WHAT DOES ONE landscaping vehicle, a kegerator and a whole lot of wood get you? If you're Bradley Preiss, owner of Pro Custom Pubs in Fairfax, Va., the answer is: a fully operational bar that doubles as a work truck and, of course, a custom-made marketing strategy that gets plenty of mileage.

Needless to say, the bar, which is a hulking mass of solid oak built atop a former landscape-equipment truck, attracts attention wherever it goes (including tailgate parties at Redskins games). "I get a lot of calls and all kinds of walk-ups," says Preiss, a commercial and residential bar-builder who's been driving his bar truck around the Washington, D.C., area for the past 2 ½ years. "When you drive a vehicle like this, you're always marketing."

Understandably, a roving resume like a bar-on-wheels isn't possible for every would-be marketing maven. Perhaps the chances of attracting new customers in your town are slim and don't merit the expense. Or, such a measure doesn't fit with the type of business you own. But for entrepreneurs who live in areas reliant on auto traffic, a so-called "mobile-marketing" strategy might be just the ticket for driving your message home.

According to mobile brander Asphalt Media—a firm that tracks its billboard trucks via global positioning technology—a single truck running for eight hours can log 40,000 to 50,000 "vehicular impressions," or opportunities for an image to be seen, in a single day in major markets such as New York and Los Angeles.

While driving a 53-foot billboard truck through downtown Manhattan is the perfect avenue for some business owners, each mobile-marketing strategy will differ depending on your business's respective customer base, goals and budget. Here's a look at a few options and some considerations before you plaster a larger-than-life-sized picture of yourself on the side of a truck.

Keep It Targeted

With efficiency in mind, first target the customers you want to attract and then figure out how to reach them. Let's say your sporting-goods business has a new product that you want to pitch to athletic males aged 18 to 35. The perfect time to catch their attention might be at a large-scale sporting event (or around the town where it's being held).

Next, you need to pick the best method, such as a mobile billboard or billboard truck. A mobile billboard is narrow like a stationary billboard, usually providing two image-ready surfaces that are about 10 ½ feet by 22 feet. A billboard truck, rather, tends to be larger and offers three surfaces. The truck can also be used to transport inventory. Or, you might opt for a manned adbike, which is a bicycle that carts sandwich boards plastered with images. Unlike their motor-vehicle counterparts, adbikes are generally environmentally friendly and can usually infiltrate public spaces with greater agility.

Whatever format you choose, be sure to "match [your company's] message to an appropriate environment" and get the timing right, says Dominique M. Hanssens, a marketing professor at the University of California at Los Angeles's Anderson School of Management. "People are not always interested in your message," he added, "but when they are, that's when you want to be there."

Keep It Local

Be sure to also keep your location in mind. Most entrepreneurs "need to make a local impact," says Hanssens. Driving your message around your business's hometown can be effective because, he says, "you are signaling to the neighbors: 'I am here when you need me.'"

Calling all pets: Malibu Canine Commuter transports critters in 1940s-woody glory.

Jan Calkins, owner of Malibu Canine Commuter, a luxury commuter service for dogs based in Malibu, Calif., opted to have her work-van wrapped in a vinyl covering designed to look like a 1940s woody. "I didn't want it to be a typical cover-up," she says. "I wanted something with style."

The van also bears the likeness of several popular breeds that peek out of the woody’s windows. After being in business for just over a month, Calkins says the service has nearly reached capacity, which she largely attributes to the van. "When we pick up dogs at various places" such as doggy day care, she says, kids as well as adults are drawn to the van and its furry images. "When you have a roving billboard," she says, "it speaks for itself."

Keep It Focused

In addition to building brand awareness and attracting new customers, a roving marketing campaign can help make a specific point.

For example, Fresherized Foods—a Forth Worth, Texas, company that packages and distributes Wholly Guacamole, a line of various guacamole flavors to retail stores across the U.S.—recently embarked on a year-long mobile marketing blitz. The big idea, says Jay Alley, the company's vice president of sales and marketing, is to ease customers' concerns that the dip is fattening and "gooey."

Knowing that the company needed to preach guacamole’s benefits while also offering people a taste, Alley decided to take the show on the road and retained the services of marketing-consulting firm Latimark of Irving, Texas. They hitched a giant avocado to a truck wrapped in yellow vinyl (and adorned with campaign slogans like "Friends Don't Let Friends Double Dip") and have been giving away T-shirts and free samples to crowds in cities from Dallas to New York. And it's working, says Alley, from a street corner turned "Guac Party" central in midtown Manhattan. "Once [consumers] see the chunks [of avocado], they'll know our guacamole is better."