• by Karl Greenberg , June 10, 2011

First there was Autorama, then Auto Show in Motion, and now Main Street In Motion. General Motors is taking its Chevrolet, GMC and Buick brand vehicles to some 25 markets in the U.S. this year. The point is to get potential buyers together without dealership pressure.

The experiential test-drive event, which is free (although GM suggests that people pre-register at MainStreetInMotion.com) is stopping in New York June 10-12 at CitiField in Queens. The show features 130 vehicles, 70 models, and some 20 non-GM models consumers can test drive for comparison.

Larry Peck, manager for GM experiential marketing, tells Marketing Daily the company's New York stop is the 11th in the tour, after rolling through West Coast and Southeast markets. "We started it as a pilot program in Santa Anita, Calif.," he says. "This is similar to Auto Show in Motion, but at the time we ran that we had eight brands, so now we are focusing on three." Cadillac is doing a separate premium experiential program.

The show includes seven driving courses that are delineated by vehicle type -- performance cars, sedans, trucks and SUVs, and the Volt, which gets the only on-road course. Competitive vehicles from Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Acura, Nissan, and Ford are on hand. The exhibition also has areas with interactive games from the likes of Wii, PlayStation, and Xbox.

"Basically, we are trying to change consideration and opinion," he says, adding that GM research from the Santa Anita event showed that opinion for Buick increased by 125% pre- versus post-event. Chevrolet opinion increased 60% and GMC opinion 25%.

"There are no salespeople out there, we aren't selling at all. We know when people see, touch and feel the products their consideration goes way up," he says.

The automaker is telling consumers about the show in each market via direct and opt-in email, limited newspaper and digital including and banners. "This is first and foremost directed at conquest -- consumers who do not own GM vehicles. But we have also included loyalists as well, because they are advocates," says Peck.

Peck says the program has garnered around 4,000 visits and 20,000 test drives per market, and that the company has so far tracked 500 sales directly from the events and will track results over the next half year.

One visitor to the Queens show, a middle-aged Hispanic man who brought his son, said he liked the fact that there was no pressure, and that it saved time. "I don't have to go from dealership to dealership," he says.

"I think the thing that makes the big difference is no sales pressure," says Kate McLeod, Girl Driver USA journalist and blogger. "If you are a woman and go into a dealership you get ignored. If you are a man, someone is leaning on you. With an event like this, nobody is doing anything but showing you where to park once you have test-driven the car."

She says she wonders what GM must be shelling out to run the events in 24 cities -- GM would not say -- which involves multiple pavilions, a large staff and lots and lots of vehicles. "But I think it's a huge advantage for the consumer. And it just shows you how competitive the market is that they are willing to do this. But it probably doesn't cost them as much as a Super Bowl ad."