Launching a car that hadn’t been built yet.

Honda Australia’s dealership owners are some of its most important business partners. In July 2015, 120 of them came to Melbourne for a two day national dealer meeting, at a crucial point for their businesses. Honda needed to win them over, so the engagement had to be on point.

The meeting lined up with the reveal of the new Honda Civic. The catch: the car hadn’t been built yet. We had to capture the excitement of a launch without the thing we were launching.

My pitch, which Honda accepted, was the setting for the day one plenary: a 270 degree wraparound screen that surrounded the audience. The stage itself was a small, plain podium. No furniture, no lectern. The imagery and the content were the hero.

It landed. The meeting was a huge success, and post-event measurement showed real gains in sentiment and in how effective the event was.

Results

• Revealed the new Civic to 120 dealership owners, with no car on stage

• Day one plenary built around a 270 degree immersive screen, my concept

• Post-event measurement showed improved sentiment and event effectiveness