Volvo Opts Out of Most Auto Shows

Starting next year Volvo Car Group will participate in only three car shows Detroit, Geneva and Shanghai/Beijing and drop almost all its event sponsorships, according to the Financial Times.

Alain Visser

Volvo insists the move isn't intended to cut costs. Alain Visser, who heads Volvo marketing, says the company's budget will expand. "There are better ways to communicate our product and our brands than going to motor shows," he declares.

The FT says Volvo currently attends about 100 local and international auto events per year. But Visser complains that a niche player such as Volvo can't make much of an impression at auto show media previews, where dozens of carmakers compete for attention with back-to-back 20-minutes press conferences.

FT sources say carmakers can easily spend $5 million on a single "tier-one" auto show such as Paris or Frankfurt. The newspaper opines that carmakers increasingly believe they can get more media coverage by launching new models on their own rather than at shows.

Visser tells the FT he intends to refocus Volvo's marketing resources on an annual "Volvo product day."