Paris previews a new era for auto shows

PARIS — At just after 3:30 p.m. on an otherwise lethargic second press day in the 2018 version of the biennial Paris auto show, there was a moment of sheer consternation and much conversation.

Suddenly, the pathways in the overly quiet Hall 1 were impassable. The crowds swelled as a mob moved from one product to the other, just like the good old days of 2012.

No matter where you turned, no one could move ... because the organizers had locked the doors so you couldn't leave. (Yes, every door.)

That's what happens when French President Emmanuel Macron decides to make a well-planned trip to the auto show — a moment that caused more of a stir than almost any introduction here last week.

It was the perfect layer of icing on a sizable, and unique, auto show Paris pastry — one that global show organizers and industry attendees tried desperately to digest last week.

Was this Paris show good? Was it too quiet? Does this mean shows are dead? And why are there suddenly so many people in Hall 1?

(Oh, right, they've padlocked all the doors — from within — for security reasons.)

The arguments around auto show relevance, on either side, were endless last week, and the jury is still very much out.

But this much was clear: Paris was the first auto show of this new season of auto shows.

It was the first show of the Cancellation Era, in which automakers shun large, multimillion-dollar stands in steamy, high-ceiling exhibition halls in favor of private, invite-only locales in the gorgeous European countryside for the launch of a flagship vehicle.

Auto shows aren't dead. But they are forever changed.

And, looking back, Paris will be Exhibit A, with North American and more European shows to follow.

"It needs to make sense from a return perspective because it is a marketing tool," PSA CEO Carlos Tavares said in an interview last week.

"A motor show is a marketing tool as much as a motorsports program, as much as an advertisement on TV, as much as a social media campaign, as much as an advertisement in a newspaper.

"If you want to protect the competitiveness of the motor show as a marketing tool, in competition with other marketing tools within the overall budget of the fixed marketing expense of the brand CEO, you need to improve" the return on investment.

And what about press conferences?

"Less press conferences," Tavares said. "Boring, right? Press conference: eight minutes for the ego of the executives."

So, in the case of PSA, as one example, egos were replaced by a more experiential display — at half the cost. This year, PSA started its conversation with a zero-based approach, asking itself why its brands should even be there. Then, upon return from the show, Tavares will challenge his sales teams to provide specific return on investment from the show.

In advance of Paris, PSA looked at everything — catering, lights, sound — and ultimately cut half of brand costs from just four years ago.

"It's just about being frugal and being thoughtful in the way we spend the money and challenge each expense," he said. "It protects the motor show as a marketing tool because the return is much better given the number of orders that we can get through the show.

"If you want to go, you need to explain that it makes sense to go."

For many, this show didn't make sense, which speaks to a different trend in global shows: nationalism.

It went beyond the press conferences that were geared to France, of which there were many. (BMW, Kia, Toyota, Lexus and Audi France all hosted press conferences.) As automakers look at budgets, and watch costs differently, they are also looking at their sales numbers.

Ford, Mazda, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and even Volkswagen concluded that France was no longer big enough to justify the investment or had enough ROI.

Expect the same in Frankfurt next year, where more than a half-dozen brands (mostly French) have already figured that it isn't worth their time and mostly isn't worth their money.

The unintended consequences of the rise in French players here was the emergence of the unknowns.

Out went the traditional players and in came China's GAC, positioned prominently between BMW and Mercedes-Benz, as well as VinFast, a Vietnamese brand promoted by retired English soccer player David Beckham and run by an ex-General Motors executive.

And it was an opportunity for some suppliers to gain space, next to the model car or car wax displays or the Bugatti made of Legos. (Yes, it's true.)

In the end, the new era is here.

ROI is the new reason for being.

And cars crashing through plate-glass windows have been replaced by orders placed.

In many ways, we're a long way from what was commonplace.

Like Gary Shapiro, head of the group that produces the CES technology expo, telling a Paris crowd last week, on the eve of the global car industry's traditional first show of this season, that CES in Las Vegas now ranks as one of the world's top car shows.

Welcome to a new season, indeed.