IAA MOBILITY 2021 - Live Communication
The B2C communication for the IAA MOBILITY 2021 was a complete success. Millions of brand contacts on all online and social media channels.
How did it succeed? With the well thought-out conception, planning and implementation of the unique video content strategy from the one-stop shop Force of Disruption.
✔ 540 minutes Live broadcast with Mobility TV from the Sport1 studios in Ismaning
✔ 1,000,000 views on our #Content on TikTok
✔ Fast 4 million views on the IAA MOBILITY YouTube Channel
✔ About 250 clips on all digital channels of the IAA MOBILITY 2021
✔ About 40 branded experience clips for the exhibitors and brands
The customers
German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) e.V. is the leading association of German automotive manufacturers and suppliers in the legal form of a registered association based in Berlin. It is one of the most influential interest groups in the Federal Republic of Germany and represents more than 650 member companies.
The Munich Trade Fairs GmbH is the trade fair organiser and operator of the Messe München exhibition centre, the ICM - Internationales Congress Center München, the Conference Center Nord and the MOC Veranstaltungscenter München. With more than 40 of its own trade fairs for capital and consumer goods as well as new technologies at its Munich location and worldwide, 13 subsidiaries in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America and around 70 foreign representatives in more than 100 countries, Messe München is one of the world's largest trade fair companies. In 2019, the trade fair company counted more than 2.4 million visitors and over 32,000 exhibitors at its Munich location. In 2018, it ranked 6th in the list of the world's trade fairs with the highest turnover. The construction machinery trade fair organised by Messe München baumawhich takes place every three years, is the world's largest trade fair in terms of space at 614,000 square metres.
The problem
The IAA MOBILITY 2021 is a new conception of the International Motor Show - one of the largest and most important automotive trade fairs in the world. For the first time in 70 years, the 2021 show was not held in Frankfurt but in Munich. The concept in Frankfurt had failed.
The drop in visitors to the IAA 2019 was more than 30% compared to the IAA 2017, and former Opel boss Karl-Thomas Neumann has settled accounts with the Frankfurt motor show on Twitter. "It's obvious, so let's say it explicitly: the IAA 2019 is a huge failure. It is just a sad shadow of what it once was. There will be no IAA 2021 - end of story," Neumann said. "If it is not worth it to so many car manufacturers, it does not represent the whole industry as it once did. Besides, it is too one-dimensional. Just cars. And there are more headlines about protests than about the cars - It's a sad picture," he added to his followers.
Instead of real cars, there were only "high-tech and soulless concepts", according to an N-TV article. In his review and analysis author Helmut Becker also gives apt reasons:
"Tougher climate targets, mobility change, economic downturn - the IAA 2019 was not under a good star. Uncertainty among consumers was just as great as among car manufacturers. But another development is also changing the importance of the major trade fairs: Internet and modern communication options as well as changed market strategies of the manufacturers make trade fairs like the IAA superfluous. Innovations above and below the sheet metal as well as new models are no longer presented in fixed trade fair cycles, but always and immediately and in the respective most important sales regions - in our case in China, where every third car is now sold worldwide. Or, in the case of the suppliers, directly at the manufacturer during the year.
In addition to the decision for the new location in Munich, the subject area of the trade fair was also greatly expanded. Instead of being exclusively about automobiles, it should in future be about mobility with all its facets. This includes, for example, future concepts for infrastructure, energy efficiency, sustainability and much more.
In order to reach and inspire as many people as possible on the topics of innovation and sustainability in the mobility industry, target group-oriented content was needed on all online and social media offerings of the new IAA. An agency with the necessary expertise and experience in the field of digital communication was needed: The Force of Disruption.
The solution
As a one-stop shop for live marketing solutions, it was our task to provide the exhibitors and the new trade fair concept with extended digital visibility.
