Every year during the coldest week imaginable, close to a million folks flock downtown to the North American International Auto Show. And while most attend to gape and awe at the beautiful sheet metal, showmanship and spectacle, the marketing geeks descend on Cobo to critique every pixel, paper and promotion.
While there's no shortage of beautiful, eye-catching design throughout the show, picking a winner on the marketing front was easy this year: Ford wins hands down. They have most definitely raised the bar on experiential marketing at the auto show.
This was actually a bit of a surprise based on our first impression. The first Ford logo we encountered was a tattered 15-story banner blowing in the wind alongside the old Pontchartrain hotel. Those iconic angular windows don't care much for building wraps.