Even the smallest beverage distributors in today’s marketplace have a vastly expanded range of products to market. Thus, they’re increasingly turning to fleet vehicles — large and small — to promote many smaller and newer brands with eye-catching mobile graphics. Vehicle graphics are well suited to deliver locally targeted messages to larger and more diverse audiences than even the largest of nationally televised events.

To recognize those distributors who have taken advantage of modern graphics technology to deliver a unique message on their fleet vehicles, Beverage Industry asked companies to submit entries for its Best Fleet Graphics competition. The response was overwhelming with nearly 200 images submitted.

One interesting trend among the flood of entries was a significant number of smaller vehicles than those that make up the bulk of most delivery fleets. Whether it was for six-bay sideloaders, “hot-shot” box trucks, special-event trailers or mini-van merchandising vehicles, fleets didn’t hold back on their creativity, showing that bumper-to-bumper brand graphics are no longer just for the big trucks. To showcase some of the best examples, this year we’ve added a “Small Packages” category to the competition.

While we’ve still named a “Best Overall Vehicle” for 2014, the winning entrant submitted so many top entries across multiple categories that it was necessary to also recognize the “Best Overall Fleet” for 2014. Monarch Beverage Co., Indianapolis, took the Best Overall Vehicle award for its Indiana Brewed entry, along with the Best Overall Fleet award for an outstanding group of entries.

 Check out the photos on these pages for the winners and top runners-up in each category.