The Classic Motor Show is truly one of the highlights in the classic car calendar and it’s been wonderful for team Red Marlin to have been involved with the show once again this year.

Over the last five years we’ve supported our client Silverstone Auctions host its season finale at this very special event, as well as a number of other clients tap into the excitement and success of the show, supporting their PR and marketing activities around the event.

We also welcomed Channel 4 and Ant Anstead’s team from ‘For the Love of Cars’ who joined us at the NEC to see the very special 1958 ex-Chris Barber Lotus Elite sell for a new world record price of £121,500.

This year’s event was certainly the best ever, with record attendance figures and 2,500 classic cars and motorcycles spanning one million square feet on display. It’s a real ‘must do’ event for the classic car community, attended by the biggest and the best, and even a growing number of manufacturers, including Jaguar, Porsche and Aston Martin’s classic departments.

This is a clear sign in the growth of not just the show, but the classic car industry as a whole.  The classic car sector is worth £5.5bn to the British economy and 34,900 people are employed in the historic vehicle sector, according to research carried out by the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs. The numbers go on, 8.2m people in the UK are interested in historic vehicles, and there are 1,039,950 historic vehicles on the road with a total estimated value of £17.8bn!

So clearly there’s an important market out there for relevant businesses yet so many in the sector fail to properly market themselves, struggling to utilise modern methods to really grow and sell what, in many ways, are niche products and services.

The Classic Motor continues to better itself, and it’s now time for others in the industry to up their game, so if your classic car business is looking to upgrade its PR and marketing strategy, get in touch with Red Marlin to find out what we could do for you.