The grand American tradition of the auto show is dying a slow and merciless death. I made my annual trek to the Cleveland Auto Show on Tuesday evening to bask in all the corporate signage and friendly staffers, and noticed again this year, as I did last year and the year prior, that the show is getting smaller. Each automaker was granted a larger footprint with more space around each of the cars on display, there were fewer interactive spaces for consumers to get hands-on with the product, and there was all-around less exciting product on display. All of the major mainstream players were still in attendance, but many smaller automakers were missing. This show hall has shrunk in size by about half from the “good old days” of fifteen to twenty years ago, and I’ve noticed a significant drop even in the last handful of years. Attendance still seems to be good enough to pay the bills, but when fewer cars show up, eventually people will decide they can skip it.
Bradley Brownell
There were a few bright spots from Cleveland this year, however. Outside of the big four — New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles — auto shows don’t typically get concepts or major activations anymore. Chrysler brought out the Halcyon concept car (above), Subaru brought a fan-favorite adoptable dog petting area, and Jeep had some indoor ride-alongs that could show off some of the Wrangler’s climb-over-some-stuff-ability. I asked if I could drive the Jeep course and they told me no.
What would you do?
So, this brings me to my question today. It seems some automakers are still interested in engaging with the general public, but others are either clueless or don’t care. The local Mitsubishi dealer brought in an imported Pajero Mini from Japan because the product on the floor just isn’t appealing enough to create foot traffic. Is that helping, or is it just indicative of how hard it is to be a Mitsu dealer today? How would you fix auto shows? How do you make these events as exciting and attractive to consumers as a hunt/fish/camp show or a bridal show or a home and garden show? How do you get more people out to these events? How do you get more manufacturers to commit to bringing their A-game? It’s a tough question, and I’m sure one that these smaller regional auto shows are asking themselves.
Bradley Brownell
If you were put in charge of the Cleveland Auto Show tomorrow, or your local auto show, how would you make this a better experience for everyone involved? A family of four attending this show is going to spend around $60 to get in the door and at least $80 on food and drinks, so how do you make this event worth that kind of dough? I’ve been going to auto shows my entire life, and I’m not sure even I can come up with the answer.
