Are we done with auto shows for good?
Events were already losing their hype over the last year. Now, will there be any real interest in them after life goes back to normal?
Companies would spend months planning their timing in order to show up with nothing but their best. Event planners would work tirelessly to make every stand breathtaking, to say the least. Families would gather their savings, sometimes travel for hours, just to see the huge smile and the glowing eyes of their young car fans. And the press would simply go nuts attempting to report every single detail. Yeah, that’s the effect auto shows used to have on society.
Fast-forward to 2020 and you’ll see a totally different situation. Some makers had already quit those events, which led others to do the same more recently. Event planners are working tirelessly to convince all of them of how important auto shows can still be. Families now list reasons not to bother attending those events. And the press now struggles to give people an understanding of what’s happening. Add the pandemic and you can ask: what will be of auto shows?
What built that hype in the first place?
Keep in mind the first auto shows were hosted in the late 1910s. People didn’t have massive access even to print media, so those events were the best way to inform them of the industry’s latest steps. It’s interesting to realize that many of today’s standards didn’t exist back then, so pretty much anything had a real opportunity to prosper: there were Cadillac and Chrysler’s fancy cars, DKW’s two-stroke engine, Ford’s highly versatile Model T, VW’s air-cooled engine…
The first auto shows enabled automakers to properly present their inventions to the public, with time and space to talk about their tech specs and even sell a model or two. Since we’re talking about all-new models, they spared no effort to make each show’s appearance more opulent than the previous: from stands to press coverage, everything quickly became more and more intense in these events once everyone began to see them as golden marketing opportunities.
How was the golden age of auto shows?
By the 1990s, every auto show had at least one “star”. That very special model which could be a sports car boasting impressive performance figures, a luxury sedan with a spa-like cabin, or a concept that attempted to be breathtaking in every possible way. Those cars would dominate the room on magazine covers and populate the bedroom of every teenager fan through posters. Ferrari F50, Lamborghini Diablo and McLaren F1 are the best examples of those times.
While those cars attracted the majority of visitors, they have never been what really sells. The rest of the room of every auto show is dedicated to everyday models such as hatchbacks, sedans and minivans because automakers such as Chevrolet, Peugeot and Volkswagen are also there. The problem is how to call attention to many mundane models when there are two or three eyecatchers. As you can imagine, this has been one of the main issues against auto shows.
Now I’m getting what happened…
The automakers which offer superlative cars never depended on public events to sell; on the contrary, their clientele is frequently loyal and secretive. On the other hand, generalist models do their best at dealerships because they open more possibilities to negotiate price and payment. With more makers present in every edition, it has become too expensive to take part in events where each one gets a level of attention which will hardly be converted into actual sales.
One of the strongest arguments in favor of auto shows was the opportunity to connect with the public, but the modern times managed to work around even that: companies started to host private events, sometimes for one car model at a time, and to livestream it on the Internet. That concentrates the attention on one model at a time and enables even more interaction with the people. With all that in mind, it became really difficult for auto shows to remain relevant.
Sign of the times, huh?
If future was already grim for auto shows in 2019, how could it be after a huge pandemic which is literally forcing people to avoid large gatherings? We’re all grudgingly understanding that our standards of normal life will never go back to what they used to be and that is a huge red flag for auto shows. Every now and then we see another one being postponed or, which is far more common, cancelled altogether. But does that mean the end for them? Not necessarily.
If enthusiasts are who has always kept auto shows relevant, it’s for enthusiasts they should keep existing. Event planners could focus on the aforementioned superlative cars and what makes them special; the events could feature short tracks for people to test drive, host lectures on the history of each automaker and offer even more souvenirs. This way, auto shows would become smaller, but would have an opportunity to keep that flame of enthusiast passion alive.
