The 90th anniversary motor show in Geneva in 2020 was supposed to start hosting guests on Monday, March 2 – it was on this day that the award ceremony for the best cars of the year in Europe COTY was appointed. The next two days – March 3 and 4 – according to the schedule, known for another six months, were supposed to be traditional press days, on which only journalists were allowed to the exhibition. From March 5 to March 15, the show was planned to open to visitors.
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The motor show was canceled at once when the coronavirus reached Switzerland.
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On Friday, February 28, the Swiss government issued an order to ban all events in the country where more than 1000 people gather.
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In 2020, according to organizers, 600,000 people were supposed to attend the Geneva motor show. Photo: gims.swiss
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All because of coronavirus – on February 25, the first case was discovered in the south of the country, and the Swiss sounded the alarm.
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The cancellation of mass events “should prevent or delay the spread of the disease in Switzerland,” the government’s statement released on February 28 said. Just five days after this statement, 54 cases of coronavirus infection have already been identified in Switzerland, with patients in all cantons.
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Cancel more expensive than spend
Having received information about the cancellation of the show, the automakers, who were supposed to build their stands at the weekend, bring guests and journalists to the exhibition, hurriedly began to change their plans.
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Naturally, there is no question of any compensation for expenses — the global epidemic clearly refers to force majeure circumstances. At a press conference on this subject convened on February 28, the leadership of the Palexpo exhibition center, where the car dealership is held, said bluntly that they’re not refunding money, if you want, sue the government.
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Automakers ’expenses for a car dealership include renting an area, arranging a stand, delivering equipment, catering, advertising and souvenir products, and paying for trips to employees and partners. Photo: gims.swiss
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Car manufacturers will not be returned not only the cost of exhibition space, which is not disclosed, but also the money spent on organizing events related to the car dealership. We can roughly estimate these costs, information on prices for airline tickets and hotels is publicly available:
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Thousands of hotel rooms in Geneva itself and neighboring cities, airline tickets for employees and guests of the exhibition, luxurious restaurants where important people planned to celebrate the premieres – all this was paid in advance and will not be returned.
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Both the headquarters of the brands and their offices in other countries, who planned trips to Geneva in large groups, were affected.
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The show went digital
Car premieres are planned in advance. All the models that were supposed to be shown in Geneva, the automakers were going to show for a long time here and in early March.
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After the ban on holding the event, the organizers of the show hastily decided to hold car shows online.
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Palexpo representatives organized a special digital platform on their website, on which the COTY award ceremony was shown to viewers on March 2, and online press conferences were broadcast on March 3 and 4. Not all brands began to organize them, for example, Fiat, Renault and Brabus did without broadcasts. We did not wait for the world premiere, which was promised in Kia.
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On March 3, 24 online car shows were held. On March 4, 4 more broadcasts were scheduled.
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Automakers were filming press conferences mainly at their headquarters. Broadcasts on the car dealership website were duplicated on the websites of automobile companies (but not all) and in social networks. A number of brands, such as BMW, Honda, Hyundai, posted the broadcasts only on the Geneva Motor Show website.
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Avto.Mail.ru collected statistics on viewing the broadcasts of the prime minister of Geneva on YouTube. It turned out that the showroom did not arouse excitement among the audience.
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How viewers watched an online car dealership on YouTube
Event | YouTube views |
E-Class World Premiere | 72 945 |
New ŠKODA OCTAVIA RS iV | 110 314 |
Volkswagen News | 8 775 |
Bentley Press Conference and Mulliner Balacar Premiere | 9 344 |
McLaren at the 2020 Motor Show | 12,707 |
World premiere of Audi A3 | 314,452 |
Porsche 911 Turbo S Premiere Premiere | 202 518 |
Alpine Press Conference | 9 135 |
Goodyear Press Conference | 1 831 |
AIWAYS Press Conference | 4 605 |
Koenigsegg: the show continues | 277 392 |
World premiere of GFG Style | 1,182 |
Morgan Presents New Plus Four | 8 233 |
Press Conference SEAT & Cupra | 3,572 |
Aston Martin at the motor show | 31083 |
Press Conference 1000 Miles | 97 |
Premiere DS 9 | 506 |
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View statistics as of 12:00 March 05, 2020
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Not everyone had time to prepare
Some brands managed to organize everything at a high level thanks to the powerful infrastructure within the companies. Some had a harder time. So, the DS brand was the last to shoot. The French made a 10-minute video recorded in a laconic white room, only at 18 hours on March 4. As a result, few people paid attention to the DS 9 concept car, prepared by the brand for Geneva.
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On YouTube, the premiere of DS as of 12:00 on March 5 gained just 506 views. For comparison, Audi by this time had more than 300,000 views of the broadcast of the A3 premiere on the same site. Although the DS concept is beautiful, take a look:
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