West Coast Customer Ideas Needed!

[Dave Smith]

We're meeting this morning to review the 2013 Huntington Beach Cruise-In. If any of you guys have ideas of things that you'd like to see for next year, I would love the hear them.

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My biggest change is I'd like to move all of the cars from the pier plaza parking lot (keeping the big Factory Five truck and maybe 10 cars on the actual plaza) to Main Street for all Factory Five show cars. The autocross was a blast and the town is happy with us and I figured now would be a good time to come up with ideas for next year.

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[Dave Smith]

By moving all the cars to Main Street we will be able to get a lot more vendors for sure and the town would love it! Next year I'm thinking about using that stuff you rub on your face to avoid a trip to the burn ward... Also, I again confirmed that beer is best after a long hot day in the so cal sun! We had a teleconf and selected April 26-27, 2014 as the date for next year.

I'd also love to add a charity like Wounded Warriors or the CF Foundation. The crowds were Huge!

Dave Smith
President

[68GT500MAN]

YES to the idea of having most of the cars on Main street. Yes to having 10 - 12 cars on the Plaza (we could pick several of each model to display). We will need to work out the logistics of how to unload the cars that come on trailers (less this year than in the past, but still necessary). It would be great to get permission from the city to have the "Moment of Thunder" on Main Street.
Doug

[2FAST4U]

Agree with all the above. Also, is it practical to segregate the models? Put Roadsters together, GTMs together etc.

[Dave Smith]

Doug, Good ideas. also HUGE thanks again for all your work. EVERY single time I turned around you were there to help out, lend a hand, or help some customer. Seriously man, you were super! Thanks.

Seggregating by model would make the car show judges MUCH happier!!! I think we could do that and it would be a lot fun. good idea man.

[wesmantoothAZ]

To expand on the charity inclusion idea, I think you could maybe hold a raffle of some kind where people could purchase tickets and the proceeds get donated. Items to be raffled could be components for a kit (chrome upgrade, leather seat upgrate, guages upgrade, etc.) Of course that may limit the audience interested in the raffle to car owners and soon to be owners so maybe something less tied to one of the kits would draw more people. Hey, how about a cruise down PCH and lunch with Dave Smith??

I also think the event is great for families but to take it to another level, you guys could sell/donate The Factory Five coloring book and set aside a shaded area with tables, coloring supplies, and snacks so patrons with kids can have something that may appeal more to little ones who may want to see the cars but get tired walking around all afternoon. Proceeds from the sale of the coloring books could go to the CF foundation.

One last idea that would be a cool way to welcome new car owners into the community is having Dave Smith and the FFR team personally deliver a couple of kits to customers at the event (they would need to obviously trailer them home from there). It could be a part of the official program for the event where everyone can gather around and Dave can welcome them into the community and challenge them to bring their cars back complete in a year (or two :) ). There are a couple of benefits to this concept. One, other than SEMA which is more of an industry professional’s event, the HB Cruise In is typically the only west coast event that takes place on the FFR events calendar. So, for much of us "west coasters" this is our only opportunity to interact with the FFR community. I know the goal of the event isn't to sell cars but if potential customers saw new customers take delivery of their kits it would be a pretty neat experience that may get them thinking more about getting a kit of their own. For the existing owners, I think it would be a pretty nostalgic experience for them as well. Imagine how cool it would be to see the new kits with the pallet of boxes lined up and Dave handing the keys to the new owners. FFR could cover the transport cost (or a portion of it) in exchange for the agreement that the new owners have to make the kits available for viewing during the entire event. I'll admit that last part is a self-serving idea that I'd be happy to volunteer for when I purchase my MK4 :).

I'm going to be touring the factory on May 10th so I'd be happy to share some other ideas I may come up with. The event is already pretty cool as is!

[stack]

To expand on the charity inclusion idea, I think you could maybe hold a raffle of some kind where people could purchase tickets and the proceeds get donated. Items to be raffled could be components for a kit (chrome upgrade, leather seat upgrate, guages upgrade, etc.) Of course that may limit the audience interested in the raffle to car owners and soon to be owners so maybe something less tied to one of the kits would draw more people. Hey, how about a cruise down PCH and lunch with Dave Smith??

I also think the event is great for families but to take it to another level, you guys could sell/donate The Factory Five coloring book and set aside a shaded area with tables, coloring supplies, and snacks so patrons with kids can have something that may appeal more to little ones who may want to see the cars but get tired walking around all afternoon. Proceeds from the sale of the coloring books could go to the CF foundation.

