If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much more is a streaming video worth at 30 frames per second?
When it comes to branding, search-engine optimization and, ultimately, sales in this digital age, online videos can make a crucial difference in a small company’s marketing. In the realm of sales alone, studies now show web video to be a top influencer in consumer research and purchasing decisions.
SEMA presented John Menzler of the COMP Performance Group with the 2011 Person of the Year Award at the SEMA Show Industry Awards Banquet in Las Vegas on the evening of Thursday, November 3. As a longtime SEMA member as well as a Hot Rod Industry Alliance (HRIA) and Automotive Restoration Market Organization (ARMO) Select Committee member and mentor to many in the industry, Menzler received ringing applause as banquet emcee Dave McClelland announced to a packed house, “Congratulations, John!”
The tire and wheel section is perennially one of the largest display areas at the SEMA Show in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Tires and wheels are also one of the most favored modifications that car and truck owners make to their vehicles, since a single, relatively simple change can entirely alter the appearance and character of a vehicle.
The Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles was the site of the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show. Press days were very well attended by the media, with the majority of manufacturers announcing increased sales, new models and optimistic outlooks. We went to see what new cars might be on tap that would interest SEMA members and enthusiasts in general…and we found quite a few.
The winners of the New Products Showcase Awards were announced during the New Products Breakfast held at the 2011 SEMA Show. The event recognizes the most cutting-edge automotive products either on the market or about to hit the market. Nearly 2,000 new products were submitted this year for consideration.
This is the second in a two-part series on the Middle East Market—specifically the market in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the five neighboring countries comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. A number of factors make this market of 7.3 million vehicles particularly attractive, including the high regard for U.S. products and considerable discretionary income. SEMA members making products for light trucks and American musclecars will find strong demand for those applications.
Each year at the SEMA Show, a handful of vehicles are dominant amid the thousands on display. There is always one car, one truck, one sport compact and one SUV or off-road vehicle whose greater numbers make them the most visible in the huge exhibit spaces. To celebrate these standouts, SEMA exhibitors honored four vehicles with the SEMA Awards for the Hottest Car, Hottest Truck, Hottest 4x4-SUV and—new this year—Hottest Sport Compact at the 2011 SEMA Show.
To navigate an up-and-down economy, your business needs sound, ongoing reports and analysis of the major economic and market trends affecting the $28 billion automotive specialty-equipment industry. Thankfully, you can now find that information via the SEMA Market Update, a completely new report series developed by SEMA’s marketing research department.
Business technology is in a constant state of evolution, and it can be a maddening chore to try to keep up. It seems that every innovation begets an even newer version only a few weeks later. In some cases, the latest gizmo is only a marginal improvement on what went before, but there are significant trends and tools that simply cannot be ignored. In some very tangible instances, a company can be left behind while its competitors employ technological tools to expand and improve.
Remember the Sci-Fi television programs of the ‘50s and ‘60s in which engineers of the future could stand in front of a computer device, order up practically any space sprocket or gizmo and watch it materialize in seconds, ready for use? Believe it or not, that future is here—and has been for some time. While not as instantaneous as their fictional counterparts, there are computerized machines that can replicate solid, intricate 3-D objects in a process now being dubbed “3-D printing.”