Having a car show booth

Calendyr

Calendyr

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Posted this in an other topic but I think everyone had already moved on...


Car show season is about to start. Do any of you guys rent a booth at car shows?

If so, can you give advice on how to do it properly?

Like, what size, what to bring there, should I make banners, posters, brochures? What kind of costs are involved, etc. What service do you promote most?

Also, what kind of business have you been getting after the show from attendees?

The car show in Montreal in January, so I have 4 months to prepare.
 
Haven't done it before but here's an idea buy a swirled out black hood or trunk or something from the junkyard and put a tape line down he middle and correct and shine the crap out of one side, peak the tape off and show the difference of a swirled out vs a fully corrected side


Sent from space through a satellite
 
Just wondering, what are your plans for the booth? To attract in customers?

Sounds very exciting. Good Luck :)

I like Skimmers idea
 
Well show booths are at least $3000-$10000 depending on size, stanchions, displays, banners, and what not.

Unless you are selling a product there, detail guys won't see a return. You may get 1-5 clients from a 3 day show. The autoshow organizers will wow you with amazing numbers and locations to secure your space, but you should really determine if it will be a profitable expense. Don't write it off as "brand awareness" either, 98% of the people will forget about you unless you can secure a bunch of super cars and hot girls.

This is my experience, I don't recommend it. There are many other ways to secure business (car clubs, car meets, etc).

Although if you do want to go, you need to be flashy and try to steal the show! Doing demos and interaction is loved. Sitting waiting for people to come up to you will get you ignored. Signs, banners and stuff really don't go that far, so try to save your money there. Make sure you have some hot cars with you. People are there to see lambos and Ferraris, not jeeps and fords.

Basically this is all I can give you off of the top of my head. I have done a few big shows.
 
car shows , waist of time
very small return so don` hope a fortune from there, like the above said , if you pull a lot of "energy" you may get more attention and probably a few more cars
 
Sigh. I am surprised at the price. But I guess it makes sense, these things draw huge crowds so the organizers can sell space for a premium.

Only one club I found so far in Montréal and that the is the Antique and classic car club. I met 20 of theirs members last week. No calls yet. President won a free detail from a raffle I did, he did not call me either. I will call him tommorow to setup a time to do the work. My hopes is that he will do some advertizing for me once the work is done ;)

So what do you guys do for advertizing? Or are you at a stage of the business where it is no longer necessary? I know this is a word of mouth advertizing business and it's killing me that I can't get the ball Rolling.
 
Well I have a logo on the back of my car and a Facebook, that's about it. Just be patient, you don't just wake up with the phone ringing off the hook. It will come
 
I disagree car shows are great but only local small ones not the big shows. I have gotten a lots of business from small car shows in my town and car meets. I have a small simple both for these shows and show pictures of my work and educate people how to take care of their cars. It takes time to build a good detailing business took me over a 1.5 to get fully booked ever week. Just keep at it and do great work people will start coming once people start talking about you. The word of mouth is all I ever do and put a couple business cards in every new customers car and my regulars as for cards every time they come in.
 
Me and others around me never really got any business from a car shows.
I'm not sure why but around me these people like to take care of there cars themselves? Besides Concourse Car Shows, no local shows have help me out.
I consider myself a good, trained salesman's but when I try to "sell" or even "talk" to these guys they blow me off.
They say "I have a friend who's a detailer".
So why does your show car look like sh it?
Is what I want to say to them, lol.
My very successful friend had a booth at a crappy local car show and no return at all. He also is a regular at his cities biggest car show and still, no return.
I think the best approach to a car show is to walk the show talk to people and try to "find" the customers. But I wouldn't waste any money on it.
That's my experience, I hope you'll have better success then we did.
 
Andr3wilson said:
Well show booths are at least $3000-$10000 depending on size, stanchions, displays, banners, and what not.

Unless you are selling a product there, detail guys won't see a return. You may get 1-5 clients from a 3 day show. The autoshow organizers will wow you with amazing numbers and locations to secure your space, but you should really determine if it will be a profitable expense. Don't write it off as "brand awareness" either, 98% of the people will forget about you unless you can secure a bunch of super cars and hot girls.

This is my experience, I don't recommend it. There are many other ways to secure business (car clubs, car meets, etc).

Although if you do want to go, you need to be flashy and try to steal the show! Doing demos and interaction is loved. Sitting waiting for people to come up to you will get you ignored. Signs, banners and stuff really don't go that far, so try to save your money there. Make sure you have some hot cars with you. People are there to see lambos and Ferraris, not jeeps and fords.

Basically this is all I can give you off of the top of my head. I have done a few big shows.
Click to expand...

Detailing by M said:
Me and others around me never really got any business from a car shows.
I'm not sure why but around me these people like to take care of there cars themselves? Besides Concourse Car Shows, no local shows have help me out.
I consider myself a good, trained salesman's but when I try to "sell" or even "talk" to these guys they blow me off.
They say "I have a friend who's a detailer".
So why does your show car look like sh it?
Is what I want to say to them, lol.
My very successful friend had a booth at a crappy local car show and no return at all. He also is a regular at his cities biggest car show and still, no return.
I think the best approach to a car show is to walk the show talk to people and try to "find" the customers. But I wouldn't waste any money on it.
That's my experience, I hope you'll have better success then we did.
Click to expand...

im in the same camp here.

ive never had much return and im selling product aswell. the large international car shows are very expensive as andrew said. one of my supplies did the toronto international show last year and they paid almost 20,000 for their booth. again, a retailer and distributor of products. ill bet they wont even be there next year and they were launching an entire new line!
 
primo spaghetti said:
im in the same camp here.

ive never had much return and im selling product aswell. the large international car shows are very expensive as andrew said. one of my supplies did the toronto international show last year and they paid almost 20,000 for their booth. again, a retailer and distributor of products. ill bet they wont even be there next year and they were launching an entire new line!
Click to expand...
"Big or Small"...That's why it's nice to have a CPA to "properly care for" business write-offs at tax time.

Bob
 
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