When it comes down to it, a car is a car. Image, on the other hand, is everything.
This month’s auto shows in Detroit and Los Angeles looked like a glitzy Las Vegas stage show, complete with elaborate multimedia exhibits.
One from Ford Motor Co. simulated a road trip with the smell of coffee in Seattle and flowers in Southern California.
General Motors Corp. had an 80-footwide, 12-foot-high flat-panel screen touting the troubled automaker’s brands and marketing pitches.
The exhibits used by automakers could qualify as assets on a balance sheet. They’re valued at about $200 million, according to Crain’s Detroit Business. A new exhibit can cost up to $1 million to make.
The displays,part trade show booth, part shock and awe,are called “experiential marketing,” said Michael Croke, vice president of West Coast sales for Exhibit Works Inc. in Foothill Ranch, which has done displays for Ford and other automakers.
“A very good way to market is if people can touch it,” Croke said.
Exhibit Works, which is based near Detroit, came to Orange County in 1999 to serve Ford’s Premier Auto Group and Lincoln-Mercury operations in Irvine.
110,000-Square-Foot Plant
The company has an 110,000-square-foot design facility and exhibit factory in Foothill Ranch. In all, Exhibit Works has $170 million in yearly sales, with the Foothill Ranch operation and a small Los Angeles office accounting for $55 million.
About 135 people work for Exhibit Works in the Southland, including 68 carpenters in Foothill Ranch and 12 people in Los Angeles.
The company’s work has expanded from building exhibits to marketing, too. Helping automakers and others with marketing is a way for Exhibit Works to hold its own against rivals, Croke said.
And there’s a lot of competition in OC with all the conventions here.
Rivals include Garden Grove-based Expo 3 International, MICE DisplayWorks in Irvine, Skyline Displays Heartland in Anaheim and Exhibitgroup/Giltspur of Chicago.
For Nissan Motor Co.’s U.S. arm in Gardena, Exhibit Works did displays and marketing for the automaker’s sponsorship of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour last year.
One of the events Exhibit Works planned for Nissan: a contest where the winner got to watch the games courtside from the back of a Nissan truck.
Mitsubishi Work
For Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc., part of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Exhibit Works was tapped for the debut of the Raider truck, Mitsubishi’s first truck in some 15 years.
Exhibit Works staged a college tailgate tour that mingled Japanese and American culture.
“What’s more American than a tailgate?” Croke said.
The Japanese side: Chefs put on a show swinging knives as they served up bratwurst on a bun.
Marketing is even more important for Mitsubishi and General Motors, which are struggling. Companies have to figure out where they are in the market and then highlight the positive, Croke said.
Mitsubishi has focused on styling, performance and engineering.
Exhibit Works is one of the few union shops in OC, a byproduct of its roots in the Detroit area. It comes with a high price,union wages. But Croke said he prefers to look at it optimistically.
“A lot of times you get what you pay for,” he said.
Unions typically attract the best labor, he said.
Croke said he also takes high workers’ compensation insurance costs in stride.
Going After China
Exhibit Works is opening an office in China to tap into the emerging auto industry there. At the North American International Auto Show going on in Detroit, Exhibit Works helped Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., a Chinese automaker, set up press conferences.
Most trade show work is won through a bidding process, Croke said. Sometimes it can take years to nab a client, he said.
“‘We need more for less’ is what we hear all the time,” Croke said.
Exhibit Works’ office walls are plastered with design renderings, some of which may never come to life.
These days, Exhibit Works is more of a marketing agency, adding to its exhibit design work with consulting on marketing and branding.
“We’re really a creative agency,” Croke said.
There are new lines of work. Exhibit Works is preparing to bid on a conference room design for a local company and is looking to do more design work for small and large stores, according to Croke.
Boeing, Seagate
To drive people to Seagate Technology LLC’s booth at the recent International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Exhibit Works made multicolored theater pods. Inside were all of the Scotts Valley-based disk drive maker’s products.
Exhibit Works is building a truck exhibit for Seagate, Croke said. The trailer folds out on either side and is set to drive around demonstrating Seagate products.
The company also did a trade show booth for Irvine-based Connexion by Boeing, the in-flight Internet arm of Boeing Co. Exhibit Works and Boeing gave away iPods.
At the Los Angeles Auto Show earlier this month, Exhibit Works did Porsche AG’s exhibit, which highlighted the automaker’s history.
Part of the display: a vintage racing memorabilia room and a 100-foot racetrack to display Porsche’s current models.
Exhibit Works was tapped by several other automakers at the L.A. show, including Ford, Volkswagen AG and its Bentley Motors Ltd. unit, and Mazda North American Operations, an Irvine-based unit of Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp.
At any time, Exhibit Works could be doing displays for rival automakers on its fabrication floor. The company does everything from design to shipping the finished exhibit, Croke said.
