Who Gets a Personalised Number Plate?

For those of you watching The Apprentice last week, you’ll have noticed that the winner Tom Pellereau stepped into the vehicle that epitomises Lord Sugar every week – AMS 1.

For the past 12 weeks, I’ve been lovingly looking at the car and the very personalised registration  plate . I got to thinking that while personalised number  plates  are indeed used by the rich and famous, they are also used by many people from many different walks of life.

Personalised number  plates  have grown in popularity as more and more people want to use their vehicles as advertisements for their business or simply want their cars to stand out from the over 31million other cars that are on the road at the moment.

Who exactly gets a personalised number  plate ?

1. Businesses

With marketing costs rising, business owners are looking at innovative ways to market their businesses. Marketers measure adverts using a variety of ways and one of these ways, is to measure eyeballs. Billboard adverts are generally measured in the number of eyeballs – how many people (or eyeballs) will see a particular advert over a particular time-frame.

If you have an advert on your registration  plate , you’ll get eyeballs regardless of whether you’re moving or stuck in traffic. And as you’re a moving target, more people (or eyeballs) will see your advert.

And as it’s on your registration  plate , people will remember it – because it’s different. It’s a sure way to get recognised on the road.

Take Bed & Breakfasts for example – they could use N1 BNB, 500 BNB. Or a marketing company could use MA12 KET when the 12 series is released next year.

The key is deciding on the right combination that suits your market.

2. Tradesmen

Pimlico Plumbers, a plumbers based in London have their own registration  plates  on all their vehicles. Just take a look at some of them: LO02 OLD, RAD 5, B19 TAP, GAS 6, 8 WC, LO02 LOO, WC 55, LAV 1 and FLU 55H

Following along the same lines, you could use GRII MES if you were a cleaning company.

3. Transport companies

As transport companies, such as haulage companies or buses grow their business, they can have a fleet of vehicles with consecutive registrations. For example, DFZ 4670, DFZ 4671, DFZ 4672 and DFZ 4673 all denotes vehicles from the same company.

4. Families

There is an age-old saying that people use around the time of Christmas and birthdays – ‘what do you get the person that has everything?’ Well, it turns out that private marks are now becoming a gift of choice. From the inexpensive to the outrageously expensive, they make the ideal gift.

New Baby

I’ve seen parents buy registration marks for their new babies when the numbers become available.

Victoria and David Beckham could buy the mark HAI2 PER for their new arrival, Harper Seven Beckham.

Birthdays

This is a classic – you can use any combination of numbers and letters. Hint for my next birthday – JH06 JAN (Jayne Henry for me, 06 for my birthday and JAN for the month of January).

Deaths

People deal with grief in their own way. Sometimes to remember a person or pet, a unique way to commemorate their life is through a personalised number  plate . I’ve seen people name a registration mark after their pet, especially if they loved the car or travelled in the car to a special walking place.

5. Individuals

People buying their own registration to celebrate a special interest, nickname or name is growing in popularity. Combinations can be found by using a range of names and numbers: e.g., Sarah as MP54 RAH, Juliet as JUII ETT and Rory as 12 ORY.

No matter what walk of life you come from, personalised number  plates  are a way to make you and your car stand out, to be a little individual. They are not just for the rich and famous.