Event Car Marketing is Effective Alternative in Economic Downturn

Consumers are by no means flocking to dealerships these days, so automakers are bringing the cars to them with ride-and-drive events and other alternative marketing initiatives.

The Major League Baseball All-Star Parade up Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue last summer featured some of the game’s greatest stars, waving to fans from one of Chevrolet’s current hopefuls: the Flex-Fuel Silverado.

When Hyundai made a move into the luxury SUV market earlier this year with its new Genesis model, it ran a 15-city tour with 70 events over a four-month period to expose consumers to the new vehicle. That “Discover Genesis Tour,” orchestrated by Jack Morton Worldwide, generated more than 4,000 rides and nearly 1.2 million impressions, according to Faith Hill, Hyundai national experiential marketing manager.

Hyundai reasoned that it needed to make up-close-and-personal impressions to compete with luxury carmakers like Cadillac and Porsche in the SUV category.

“There’s no better way to close that perception gap than to prove our products first-hand,” Hill says. “It definitely gives us the strongest messaging point right now.”

Toyota introduced its new Matrix hatchback this year with more than 100 events, sending three teams out to different regions around the country. With a base retail price of $16,290, the Matrix is targeted for a younger shopper decidedly disinclined to visit a dealership, but eager for one-on-one attention.

“They like to experience things first-hand,” Toyota spokesman Chad Harp says.

To fit event venues to its target, Toyota’s mobile team staged spontaneous affairs at local music clubs with live bands as a backdrop. “More than anything else, they set themselves up to be nimble,” Harp says.

For its Tundra SUV, Toyota fashioned a tour tied to country-and-western music concert venues, and also staged events at Bass Pro Shops and Tractor Supply Co. outlets, playing to the practical aspects of the vehicle that prompt purchases.

“The highlight is the utility,” Harp says. “All the targets that we go after are the people who use the truck as a tool.”

The mobility and specificity that event marketing affords has made it a priority in carmakers’ marketing plans over the past several years.

Automotive Events, one of the country’s largest agencies, which specializes in experiential car marketing, estimates that it has witnessed a 20% increase in event marketing activity during the past year, and projects an increase of 10% or 15% in auto events next year.

“The key thing with these events is that it’s all about the lifestyle,” says John Thorne, Automotive Events president and CEO. “The retail setting is changing from high pressure sales to a lifestyle environment.”

When Volkswagen introduced its Jetta diesel model two years ago, Automotive Events helped it create an amateur racing series, the VW Jetta TDI Cup, to demonstrate the new vehicle. The series included 30 drivers in each race, and VW knew it was reaching a technically savvy audience with its hands-on experience.

“You’re talking to a lot of people who are considered the car guy in the family or the neighborhood,” Thorne says. “VW was trying to hit motorsports fans as well as tell that clean-fuel message in everything that we did.”

The experiential campaign was augmented with mobile marketing and traditional advertising to hype improvements in diesel engine technology.

Subaru has long maintained events as a staple of its marketing strategy, currently staging 300 events each year.

“It’s been in the DNA of the brand,” says Ted Dicks, show events manager for Subaru of America. “The one common thread is that our customers are doers. That’s the thread that binds the brand together.” It debuted its Forrester SUV at the Detroit Auto Show last January, and simultaneously launched a microsite to trumpet its features.

As auto sales continue slumping in the current economy, automakers figure to continue devising alternative marketing routes to motivate skittish consumers.

For more articles on experiential marketing, go to http://promomagazine.com/eventmarketing/