Canadian International AutoShow

Automotive

In Partnership With

Client Background

About the client

The Canadian International AutoShow is Canada’s largest auto show, connecting car shoppers and enthusiasts with automotive brands from around the world. Along with special exhibitions, unique vehicles, and test drives, the annual event welcomes over 350,000 attendees per year.

Canada’s largest auto show running since 1974
40+ automakers on display
350,000+ attendees every year
650,000 sqft of event floor space

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Where We Started

The challenge

The AutoShow website did not effectively represent the size and grandeur of the annual events. Information was lacking and disorganized, and there was no focus for the various audiences: attendees, auto makers, and the media. Additionally, performance of the website was severely restricted due to slow page load times during the busiest time of the year when the event was in progress.

A page design that did not work well with mobile visitors
A disorganized collection of pages that lacked the details necessary for attendees
A content management system that made it difficult for timely updates
Code performance issues making the site extremely slow during peak show days

How We Collaborated

Design process

1. Original website

The previous AutoShow website was minimal in content, had an overly complex navigation system, and focused too much attention on less critical elements.

2. Project blueprint

Leaf Design worked alongside our partners at Universus to determine the ideal strategy for connecting with the various audiences that the AutoShow is relevant to.

3. Initial concept

The first iteration of the new AutoShow Home page was a significant step in the right direction. With buy-in from the AutoShow team, only a few revisions were necessary.

4. Final design

Some additional design flair was added to the final design and more attention was provided to the past year’s show highlights.

The Results

Our solution

Engaging design

The AutoShow is an event that exists to bring some excitement to the automotive industry. The new website’s design made sure to include significant media including still images and video elements. With 500,000+ web visitors expected to view the site, the user experience (UX) was critical for a successful project. Mega menus and on-page scrolling navigation helped to make sure content was always available to users. Given that a significant number of visitors would be accessing the website while they are at the AutoShow, special attention was paid to the mobile experience.

Multi-audience content

While you may initially think of the AutoShow as a consumer event, in reality, the event brings together a variety of audiences: OEM auto manufacturers, automobile buyers and enthusiasts, and the media. All are required for a successful event in this symbiotic relationship.

Each audience has very different interests, and the website needed to cater content to each in an engaging manner. To accomplish this, each group of visitors has its own first-level menu item with content pages that are only relevant to their specific needs.

A flexible CMS

The AutoShow is a dynamic event and as such content is constantly changing. As a result, the back-end was designed with a custom interface to handle common content updates without the need for any design or coding to be performed. Through the use of simple forms fields and a drag and drop interface, most content tasks can be handled by the AutoShow’s marketing team. For more involved changes where new pages are required, a visual editor was provided to make creating page layouts relatively quickly and easily.

Performance improvements

One of the biggest issues with the previous website was the slow load times of the website. Leaf Design addressed this in a variety of ways. Although videos and images are plentiful, they were all optimized to minimize file sizes and page load times. Along with this content being cached, the hosting infrastructure include the use of a content delivery network (CDN) to offload much of the site’s bandwidth to many access points throughout the country.