The client

In a city renowned for Hollywood dazzle, the LA Auto Show is the biggest, longest-running yearly event in LA history. It routinely attracts hundreds of thousands of car and technology enthusiasts each year from Thanksgiving through early December at its 760,000-square-foot host venue, the Los Angeles Convention Center.

In 2013, the first of Big Honkin’ Ideas’ five-year partnership with the LA Auto Show, the client was eager to create its own Hollywood launch.

The challenge

Create an event theme and campaign that would put The Show on par with a blockbuster Hollywood movie premier and cement its reputation as the preeminent leader of North American auto shows. Highlight the event’s downtown location adjacent to The Staples Center where the Lakers had won three championships since its debut.

The solution

BHI worked from a clear and simple premise: No idea was too big for the LA Auto Show. We recommended the theme “The Mother of All Shows” — positioning it as a must-see event. The event was teased via TV commercials and social media with a Sci-Fi styled spot depicting a mothership launching hundreds of cars over the downtown LA skyline. It also aired as a take-over outside the pedestrian corridors of LA Live in downtown in the weeks leading up to the event. To complement the media buy, freeway bulletins, pole banners, and bus wraps were strategically purchased near the Convention Center and the greater LA area.