As a general contractor for communication and event solutions, we were already able to organise the ISPO Munich 2019 and 2020 in the themes Future of Sports Congress, eSports Festival implementation with the ES_COM 2019 and in the field of digital media distribution. Tobias Gröber (Managing Director of the Consumer Goods Division of Messe München) and thus also Head of ISPO, made a recommendation to Brand Strategist Christoph Beaufils to plan the coverage and the platform concept with the Force of Disruption. In the discussions with the project management on the Messe München side Christine von Breitenbuch (Director IAA MOBILITY) and Isabella Bayer (Manager Conference & Virtual Events IAA MOBILITY), the project was then immediately worked on and designed.
We were allowed to implement the following tasks as a one-stop shop for live communication:
- Development of a content strategy
- Development of a sales strategy
- Conception of sales and marketing activities
- Conception use of video platforms
- Conception of podcast formats
- Production of:
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- Marketing Content
- IAA MOBILITY TV
- Branded Movies
- Podcasts
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- Distribution of audio and video content on the social media channels TikTok and YouTube as well as the podcast platforms Apple Podcast, Spotify, Clubhouse and Google Podcast
The stories of the IAA MOBILITY 2021 were retold across all platforms. In the conception phase with Messe München and VDA, we were able to design, plan and implement a new product: the Virtual Open Space.
The Open Space concept envisaged that trade fair visitors could move freely around the city and experience and try out mobility at the most famous places in Munich. E-car meets bicycle, electric scooter meets air taxi and the citizen is in the middle of it instead of just being there.
The goal of the Virtual Open Space was not only to experience these innovations and new mobility approaches in their physical presence, but also to make it possible to experience them digitally and virtually. The content should be accessible inclusively and users should be able to freely choose what interests them in a content hub.
The trade fair stand as a digital experience. There have been many attempts in the past to develop virtual 3D worlds for trade fair visits or to transport the digital reporting via articles and photos. For us, however, it was clear that a representative was needed for the exciting and thrilling experience, who would bring the content and his experiences to the digital platforms. For this reason, it was clear to us that we wanted to let influencers and presenters experience the products and new mobility approaches live and up close and bring these experiences into interactive formats on the YouTube and TikTok platforms. This content was then broadcast live and on demand and published on the website https://www.iaa.de/de/mobility linked and embedded.
In contrast to earlier concepts in which content was simply collected in a social wall (social media hub) and made available to the users of the websites for their own selection, we made a conscious decision with the project management of the VDA and Messe München to produce the content ourselves, prepare it editorially and then play it out with a communication concept and platform concept. We then sold these thematic and moving image offers to the exhibitors as a digital extension in the Virtual Open Space.
Our sales deck shows the dialogue-oriented, innovative and inclusive formats of the Virtual Open Space, which we have produced, distributed and brought into reach with custom-fit media packages in our one-stop shop.
And with great success:
The strategy
The secret of success in the IAA MOBILITY 2021 Virtual Open Space communication concept was the linking of all platforms with rousing stories in a wide variety of formats and a holistic approach.
This initially required partnerships with the biggest platforms in the social media sector. Talks were started with TikTok, YouTube as a long-standing partner of the VDA and Twitch . The new IAA MOBILITY concept convinced TikTok Automobile strategist Edem Zeren and his team.
For the first time, TikTok set up its own landing page for the topic of mobility in Europe, on which relevant content about the Force of Disruption and the TikTok algorithm was played out in equal measure.
Preparation is and remains (almost) everything: the jointly developed con-strategy and consistent reach building paid off in full:
Directly from the capital and the studio in Ismaning, content went live into the world!
Communication phase 1 - Reach building with Mobility Stories
In the first phase, we are tackling the expansion of the reach. To do this, we use short, easily digestible content, also called snackable content - told by faces that are also associated with the IAA MOBILITY in the further course.
