services they can offer you with screen printing and vinyl transfers.
Most companies who are likely to get involved in this kind of advertising will probably have an established relationship with a company providing them with promotional material. For these companies you will have to have a set of specifications ready so they can pass it on to ‘their guy’.
But if you hook up with a company (and they make you a YOUR AD HERE board to advertise the concept in the meantime), you can offer a complete service.
First sponsorships… Now this. Where’s unicycling headed?
Do you really want to commercialise unicycling? Make that fun beautiful thing a source of income? If you do, you won’t be riding where you want to ride anymore. You’ll be riding where you get more exposure. You’ll become dependant on it. Instead of being a source of pleasure it will become that plaguing thing that makes you toss and turn at night: what if somebody else learns to ride an even bigger wheel and I’ll be out of business(wake up screaming).
Keep it pure. Uni is for pleasure. Don’t mix it with business.
Damn, I just remembered I was thinking about this uni job that I want to get. Gimme gimme gimme!
Tell that to Kris Holm, or Unicycle.com, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, etc. I highly doubt you would call Kris impure… for mixing business with fun.
Profiting from doing something you love is not wrong; if you can make money doing it, great! Money can be made both ways… by slavery at dead-end jobs, or by being creative and entrepreneurial.
Unicycling can also be that thing that makes you toss and turn at night, even without business involved; you’re trying to get a grip on a trick and struggling so hard with it, even in your dreams. You get injured at times, too, and that isn’t a pleasure, is it?
Unicycling, and business, both have ups and downs. The pleasure is about being content with where you are, on the way to where you’re going. And it’s not about getting rich, but simply exercising the ability to be creative.
Schweet, you’re right. I was only half-serious anyway.
Still, sticking an advertisement in your wheel sorta demeans a lot of things for me. Unicycling challenges societal norms. Like punks. If you put an advertisement in your wheel it becomes a clever gimmick.
Then I don’t imagine we’ll ever see an advert in your wheel.
But this kooky idea actually has the potential to work. The suggestion from GILD on getting a “Your Ad Here” sign would be a great place to start. Don’t tell people what you want to do (with their money), show them. They can supply you with appropriately-sized stickers if you have the mechanism figured out where it will stay right-side up and not fall apart from riding.
Somewhere out there are some businesspeople who would go for an ad in a unicycle wheel, if you’re riding in busy enough places. You’ll have to find the right advertiser, with a sense of humor to go with it.
As Ivan said, once it becomes a job, remember it’s not the same as riding for pleasure. That’s a fact of doing anything for a living. But if it’s a choice between doing that and flipping burgers, maybe you don’t mind so much…
the mechanism I was thinking of was a “paper clip” of sorts like the one below that has a bit of weight secured to it, and the hole that goes around the hub is loose enough that the plastic sheeting wont want to spin with the wheel.
Sound advice.
The plastic disc would have to be strong yet malleable enough to get into the wheel by bending it around the spokes. Unless you decided to take everything apart, pop the disc on your hub and then wheel-build it all together again. This would be a chore every time you had a different advert.
But as long as the centre of the disc is greased up so that it turns easily on your hub then I can’t see a problem…
the clip was the weight I was refering to. I was thining about putting some lead shots into the clip and putting it on the wheel disc when it’s in the wheel so it clips at the bottom where the disc splits. Inigo that’s a very nice drawing of what I was trying to explain although your idea of crimping a weight to the edge is better than my using a clip. thanks.
