Auto Shows May Pack a Marketing Punch, Says Edmunds.com Analysis
March 18, 2008

By Dale Buss

As the New York International Auto Show opens this week, automakers may be interested to know their investments in the Chicago Auto Show last month paid strong dividends in online activity by car shoppers, according to a new Edmunds.com analysis.

New-vehicle launches at the Chicago show produced an average lift in shopping consideration of 25 percent in the metropolitan area during the first week of the show, compared with the rest of the country, measured by consumer traffic on the models’ new-vehicle detail pages (NVDPs) on Edmunds.com. The new 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 ranked highest among all vehicles with a 39 percent lift in traffic.

Such results underscore the growing relevance of auto shows as marketing devices for OEMs, said Dr. David Tompkins, executive director of business solutions for Santa Monica, Calif.,–based Edmunds.com.

“Sometimes shows are dismissed as vanity-building exercises, like with concept cars,” Tompkins said. “But we saw nice increases in shopping for (existing) vehicles by those makes. It demonstrates that shows do have surprising effects on shopping.”

Show’s Impact Builds
Tompkins’ team evaluated the impact of the Chicago Auto Show on consideration for 35 vehicles featured at the show, including some concept cars, from many different makes.

For featured vehicles that already had NVDPs on Edmunds.com, they measured the impact compared with activity exhibited by consumers around the rest of the country. For “line extensions” without a dedicated NVDP — such as the Cayenne GTS, a version of the Porsche Cayenne — Edmunds.com measured the impact of the Show on NVDP consideration for the original vehicle. And Tompkins and his team measured the impact on make-level consideration for OEMs with featured vehicles.

In addition to its findings about launch vehicles, Edmunds.com also found “relaunched” vehicles enjoyed an average 10 percent lift and line extensions had an average 9 percent lift on consideration. Make pages of featured vehicles produced an average 11 percent lift.

“It surprised me that something like the Passat CC, a new version of the Passat, would do so well, because it sounds kind of obscure and like only car people would care about it,” Tompkins said. “But those kinds of line extensions still generate interest in shopping.”

Another interesting finding: Consideration lifts were higher during the second week of the show than the first. Launch vehicles, for example, enjoyed just a 13 percent boost in consideration the first week but 37 percent the second week; similarly, line extensions garnered a 6 percent increase in consideration the first week, on average, and then 11 percent the second week.

“The bigger impact in the second week may be the result of the fact that the first week of the Chicago show — like other shows — includes days for just the press,” Tompkins said “It can take them awhile to generate their coverage, for one thing. And with more of the general public coming the second week, that’s when it had a bigger impact on consideration.”

Photos by Manufacturers
1 — 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8 unveiling at Chicago Auto Show
2 — 2008 Porsche Cayenne GTS
3 — 2009 Volkswagen Passat CC

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