Act 1

The Los Angeles Auto Show ran November 17 to 26 at the city’s Convention Center with more than one-million square-feet of activations.

From legacies to start-up, dozens of brands were on site to showcase debuts and show off exotic and concept vehicles. Hollywood stars Kevin Hart and Robert Downey Jr. had collections there and, not surprisingly, EVs received top billing and driving experiences played leading roles.

Ford’s EV ‘Bronco Off-Roadeo’ generated buzz for its indoor hill climb. Kia had a car powering a living room and kitchen. Chevy used AR to guide people through the guts of its Silverado EV. Hyundai announced a pilot program to sell cars through Amazon. Pebble’s RV impressed. And Lucid stole the show with its 2025 Gravity SUV; heralded as a “3-row threat to Tesla and Rivian” by MotorTrend.

Act 2

With all the high-tech hoopla on display, one thing stood out to industry insiders: the low-tech fulfillment solutions.

QR codes were everywhere, but they’re hardly cutting edge. Neither are “Frankenstacks,” window stickers, paper sign-up sheets, PDFs on tablets and broken online forms. All of which were in use and none of which got people to engage with the brands.

Think of the massive amount of marketing dollars spent on flashy set-ups, staffing and transporting vehicles. Then think of the peanuts spent on learning about and connecting with people interested in those vehicles.

If all the brands were looking for was good press, sure. But the opportunity cost isn’t sustainable. In any category missed revenue opportunities are a no-go, but that goes ten-fold for the auto category.

Act 3

Experiential marketing is expensive because there’s no better way to engage consumers, create connections and build brand affinity. But those can no longer be done effectively without building omnichannel activations. The wow factor must be extended beyond a singular encounter. While some brands tried at the LA Auto Show, none succeeded.

What could the brands have done? Used a single software solution to digitally link every aspect of their activations and create omnichannel experiences. They could have collected first-party data by scanning driver’s licences, alerted dealerships to leads in real time and communicated with consumers personally. Any of those and more were (and are!) possible, all without any backend CRM work.

In short, the marketers could have greatly increased ROI and proved it.

Act 4

This might read like a shameless promotion, but it’s a frustrated service announcement. Brands and experiential marketers can do better — on time and for a small piece of the overall budget.

Working smarter, not harder in XM is easy. All that’s needed is some KPI forethought and finding out how the right fulfilment tech can help reach those goals.

Auto Show Season is here. Limelight Platform will help you sell more vehicles.