Carpet fitter Andy Brodie may not be a celebrity, but he could soon be the most recognised person in Britain after being chosen as a poster boy for the biggest billboard in the country.
An image of him with his van bearing the name of his firm, A.B. Flooring, has just been unveiled on Britain’s largest billboard site – the 27m x 18m ‘Mega Banner’ on the M4.
The 42-year-old from Watford, Hertfordshire will also appear on an additional 750 billboard sites around the UK as well as radio and magazine adverts making it almost impossible to avoid him.
The boss of his own flooring business, Andy was picked from thousands of customers to be one of just four “faces” of a new ad campaign for the Volkswagen Transporter.
Andy and three other small businesses will star in the campaign with the slogan “We never forget the most important name on our vans. Yours” and will share the equivalent of £2.5 Million worth of free advertising as a result.
Andy said: “When I first heard from the ad agency I took it with a pinch of salt. Then they told me I would be famous for the whole of the summer. It only hit home when at the photo shoot. It took so long to do it, I realised it was serious. Seeing the giant poster go up was amazing. My Mum can’t wait to see it now – she’s told the whole family!”
Father-of-two Andy, set up his business in 1988 and has worked on flooring jobs ranging from hotels to cruise ships. He’s even worked for the odd celebrity and seen his work featured in OK! Magazine.
The other businesses involved are a heating expert, a locksmith and a telecommunications specialist. The campaign is to highlight how the van company is working in partnership with its customers and all the businesses taking part in the campaign were recommended by their local Volkswagen Van Centres from across the UK.
A spokesman for Volkswagen said: “These ambitious businesses are so vital to the country’s economy, so entrepreneurs like Andy are already stars in many ways. We know it’s tough out there for many businesses and we are committed to working with our customers to support them through the range of services we offer. We thought there was no better way to show this than to let them benefit from a £2.5m ad campaign.”
Volkswagen Transporter is currently looking for more ambitious small businesses it can help support with free publicity and nterested businesses should visit [ilink url=”www.facebook.com/VolkswagenCommercialVehiclesUK”]www.facebook.com/VolkswagenCommercialVehiclesUK[/ilink] to find out more.
