NEPTUNE, N.J. - Citing drops in attendance and booth sales, Tom Elder, president of the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of New Jersey (AASP/NJ) detailed the reasons behind the announcement that the 32nd annual NORTHEAST Automotive Trade Show would move from Suffern, N.Y., its home for almost two decades, to the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, N.J.
Elder noted the history of the show, which began in the mind 1970’s and originally was held in Secaucus. Elder said the show grew in popularity so quickly that a bigger venue became necessary. Rockland Exposition suggested the move to the Suffern Arena. Only 10 vendors showed up in Suffern that year, but the show grew significantly after that. After attendance began dropping during the last several years, the AASP/NJ conducted a survey of vendors who had stopped attending. Those vendors thought the Suffern location was too remote.
Elder said the AASP/NJ spoke to Rockland Expositions, who manage marketing for NORTHEAST, about adopting a new marketing strategy to draw in more attendees. After that strategy failed to work, Elder said it became apparent to the AASP/NJ it was time to “move on.”
Elder said the AASP/NJ began considering the Meadowlands after it discovered that competition among the exposition center industry had significantly drawn down prices and labor costs. He noted, “Once we met with the Meadowlands and saw their state-of-the-art facility and location, we were very interested. We attended a few shows at the site and came away extremely impressed. Everything about the location was a positive. Parking surrounds the facility. Five hotels are within walking distance. Restaurants, shops and bars are everywhere. They have the racetrack and the arena. A new state-of-the-art theme park, Xanadu, will be opening a few months prior to our show. And it’s five miles from the heart of New York City. There are so many attractive things about the location; we felt it would be foolish not to.”
Also part of the decision was the Meadowlands location. Elder explained that there are approximately 1,200 shops within a 30-mile radius of Suffern. There are almost 10,000 shops within the same distance to the Meadowlands. The Meadowlands also is closer to shops in central and south New Jersey, along with the thousands of shops in the boroughs of New York and shops in Massachusetts, New York State, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and other states up and down the East Coast. Elder said, “At the Meadowlands, access is simple from everywhere in the country. It is five miles from Newark Airport; Interstate 95 runs right past it and every major highway in the state will bring you there.”
“We are going to make NORTHEAST 2009 a must-see show. We expect to triple our attendees from Suffern,” he said.
To help market the show, the AASP/NJ has hired SGW Marketing to put together a comprehensive marketing plan to target attendees from the entire Northeast region.
“SGW’s clients include Sony, JVC and New Jersey Travel and Tourism, so we know we have taken a dramatic leap upward in our marketing strategy. We will have a new website, electronic marketing, press releases, online space booking and online promotion,” said Elder.
For more information on AASP/NJ and NORTHEAST 2009, visit the AASP/NJ Web site at www.aaspnj.org.
