24
Sector Focus
T
DRIVE FOR EFFICIENCY
owns and cities across the UK are
beginning to look at ways in which to ban
cars from their centres in an effort to cut
emissions and clean up the air. There is
nothing wrong that, but in the process
the car has been vilified. It really is quite a
shame, because few things have been a greater
liberator of the people.
For the automotive industry, it is a case of
evolve or die. It’s a fact that CO2 emissions need
reducing, and car manufacturers are ploughing
billions – literally – into research and
development into new technologies, such as
hybrids, electric vehicles, and hydrogen power.
The reputation of the industry suffered greatly
in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal,
‘Dieselgate’, in which the maker was cheating the
system to hide the true scale of its engine’s
emissions. However, the episode was also the
kick up the backside it needed, and now new,
cleaner technology is coming to market. Events
are a large part of this process, in not only
showcasing this new technology, but in helping to
restore the reputation of this great sector.
Indeed, this is underlined with the British Motor
Show returning in 2020, taking place at
Farnborough International Exhibition and
Conference Centre, 20-23 August.
However, it would seem that there some
elements of the event supply line which are
hopelessly lagging behind the automotive
industry’s rapid development. Simon Hambley is
CEO at Strata Creative Communications, an
agency which does a lot of work in the sector.
“The automotive industry is gearing up to go
through a rapid change in technology that
The car has been vilified.
It really is quite a shame,
because few things have
been a greater liberator of
the people.
The automotive sector is changing rapidly, and so too
is the nature of its events. Martin Fullard investigates
Above:
Peugeot
dealer
conference
presents both an opportunity and
challenge for our industry,” he tells
me. “Events will continue to form an
important part of the
communications and engagement
strategy with consumers and press.
The problem is that much of the
industry’s infrastructure has failed to
anticipate this.
“The challenge is that,
unfortunately, so many of our venues
are just not geared up or ready to
accommodate this new emerging
technology. One recent example was
a major UK venue telling us that
electric vehicles can’t be brought into
their venue as it is an insurance risk.
How can a fully electric, road legal
vehicle be any more dangerous than
the battery-powered cleaning
machines they must use all day,
every day? They have simply failed to
understand the technology and put a
proper policy in place to
accommodate.”
Hambley also says venues need to
install rapid charging points as
quickly as possible. He says:
“Manufacturers don’t want to be
www.conference-news.co.uk
relying on diesel-powered generators
to rapid charge electric vehicles. It is
too big a risk to their brand and
contradicts what they’re trying to
achieve by bringing out the new
technology in the first place.”
There is, of course, more to it than
technology. Hambley says that a
major change in how the automotive
industry approaches its events is a
blurring of lines between B2B and
B2C. “While they remain different
audiences, with different messages
to communicate, the brand
experience has to be consistent
across every audience,” says
Hambley. “Even when it comes to an
internal event, staff are also
consumers and want to be treated in
the same way in terms of the brand
experience that they receive.”
You will read in the press on a
regular basis that some car
manufacturers are in pretty poor
shape financially. This is due in part
to the huge sums that they are
investing in research and
development into clean technology,
as well as having seen a huge