Category Archives: marketplace news

the truth is out there – maybe

dealer show trade wars

more shows, fewer dealers - something doesn't add upMotorsports has another performance oriented venue for dealers to put on the go – no go list: upstart International Motorsports Industry Show (IMIS) now goes head to head with the well established Performance Racing Industry (PRI) event, both held the first week in December: IMIS in Indianapolis, the former home of PRI, which was successfully transplanted to usually sunny Orlando and a much larger exhibit facility a few years back.

And both of those shows compete for many of the same dealers normally attending the granddaddy of all automotive events, the Specialty Equipment Market Association’s (SEMA) Las Vegas spectacle traditionally held less than a month earlier in November.

SEMA, meanwhile, padded their portfolio with a newly created Powersports and Utility Vehicles channel which, according to their March press release, “…will feature manufacturers of power-driven equipment, such as personal transporters; motorcycles; motor scooters; two-, three- and four-wheel ATVs; pocket bikes; specialty golf carts; mini-bikes; dirt bikes; and accessories and services that support these vehicles.”

Good news – not – for long established powersports event leader Advanstar who this week conceded more collateral damage to their brand when they announced the Lucas Oil Stadium venue would not be part of their mid-February 2010’s Dealer Expo, also held in Indy after vacating Cincinnati for larger digs in 1998.

And it was that relocation decision that opened the door for Easyriders V-Twin Dealer Expo to move back in with a v-twin centric show of their own in 2000, held a week before Dealer Expo and next year celebrating their 10th anniversary as a trade show producer.

Five major shows covering powersports and motorsports between November and February. If you’re a powersports or motorsports or, worse, a cross channel dealer, be prepared to spend a lot more time on the road wearing out shoe leather and traversing TSA inspections.

what this industry needs…

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…is a good strong dose of sense of place. Too bad we don’t see more entertaining content on this side of the pond – blame it on to sober, to somber, to self-important pseudo-creatives all overreaching to showcase the next cirque du soleil meets terminator product positioning footage. You know – pull back from scruffy boy beard, quick cut to black boot over saddle, c/u thumb on starter, cut to pipes, insert chest full of fake boobs, off into the sunset on a two-lane strip of gleaming asphalt. Enough!

save a spot for SPOT

I was four-fifths into Day One of the 2008 Cycle World Trek and headin’ for home when it dawned on me I might be – was – lost. Misplaced. Whatever. Cellphone, GPS, map and compass notwithstanding, I was having a little trouble with my bearings.

In the Sierras, lost is one thing. Lost and disabled is quite another. Just ask, well, just ask those guys they finally found a few years ago, freshly thawed after being frozen in a glacier for the last six decades. At least the bears didn’t eat ’em like Popsicle h’or douvres.

With a low fuel warning light on, the notion of sustaining a twisted ankle or worse nagged a little. EPRBs have long been a mainstay of sailors, but now comes a handy little device that’s affordable, dependable and with a variety of uses other than 911 come find me. SPOT.

SPOT might be just the gadget offroaders, solo tourers, or anyone who strays from civilization’s path long enough to escape traffic lights and homicidal drivers is looking for. Or should pack anyway.

This compact satellite messenger can transmit bread crumbs to your homies, summon the cavalry, check in with your honey or send a pick up location at ride’s end. And at just under $170, the device is very affordable, as are the service plan (required) options.

the weird art of not so subliminality

Notwithstanding the excellence of the Shark helmet itself, corporate marketing to North America follows a different metric than that followed by Coke. Or Yugo, for that matter.

We’re not going to beat the French up for this particular instance of bizarre imagery, not when that country is head and shoulders above us in using perkily great topless billboards to sell what you got.

But whoever’s behind this latest in a series of just plain goofy juxtapositions needs a hard shove out the door. (When they added a Canadian distributor a few years back, the event was accompanied by umbrella booth girls clad in, wedding dresses, followed by print ads as something slightly less sophisticated than The Club for cars.)

Now it seems as though “Protect Your Crotch!” is all that’s missing from the wordless lips of Mr. Crash Test Dummy and his androgenous package sidekick. The cruel irony here is that suddenly the universal refrain uttered by women everywhere – that all men think with their appendage – may, in fact, be the real inspiration behind this messy message.

creative insight – how’d they do that?