One last idea that would be a cool way to welcome new car owners into the community is having Dave Smith and the FFR team personally deliver a couple of kits to customers at the event (they would need to obviously trailer them home from there). It could be a part of the official program for the event where everyone can gather around and Dave can welcome them into the community and challenge them to bring their cars back complete in a year (or two :) ). There are a couple of benefits to this concept. One, other than SEMA which is more of an industry professional’s event, the HB Cruise In is typically the only west coast event that takes place on the FFR events calendar. So, for much of us "west coasters" this is our only opportunity to interact with the FFR community. I know the goal of the event isn't to sell cars but if potential customers saw new customers take delivery of their kits it would be a pretty neat experience that may get them thinking more about getting a kit of their own. For the existing owners, I think it would be a pretty nostalgic experience for them as well. Imagine how cool it would be to see the new kits with the pallet of boxes lined up and Dave handing the keys to the new owners. FFR could cover the transport cost (or a portion of it) in exchange for the agreement that the new owners have to make the kits available for viewing during the entire event. I'll admit that last part is a self-serving idea that I'd be happy to volunteer for when I purchase my MK4 :).

I'm going to be touring the factory on May 10th so I'd be happy to share some other ideas I may come up with. The event is already pretty cool as is!

I like all of these ideas. Maybe the west coast guys can build a give away kit like the Ohio guys. Raffle it off and proceeds go to CF. Let me know what I can do to help. I probably can do more for the Syracuse nationals show since it is closer but what ever you need Dave and crew. Thanx for the great time

stack

[Ray]

Dave,

Jodi and I like the idea of all the cars on Main St. but think that the mix of cars is better than separating them by type. Is there enough room on Main for 100+ cars? If possible, can some of the "blem' parts etc. like are offered at the FFR open house be brought to HB? If not for sale, maybe as a fund raiser raffle?

Ray

PS: Plus the items that we discussed by phone earlier this week.

[Dave Smith]

Really great ideas! I just realized that the picture of me downing beers is probably the wrong message to send! But I gotta tell you, they went down easy after 10 hours in the sunny so cal sun.

The charity angle is huge and LCS has done a great job. Hodgkins came up with a dunk tank for the boss... I think I'll make more money for charity letting people pay me back with dunks... "Here's for my back-ordered side pipes Smith", swooosh, thud, splash...

I think the main street can accomodate about 135 cars and the town offered us the third block.

[Ray]

...Hodgkins came up with a dunk tank for the boss... I think I'll make more money for charity letting people pay me back with dunks... "Here's for my back-ordered side pipes Smith", swooosh, thud, splash...

Since my shoulder surgery I can't throw a baseball anymore. Okay if I use something else? I promise to only aim at the target.....

Ray

[flynntuna]

It's so impressive to see so many great ideas coming from the folks in the community. I like the idea of moving most of the cars to Main St. It would leave more room on the pier parking lot for more vendors. I'd like to be able to speak to the Forum supporting Vendors face to face, and see some of their products first hand.

[Ray]

Oh yeah, go back to just FFR products. We had one guy show up with his 1980 something GMC pick-up and a "For Sale" sign. The '31 Lincoln was pretty cool as was the Willy's but I think with the introduction of the 818, we'll have more than enough vehicles to fill the show.

Ray

[tcarlson]

At first, I thought move everything to Main Street. Where would the FFR 18 wheeler go though? I looked at the map and thought the only other place for it would be on Orange and Main? That would allow for three blocks on both sides of the street for cars and exhibits. The big question with that is will the city allow it? To use a made up word... Dunno. And with all this talk and thinking ...This years location for the FFR 18 wheeler at the beginning of the pier was pretty dang good.

If possible, it would be great to have a public announcement system that covered the pier and along the Main Street for music and announcements. The music was great, by the way, and really added to the event. And / or have some signage showing a map of where and what type of cars will be and any events / talks.

Overall, it was an excellent event... Thanks to all who did the hard work to organize it this year. My brother, dad and I really appreciate it.

PS. I'd have gladly shared our sunblock with Dave... I'd be more sunburnt than him if I hadn't used some. Plus it looks like he was having a great time anyway. :)

[ehansen007]

With Main St. we actually get the Pier plaza so the Rig and some marquis cars would go there. Probably one of each FFR model as a bit of a showroom and questions about each model could be answered there by FFR sales. Not that it's a sales event but hey, we're there after all! And, after all the planning this year, it was nice to sit down and not talk about planning. So yes, a celebration beer was in order. :)

[Marv]

I'd also love to add a charity like Wounded Warriors or the CF Foundation. The crowds were Huge!

Dave Smith
President[/QUOTE]
How about a year long raffle starting now with the give away at HB. This would raise a lot more money for the charity. Great show by the way came over from AZ.

[luvaz]

Dave, First off, thanks for hosting another great show!

As far as future plans, I'll reiterate what Jim, Ray & others have already suggested; moving everything to Main St is a good start. Crossing PCH several times throughout the day was a bit of a drag, and sort of made it feel like an us-against-them (read pier vs. Main St).

Having more vendors along Main St. (w/some wares for sale) would be attractive for many folks in attendance.

Having some sort of open-house style 'scratch & dent sale' would be great! And if the proceeds benefit a worthy charity, so much the better.

I'm digging the idea of a dunk tank for charity...

more to come...
Thanks,
Will