Best attended Auto Show in Washingtons history

Best attended Auto Show in Washingtons history

A successful auto show is most directly proportionate to the public turnout, and by that measure The 2013 Washington Auto Show was the most successful ever. The public came out in droves this year resulting in the best attended Auto Show in Washingtons history, said Robert Fogarty, chairman of The Washington Auto Show (WAS).

We had an extraordinary flight of show promotions that tapped into the strong car buyer demand that we dealers are regularly experiencing in showrooms, said Chairman Fogarty of Sport Automotive. There is also an element of good fortune in any successful public response to the Auto Show, an important part of which this year was the snow storm Washington escaped that devastated the northeast, north of the region, he said.

Barbara Pomerance, who directs WAS promotions, described the new directions show promotions took that she said spiked attendance. We were able to complement a well-structured, strong traditional media-buy with a well-conceived, properly directed social media component that brought the people out, said Pomerance.

This years Auto Show ads with their hottest ticket in town theme resonated with the public and were all over the market here, starting well in advance of the show, then increasing in frequency, up to and beyond opening day, she said.

Additional promotions included a day honoring service men and women (WAS Monday) where active duty and retired military were admitted to the show for free. Student Day, followed (WAS Tuesday), with deep ticket discounts for patrons displaying student IDs. There were also special events on these dedicated days, to include performances by the U.S. Army Downrange Band and the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. Student Day included an auto business career presentation and show tour for about 500 area high school students and a cappella choral group competitions among area college students. (See articles below on Military and Student Days.)

We had the happy problem of managing the largest weekend crowd weve ever encountered said Bob Yoffe, show manager. This was challenging at the outset when the record crowd arrived on the first Saturday, according to Yoffe, because it overwhelmed a new registration system tied into on site ticket purchases. Once the system settled in to the unprecedented attendance — that was up a full 20% over the previous Auto Show — the ticket lines that early on had swelled with patrons became manageable and free flowing again, Yoffe said. Non-ticket takers on staff became ticket takers until the new registration system cleared its first hurdle, that proved to be a high jump, he said.

Not in this convention center, let alone the previous one that was smaller, have we had an Auto Show attendance on a par with this year, said WAS Producer Gerard Murphy who has directed every Washington Convention Center Auto Show since the 1980s. Short of the history this Auto Show made last year when President Obama visited, the largest attendance in a shows history that spans 96 years is a good as it gets, Murphy said.

True enough, theres no business like show business, quipped Chairman Fogarty. Unless it snows, he acknowledged, since severe winter storms shut down auto shows. Did the time-honored ritual of WANADAs famed Auto Show Snow Hat and the mystical powers attributed to show organizers who wear it keep the blizzard that crippled the northeast away from Washington while the show was on? The snows that shut down New York and points north didnt reach Washington and the show went on yielding record crowds, said Fogarty. Indeed it did, Mr. Chairman, and the rest is history.