Promotions

‘Touch and Go’ Contest Offers Gripping Finale: The Washington Auto Show®

Hands On Contest

Six days of hanging on are over. Keys are drawn, fingers are crossed and a standing room only audience at the Washington Convention Center waits to exhale, all while cameras roll and shutters click. It’s the final moments of the Washington Auto Show’s Hand On Contest and a live audience has tuned in to see which participants will drive home free cars as contest winners.
The Hands On Contest is the lead promotional event of the Washington Auto Show, sponsored Pomerance and Associates’ client the Washington Automobile Dealers Association (WANADA). P & A manages all promotional, public relations and advertising aspects of the show, a major industry event drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The contest offers a free new car to the contestant's) who can stay in physical contact with the vehicle's) the longest. Most often, multiple contestants survive six “touch and go” days to participate in a suspenseful finale.

The Hands On Contest was created by Pomerance and Associates to heighten awareness, generate excitement for and increase media coverage of the Washington Auto Show. And this promotional event has the right touch! Since the inception of the Hands On Contest, attendance for the Washington Auto Show has increased 18%. The 1999 show was the subject of more than 150 broadcast new stories, literally from coast to coast with saturation in the primary viewing target of Washington, D.C. Print coverage was extensive with six stories in the Washington Post alone. The show and contest have been covered by Good Morning America, CNN, the NBC Nightly News, USA Today, and US News and World Report, among others. In total, the 1999 Washington Auto Show earned media coverage valued at more than $7.5 million dollars, reaching a potential audience of over 41 million people. Pomerance and Associates received the Phoenix Award from the Public Relations Society of America for the creation and management of the Hands On Contest under the Media Relations category. The Hands On Contest has become a tradition at the Washington Auto Show, and continues to garner national media coverage.