Steve Colquhoun (SMH)
Published: October 17, 2012 - 5:32PMThere are as many absences as there are appearances at this year's event.
Half of the car brands on sale in Australia will not be at the 2012 Sydney motor show, which opens to the public on Friday morning.
BMW, Audi, Ferrari, Volvo, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Chrysler, Jeep, Lotus and Renault are among 26 brands that will be absent at this year's show, which is being touted as “one of the country's largest” motor shows.
The new breed of Chinese brands trying to gain a toehold in Australia, including Great Wall and Chery, are also missing, as is the only all-electric brand, Tesla.
It is the most brands that have ever missed a modern major Australian motor show, eclipsing the 19 brands that abandoned the 2009 Melbourne show, 15 that missed the 2010 Sydney show and 17 that weren't at the 2011 Melbourne show.
In those years, organisers and car makers blamed the global financial crisis and twin motor shows – the Melbourne and Sydney shows have since been merged into an annual Australian International Motor Show that alternates between the two cities – as reasons for the embarrassing departures of big brands.
But the disappointing showing at this year's Sydney show reaffirms there has been a change in attitude towards Australian shows.
“We have to sell cars in the most cost-efficient manner. We're not in the entertainment business,” says Edward Rowe, a spokesman for European Automotive Importers, which distributes Ferrari, Maserati and Lotus.
“In the past we needed motor shows to collect names and addresses we could follow up, but we're now able to do that much more efficiently using electronic media.”
The rise of the internet and its ability to better target buyers is being blamed for the rapid shift away from relatively expensive motor shows.
Some executives say they can no longer justify the expense – estimated at between $500,000 and $2 million – of attending a domestic show in an era when the internet gives people detailed information and images of cars and when targeted marketing is easier.
Many of the exclusive low-volume brands that people go to motor shows to see – such as Ferrari, Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Lotus – would prefer to divert marketing dollars to campaigns more targeted at their would-be buyers, many of whom are time poor.
Rowe says customer-focused race track days and direct contact with potential buyers are a better use of marketing dollars.
“We're not saying that at some time we might not go back, and we re-examine every motor show. But at the moment our thinking is that track days are a much more compelling way to get customers to experience our cars. Imagine how many people you can take on a track day for $1 million.”
The motor show exodus is not confined to niche brands.
Clyde Campbell, the managing director of the Chrysler, Jeep, Alfa Romeo and Fiat brands in Australia, says his dealers and customers have not asked him to display at the show.
“We think it's more important to have direct contact with our customers, and our marketing has been working well,” he says.
“If we had a world exclusive reveal we might think differently but with the prevalence of the internet, anything that has been unveiled elsewhere has been seen by everyone before it gets here.”
The show director, Russ Tyrie, is adamant the local show has a future and doesn't believe brands are choosing not to attend because of the internet.
“The internet is a way of gathering information and specifications, but you can't sit in a car on the internet, you can't see whether your baby buggy will fit in the back of the SUV you're considering,” says Tyrie.
“The research we've done shows there's a strong percentage of people who use the show as an opportunity to consider the vehicles that they are interested to purchase. Around 30 per cent of people nominate that as the primary reason they attend the show.”
Mazda Australia national marketing director, Alastair Doak, agrees that the internet can never replace a motor show for prospective buyers. “You get to see the cars, touch them, smell them and sit in them,” he says.
“It's a great way to showcase our brand and our product. It's true the motor show has moved on. It's not so much a showroom but it's still a place where you can still excite people about your brand and we're more than happy to participate.
“We're showcasing three vehicles that aren't on sale as yet so the only way you can see them before they go on sale is to come along to the motor show.”
Jaguar and Land Rover will be at the show this year but the brands' Australian director, Chris Lidis, says they will only attend if there is something significant to reveal.
“There are increasingly other options that people can pursue – more bespoke, more specialised forums where you can probably spend your money a little bit more surgically,” he says.
“But with the launch of both the Jaguar F-Type and the new Range Rover, we think they are more relevant to a broader audience and we thought that the motor show was the right forum for us this year.”
Audi will also be absent, but its spokeswoman Anna Burgdorf says the company had different financial priorities this year.
“We are supportive in general of the motor show, but this year we needed to make a hard decision,” she says.
“It's still a $1 million investment as a minimum for us, because as a premium brand that's growing rapidly there are minimum standards we have to set. It's not a reflection of how we feel about motor shows.”
Tyrie says he expects about 200,000 people to pass through the show over 10 days, a forecast well ahead of the fewer than 150,000 that attended the financial crisis-hit 2008 show but significantly less than the 10-year average of about 260,000, according to figures obtained by Drive.
The Sydney show was an annual event until 2008, when it began alternating with Melbourne.Growing brand absences began to bite into the show's appeal from the mid-2000s.
“We'd always like to see as many brands as possible included at the show, but I think with the number of brands in the Australian market there is always going to be occasions and reasons why brands choose to participate or not. We don't necessarily see that as a reflection on the show,” he says.
SHOWDOWN – MANUFACTURERS THAT WON'T BE AT THE 2012 SYDNEY MOTOR SHOW
Alfa Romeo
Aston Martin
Audi
Bentley
BMW
Caterham
Chery
Chrysler
Citroen
Dodge
Ferrari
Fiat
Great Wall
Jeep
Lotus
Mahindra
Maserati
McLaren
Mini
Morgan
Renault
Rolls-Royce
Smart
SsangYong
Tesla
Volvo
http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/big-brands-abandon-sydney-motor-show-20121017-27r4g.html