Here, Dan Ram (moderator Business Summit), Dominik Fisch (TikTok Influencer and car fan), Marlen Neuenschwander (moderator IAA MOBILITY TV) and Jochen Stutzky (moderator Iaa Mobility TV) were used. Through short, interesting and funny news in short video format and the use of their already existing reach, we reached a wide audience through distribution on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. The international media reach (pot.) of IAA MOBILITY 2021 was more than 137 billion views worldwide. The 140 million page impressions were recorded by the social media channels of IAA MOBILITY. On youtube and TikTok alone, the posts of the IAA MOBILITY were viewed more than 38 million times.
Our content was published in German and English to address and inform international users on the platforms. The snackable videos create an easy entry into the world of mobility and help to provide real added value with short news and FAQs. By creating real, useful content, we encourage interactions and shares that grow our audience. With over 50,000 shares and 400,000 views on TikTik alone, this format has been a huge success. In terms of production, we were able to rely on our partner, the social media agency Contentkuechefor the production.
Communication phase 2 -
Explaining the concept to citizens and visitors
In the second step, we not only ensured a digital reach, but also physically present visitors - a total of 400,000 interested visitors came to the IAA MOBILITY 2021 in Munich. Together with the partner platform Facebook, we ran a campaign to get the people of Munich and all of Bavaria to understand the innovation of mobility in Munich for the IAA MOBILITY 2021 and to plan their visit. The campaign around the IAA MOBILITY featured motifs by the advertisers from Jung von Matt. The strategists from Meta Creative Shop were involved in the strategic alignment of the statements and distribution of the advertising materials and thus approx. 1.5 million contacts were reached with the assets.
In addition, undecided citizens were of course approached again by our content to convince them to buy tickets. For this, we relied on the many years of expertise of our moderators. The aim of these content formats was to provide information about the event and to present the programme in detail.
Communication phase 3 - B2B awareness and dialogue first topics:
Mobility Masters is a live and on-demand format developed and played out on YouTube and popular podcast platforms.
In this podcast format, real pioneers and the change leaders of mobility have their say. With this form of long-tail content, we continue to support the content strategy of IAA MOBILITY in the long term. In this format, discussion partners such as Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Dominik Wee, Puck Gerritse, Amadeus Bacher, Roger Atkins and many more. The podcasts on YouTube and the podcast platforms are easy to produce as media in B2B communication even with a small setup. The insights and takeaways have provided real added value for visitors to the IAA MOBILITY. The podcast guests also took a good first step into the IAA MOBILITY 2021 communication with the media produced and were happy to use the media for themselves and their own communication.
Communication phase 4 - Presentation of the Open Space
The Open Space as a trade fair area in the centre of Munich is a completely new trade fair and event format. There were various questions from the public and of course also sceptical voices about the process of this format.
The IAA MOBILITY moderators Marlen and Jochen presented the programme of the Virtual Open Space via our formats and platforms and pointed out the planned daily live programme for the IAA MOBILITY 2021.
With the IAA MOBILITY Conference moderator Hannah Klose we were able to explain the IAA MOBILITY 2021 to future national and international guests in short clips and advertise for participation.
Communication phase 5 - Live communication
During the IAA MOBILITY, the prepared coverage build-up, the information of all consumers and business interested parties and the planned content strategy paid off completely. The content was broadcast live to the world from the exhibition stands, open space locations throughout Munich and the studio.
A particularly important part of our live content plan was the daily live programme for the IAA MOBILITY 2021. We were able to produce a 90-minute live programme every day. This broadcast format was based on successful formats such as ProSieben Galileo or taff. with informative contributions and short reports on the topic of mobility of the future - but we added further ingredients to the broadcast mix here. We implemented live broadcasts to the IAA MOBILITY using a live transmission backpack with the latest 5G technology, allowing viewers to be there live when Dominik Fisch tries out the attractions of the Open Space in the centre of Munich. Every talk we also had a talk format in the broadcast with exclusive content and discussions around the megatrend topic of mobility. Under 2G conditions, we were able to welcome a wide variety of guests to the Sport1 studio.