Steve Bauer takes readers behind the scenes for an in-depth look at how Polaris’ Victory division served up the revolutionary Vision in the August 11 issue of PowerSports Business.

The article features interviews with lead designers Greg Brew and Michael Song as Bauer breaks down the importance design and focus feedback played in creating Victory’s bold stroke in the touring market segment.

Obviously Polaris had the resources to mount the effort, but the takeaway here is why they’ve succeeded in launching a truly breakthrough product that goes far beyond slapping new graphics on familiar styling and calling the result fresh.

Recommended reading for a variety of reasons – team goals, administrative encouragement, marketing insight, breakthrough styling and creative freedom.

marketing dilemma: ink or web or…

While no one’s writing obits for the most popular titles in automotive print, it’s difficult to fathom how the most popular form of information delivery for the past half-century’s going to fare in the very immediate future.

Folio yesterday put up a jaw-dropping stat (left) on the 07-08 half-year change in circulation among automotive and tech titles. Not good, definitely not good.

We’re not bright enough to know why, or what to do next. We suspect a combination of more and more info posted to the web, mostly free and increasingly sophisticated, combined with a shrinking newstand market. Albertson’s Supermarket, for instance, is closing down most of their remaining stores over the next few weeks.

In the end the answer may be nothing more complicated than a finite resource – time – and a nearly infinite information source – internet – on a collision course that’s competing with print’s limited page count and production cycle.

Are those, like us, who continue rooting for print’s survival hopeless romantics? Or is there a solution, a hybrid, that can blend the best of both in a fresh and utilitarian way? The answer can’t be far off, that much we know.

planes, trains and – planes and trains

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Even HST couldn’t have seen this quiniela coming down the toll road of what the hell else can go wrong.

We won’t dwell on the details. If you somehow missed the Bus Ride From Hell, you can get up to speed here.

And no joke, when it comes to GPS and navigation sometimes you really do have to Just Say No.

What do these two tales of the psychotic kind have to do with each other? They’re pr nightmares with no good ending except for the competition, should they choose to play the hand.

The GPS manufacturer with the slightly faulty POI will no doubt be revealed soon, as in just as soon as the competition gets to the survivors with a fistful of cash and an exclusivity agreement for what surely is the ultimate comparison ad.

And Greyhound? It’s a safe bet Jack Nicholson’s not in their plans as a corporate spokesman. So the next time some insurance type brings up road rage in response to your screaming at the idiot who cut you off on the way to the airport, wave this story in their face as to the real consequences of getting on someone’s bad side during a road trip. At least in Canada.

does F-R-E-E advertising work?

You’ve seen the ads, maybe TiVo’d one or two. “Now my legs’re stickin’ to the vinyl and my posse’s getting laughed at,” all because of Bad Credit. F-R-E-E does spell free, except it’s credit reporting monster Experian trolling for consumers to take the bait and sign up for monthly hits for something that’s – well – free here, just not there.

Online sign-ups are up 20%, a pretty remarkable stat for the likeable ads from Martin Agency as part of a $70M campaign (up 200 percent since 2002) to drive new biz. Viral? Ya’ think? This thing’s crawling all over YouTube, which we think is a little weird considering the core message. Read more details about the campaign and why it’s taking flak here on the New York Times site.

american quantum? quick, get the stake!

Let me first say that my odds of getting a phone call from advertising’s The One Club are slightly more remote than a hi-def video of me windsurfing on the moon. Not so industry guru Jerry Della Femina, who was inducted into their Creative Hall of Fame last month as announced in this spread that ran in Ad Age. Read on.

His shop, Della Femina Rothschild Jeary, has churned out big ad hits for, well, decades. Including the notoriously hilarious Isuzu “lie” campaign that broke new ground back when broadcast was king. So far be it from me to rap a real creative heavyweights’ work that’s featured in perhaps the top forum of advertising greatness – except for that one ad shown that few will recognize for what it represents – pimping a disaster of a client that was a forerunner of many more to follow in this industry. Continue reading →