Bubble Truck Window Cleaner - Advertising Window Cleaning

Bubble Truck Window Cleaner: Adam Froman admits that his way of advertising brings them out of the woodwork. "This is a publicity stunt to advertise my window cleaning business," he says. Adams Window Cleaning, operates from Kent, WA. serving King, Pierce, Snohomish counties in Washington State - around 20 miles North East of the Seattle area. Since starting with the bubbles, Adam has had continued success attracting new customers & thinks you would probably have the same result to. Adam has added his secret of bubble success below, just in case you too want to follow his lead.

History of the bubbles:

I squeezed a dishwashing liquid bottle and a bunch of cute little bubbles came flying out. After that moment, a dream was born. My dream became; with a bubble blowing machine (a small one) on top of my bucket , it could attract some attention. I didn't have much money to start.

I bought a little bubble blowing machine. It was a little 10” tall blue plastic bear that dipped a little bubble wand into a small container. It brought the wand to it's mouth and blew a few bubbles out. There are many like this. Little Tikes - Bubble Bellie Series in Target or Walmart. It took about 4 AA batteries. I placed it on top of my lid of the water bucket for dipping my scrubber into. The bucket was next to my sign for window cleaning. It would run for up to 2 hours. I would have to replace batteries.

I was mostly using these at storefront cleanings. A few bubbles would drift, it was starting to look cute. Every once and a while, little children around 2 years old would drag their moms or dads over to look at the bubbles. My conclusions at this point; these use a lot of batteries (I like to recycle so I don't like this), dollar stores have batteries cheap (in my search to keep the machine going), it did attract some people, and this setup would work best for kids at home.

My dream became bigger. Now in my dream; there would be a cloud of bubbles around the front of the storefront I was working at. I purchased a bubble blowing machine made by Gazillion Bubbles. It is just called a bubble machine. I got it at Target. It was about $15. It took 4 AA batteries. It is about 10” tall, purple on the outside, and yellow spinning bubble wands. It produced a lot of bubbles. The machine would last for about 2 hours till I needed new batteries.

I liked the amount of bubbles, so I bought another machine. I placed (2) machines on my water bucket and cleaned the storefronts. Now the bubbles carried across the storefront and on to the next storefront or two .. this was a great result! Then about 2 hours later, The batteries died. Sometimes it was enough time to get a job so I kept buying batteries to try. No changes - batteries still dying. After a week or two the machines themselves broke. It turns out the wiring inside is very small.

My dream became bigger .. now I wanted the cloud of bubbles to last the whole time I was working the storefronts. I began to research a little into solar power and wind powered bubble blowers. So far, the best I can find to do is buy a solar cell to charge a car or marine battery and run the bubbles AC off of that. I was not happy with results of recharging AA or C batteries. I didn't get any good results with homemade wind powered bubble blowers just yet.

Then I noticed the bubble blowers that work on 110 volts AC and figured about plugging them into a converter, attached to a car battery. This is about when I had the idea about putting the bubble blowers on my truck. I attached (2) machines to my truck. I found them at Party City. Each was a black bubble machine that is made of metal and shaped like a stop sign. It was about $40 for each one and many companies make machines like this one on the net also. Both of those plugged into an extension cord. That extension cord is plugged into a converter that converts 110 AC to 12VDC. I got at Staples or Office Depot. I got the smallest one. It was about $40 also.

With the bubbles on the truck, I began driving around. I stopped using the bubbles at the storefront and now focused using them on the truck. With the bubbles on the truck a lot of new things began to happen. I would keep the bubbles on while I was cleaning storefronts and houses now. While driving, I would see people in other cars smiling, pointing at the bubbles, giving me a thumbs up symbol, and people waving (like a parade wave) to me.

Now when at a job with the bubbles, I can almost guarantee some child will come out of the woodwork and start playing in the bubbles and that would drag a mother or father out with the child. I rarely get a job in these situations but I know the advertising is working.

After having the bubbles on the truck for a little over a month, when I go to the bank or a store people ask me if the bubbles are mine. I say, ”Yes.” and they say, "my children love your bubbles”. I ask them where the kids are and they say that the kids saw me driving around town. I think more and more people are seeing the bubbles. I think teenagers respond best, young children second, and adults last. But when I drive by a group of teenagers, they yell, “Bubbles!” Young children smile, play a little, and definitely try to show their parents.

I did notice a situation at this point. The cost of bubble solution. I found solutions range in price from $3 to $20 per gallon. I learned the $20 per gallon Gazzillion solution works as good as the $3 per gallon kind. I found the best deal at Walmart or Target. They have the $3 per gallon pricing. Bubble solution is a seasonal item, so I am buying up stock to get ready for slow bubble solution months. I have begun for fun, to see if I can find a bubble solution sponsor.

For fun, I got another 3 machines, another battery, and another converter. I drove around. One lady asked if I could park in front of peoples homes during birthday parties and such. I told her no so far. I got one other question like that before. It puts out a lot of bubbles, but I think it is just as effective with two machines. There is one other truck on the internet with bubble machines on it. He has more bubbles coming out of the truck. He charges $160 per hour to park the truck for parties and such. This is the only other thing like this idea I could find on the web.

As far as cops go, I haven't had any bad situations. I have passed many local cops and they haven't done anything. One cop was writing a ticket, and the bubbles came flowing in and he just smiled and kept on writing. I even had a cop following about 2 cars behind me and still he didn't do anything.

I have ran the bubble in all types of weather. One time, it was a regular rainy dreary day, someone called me in a car behind me, saying the bubbles had changed their day to be happier!! I even had the bubble machines running in the snow. I just pulled them inside the house at night when the weather turns to freezing.

I think the setup I am going to is: to keep the (2) machines on the truck and use another bubble machine setup at the storefront. For the storefront, a smaller bubble machine and smaller battery like for a wheel chair. I have (2) batteries and I will be starting this setup soon. The two locations both seem to get customers. Not many, but the whole setup has paid for itself twice.

I am completely open to people copying the idea. I think it would be great that when people see bubbles, they think of window cleaning. I do know that some people around here when they see bubbles, they think about me. Anybody reading this, I am open to any new ideas. As Adam says; "Don't keep up with the Jones,"- "BE the Jones!" "Please feel free to contact me, Adam of Adams Window Cleaning. on 206-423-7408.

If you would like to add your unique story to the blog - please contact me.