Erdem Zeren explained the trends and news on the TikTok platform to the audience. Lukas Zecher from the initiative It's tuning not racing was able to explain the difference between legal tuners and illegal racers well and stood for automotive enthusiasm. Balaz Nagy from Horyzn gave the audience an overview of the developments in air mobility. BMX legend Tarek Rasouli told his story from losing mobility through an accident to regaining mobility through an exerskelt. As a special highlight, Alexander v. Kammel presented the highlights in advertising and marketing relating to mobility and awarded the AutoVision Awards 2021 live in the IAA MOBILITY TV programme. Microlino, one of the new products that received a lot of attention at the IAA MOBILITY 2021, was presented personally by the founders Merlin Ouboter and Oliver Ouboter on the fourth day of broadcasting. The IAA MOBILITY TV series concluded with start-up enablers Franz Glatz from Brigk Air from Ingolstadt and Markus May from the prominent AirMobility start-up Airbus Urban Air Mobility.
The "live feeling" was particularly important in the IAA MOBILITY TV concept. For this reason, many live broadcasts with the TikTok Creator took place from the exhibition area.
Dominik Fish is a TikTok creator who specialises in the topic of automobiles and thus reaches almost 580,000 people on TikTok alone. In the run-up to the IAA MOBILITY, Dominik created and distributed initial content on his channel for the topics of the IAA and its partners.
This is an impact that is very difficult to achieve with media offers in classic TV campaigns. Due to Dominik Fisch's specialisation in car content, the short clips also meet with the right interested viewers. The production of short clips is just as time-consuming as that of long contributions or classic formats, and they need to be well researched. The editing tools of TikTok give the user many possibilities to prepare the content in a way that is suitable for the platform (clippy, fast, with well-known music). Nevertheless, well-produced content is more successful on the platform than poorly produced content. This means that even in productions, a professional cameraman takes the best pictures and professional editing provides the extra reach. Here, one should not rely on the topic alone.
As with any successful content platform, the topic, the basic reach of the influencer or content creator and the media budget that is invested are decisive. It is a matter of luck to produce a viral clip. For this reason, together with Messe München and the VDA, we helped luck along in our concept and gave the brands a media concept to work with. In our sales folder, every interested brand was able to buy not only the content but also the appropriate reach on the platform - that's what makes a One Stop Shop.
Since live communication is always live dialogue, the project management of the IAA MOBILITY also wanted to make the citizen dialogue as digital and interactive as possible. At a meeting place and innovation hub directly on directly on Munich's Marienplatz, the topics of mobility were discussed with the citizens in 8 themed worlds on stage. The Marienplatz was dominated by the IAA MOBILITY: From 7 to 12 September, the Citizens Lab in the heart of Munich. Surrounded by the Old and New Town Halls, the Glockenspiel, the Fish Fountain and the Mariensäule, an attractive programme of interactive workshops, exciting talks and art awaited IAA visitors and the citizens of Munich. The focus was on topics concerning the mobility of the future in the city and in the countryside. Access to the IAA Citizens Lab was free of charge. On the day after the event, we broadcast 4-8 minute summaries on YouTube to make the wide range of topics digitally available to the citizens in and around Munich.
Communication phase 6 - Longtail content
The participant data in detail: A total of 744 exhibitors presented themselves at the IAA MOBILITY 2021. These included car manufacturers with a total of 98 exhibition spaces, 75 bicycle brands, 152 supplier and tech companies as well as 78 start-ups. Among them were well-known manufacturers such as Renault, Hyundai, Ford, BMW, MINI, Mercedes-Benz, Wey, Ora, Audi, Porsche, Cupra, Volkswagen, Huawei, Microsoft, IBM, Bosch, Magna, Schaeffler, Continental, Michelin as well as the bicycle brands Canyon, Coboc, Specialized, Riese & Müller, Rose, Kettler and many more.
