According to the management of Autopromotec, a record number of professionals are expected to flood the doors of participating exhibitors at the next fair in Bologna. The event, scheduled from May 21 to 24, 2025, can benefit from a large-scale press campaign initiated by the organizers with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (Maeci). As reported by the organizers of the biennial trade event for the automotive aftermarket and automotive equipment, the support comes from a funding pool for trade fair projects.
Global campaign in the name of the mobility transition
The ICE Agency, a department of Maeci tasked with organizing, launched international advertising measures last year, which primarily focused on relevant countries for the automotive spare parts market and are still ongoing. The main goal is the "inclusion of the entire world of the spare parts market and actors of the mobility transition on a global level," according to the organizers' press release.
Driving global interests
The advertising campaigns for the automotive spare parts fair, which alternates annually with Frankfurt's Automechanika in odd years, began in spring 2024. According to the release, the plan was to enable an unprecedented number of business meetings between buyers and exhibitors, as well as decision-makers and stakeholders on an international level, to represent "global visions and content" at the fair.
EU, Eastern Europe, South America
In addition, the organizations are leveraging co-promotion efforts, which bring together several participants under a common goal for joint marketing campaigns, bringing their entire network of agents and representatives, as well as their relationships with numerous foreign associations and other trade fairs, into play to motivate additional groups of professionals "from numerous markets in the EU and Eastern Europe" to visit. Moreover, they have also attempted to engage actors from the Caucasus region, including Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and parts of Turkey and Russia, as well as, on the other side of the globe, South America for the aftermarket fair.
The initiatives aim to provide exhibiting companies with as many business opportunities as possible. Buyers are to become familiar with all the product innovations, which are often presented for the first time to them at Autopromotec – "the most important international showcase for many sectors of the automotive aftermarket." To include especially foreign associations, an event calendar has been planned that considers the main themes and challenges of the automotive sector.
Japan, Korea, Germany, USA
The advertising campaign also included exploratory trips to Japan and Korea. Targeted actions were also launched in Germany. Afterwards, Autopromotec staff were present in the USA in fall 2024: at the Sema Tuning and Accessories Show and the Aapex aftermarket fair in Las Vegas.
Poland, Turkey, Spain, UK
This was followed by Poland, Turkey, and Spain with further presentations and roadshows, utilizing existing relationships with associations to encourage even more exhibitors and buyers to visit Autopromotec. These measures were accompanied by scouting actions in Spain and the United Kingdom to identify further potential interest groups.
Press events
The actions are to be crowned by several press days in key European countries and markets. According to the report, there is a particular focus on including France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the Nordic countries to attract more international visitors.
From regional to international fair
According to the organizers, Autopromotec, which first started in 1965, has been increasingly directed towards internationalizing in recent years. Before the Covid pandemic, the 28th Autopromotec in 2019 welcomed a total of 119,000 trade visitors, 21,000 of whom were international, from 136 countries — resulting in, according to the organizers, an approximately five percent increase in the trade audience compared to 2017. After an interim digital edition in 2020, the 29th edition was scheduled for 2021 according to the regular plan, but it was canceled due to the pandemic and postponed to 2022.
Here over 75,000 automotive industry professionals and 1,311 exhibitors from more than 116 countries already met in the northern Italian city. Now, instead of immediately scheduling the next edition just one year later in 2023, albeit at the regular time, it was decided to organize a smaller version this year outside its regular lineup with a specific focus on "The Future of Mobility" under the name Futurmotive.
At the same time, it was decided to regularly hold the "normal" Autopromotec alternately with the Frankfurt Automechanika every two years in odd years. Now the entire year 2024 has been used to promote Autopromotec 2025 worldwide. With the groundwork of trade fair promotion behind them, they hope the officially 30th edition in May will yield results at least comparable to 2019, but according to the announcement, they hope for new record numbers.
Strong international focus
Renzo Servadei, CEO of Autopromotec, confidently highlights the international focus of the aftermarket event as one of its core elements. There are extremely export-oriented exhibitors registered, some with an export share of around 90 percent or more of their revenue.
"For Autopromotec, internationalization does not only mean diving fully into business and dealing with all the different aspects of our industry, exchanging ideas, and sharing the best practices."
Therefore, aside from purely business relationships, a whole range of opportunities for cultural exchange has been planned to better involve foreign colleagues and partners, to introduce them to the traditions associated with the "Motor Valley" region of Emilia Romagna in motorsports, the cradle of the auto show.
Emanuele Vicentini, responsible for Global Branding and International Development at Autopromotec, believes that the elaborate press activities demonstrate the great value of the trade fair as a platform for leading brands and technologies in the industry and have significant impact, especially through the involvement of diverse stakeholders.
“The effectiveness of this integrated, international promotion campaign is based on the cooperation of different stakeholders and an extensive global network of relationships in the automotive aftermarket.”