More than 40 national and international partners and sponsors from the fields of industry, services, media and science were involved in the IAA MOBILITY 2021 and contributed knowledge and expertise. The partners included PwC, Google, Facebook, IBM, Here Technology, Team Viewer, Siemens, Seven.One Sports, Dolby, Hays, Accenture, The Boston Consulting Group, Capgemini, TikTok, YouTube, Motorsport Network, Bloomberg, MyClimate, Amazon Web Services, VAUDE, Share Now, Bits & Pretzels, Dassault Systems, CCPIT Shanghai, World Economic Forum, Bavarian State Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry, Humboldt Innovation, Women in Mobility, Universität St. Gallen as well as a large number of other partners from the fields of science, gastronomy, the hotel industry and events.
The IAA MOBILITY occupied a total of 260,000 sqm of event space, of which 195,000 sqm were on the exhibition grounds and 65,000 sqm in the centre of Munich. A total of 255 vehicles were used on the so-called Blue Lane, which were booked for a total of around 7,000 test drives. At the IAA MOBILITY 936 speakers presented and exchanged ideas and innovations on all areas of mobility. The Citizen Lab forum directly in front of Munich City Hall offered 42 hours of programme with discussions around the mobility of tomorrow in six days.
In total, the IAA MOBILITY welcomed 400,000 participants and 3,500 journalists from 95 countries. This means that the new IAA MOBILITY is 32 per cent above the average number of daily visitors at the last IAA in Frankfurt, and this despite the existing Corona restrictions on international travel.
67 percent of the visitors were younger than 40. 86 percent of the visitors rated the concept of the IAA MOBILITY as good and very good. The mix of exhibitors and the opportunity to test new products directly were rated particularly positively.
The international media reach (pot.) of the IAA MOBILITY 2021 amounted to more than 137 billion views worldwide. The 140 million page impressions were recorded by the social media channels of the IAA MOBILITY. On YouTube and TikTok alone, IAA MOBILTIY posts were viewed more than 38 million times. Countries with particularly intensive coverage were China, USA, South Korea, Brazil, Spain, Italy and of course Germany. With this media reach, the IAA MOBILITY is one of the most important media events worldwide this year. The numbers speak for themselves. Force of Disruption GmbH offers you absolutely individual advice for your event, your message, your target group and your topics. From conception to implementation and distribution, we are always at your side and together we ensure sustainable success! The media created during the IAA MOBILITY are now stored on the various platforms with relevant hashtags and seo-optimised texts. Here, these topics can be found and of course also recommended to interested users on the platforms.
In event and theme communication, after the event is of course before the event. With a truly appropriate platform strategy, the topics that were already generated during the event days and the partners who booked their slot at the event are communicated throughout the year on all channels. In this way, the reach and relevance that was built up during the IAA MOBILITY 2021 will also be maintained for the next IAA MOBILITY 2023 and here the communication will simply find new highlights and extended reach with further highlights from the live and on-demand communication.
Have we also aroused your interest in a cross-platform and dialogue-oriented media concept?
Let's talk: contact@forceofdisruption.com
But before that happens, we will also be able to support the IAA TRANSPORTATION from 20 - 25 September 2022 in Hanover, and we are particularly looking forward to it.
The IAA Commercial Vehicles is expanding its concept and, as the IAA TRANSPORTATION, will become the leading international platform for logistics, commercial vehicles, buses and the transport sector. Under the motto "People and Goods on the move", the new IAA TRANSPORTATION will take place in Hanover from 20 to 25 September 2022. With the expanded event concept, for the first time it will network the relevant players from the commercial vehicles, buses and logistics sectors with leading tech providers and suppliers. An important goal of the new concept is to be the first international platform in the transport sector to increasingly focus on the climate-neutral and technological transformation of the entire transport sector.
At the new IAA TRANSPORTATION, visitors and trade visitors will meet international manufacturers, suppliers and newcomers as well as up-and-coming start-ups, leading tech companies, energy suppliers, providers of intermodal city logistics and universities from all over the world. Be part of the biggest mobility event of the year. With the IAA Exhibition, IAA Experience, IAA Conference, IAA Digital and IAA Career, we offer you five innovative and varied formats for your target groups. Take your chance now and register.
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