[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith nearly 500 exhibitors already committed to the third annual American International Motorcycle Expo this October, there will be a bevy of new products and interactive opportunities for attendees to see and experience for virtually every aspect of the powersports marketplace. With such a high level of participation from across the industry – exhibitors, dealers, media and consumers – there is great opportunity for dealers to make the most out of their investment to attend North America’s premier powersports trade show.

Perhaps one of the greatest opportunities is helping dealers compete in an expanding online world. AIMExpo presents the single best arena for brick and mortar retailers to discover products and services that will improve their competitive position, increase customer retention and grow profits. It’s all right there on the show floor. With one of the largest, most diverse collection of exhibitors of any powersports show on the continent, there are products that can help you strengthen your value as a retailer to your customer base. The show floor is also a place to engage with exhibitors and help them understand your challenges as a dealer, and how to make their products better.
Here’s a quick story about how dealer input helped reshape one exhibitor’s mobile app into a key link between consumers and dealerships.

Created by the mobile application group Activation, Inc., CycleMate went from being a somewhat experimental mobile app aimed at enhancing the fun of being an enthusiast by connecting riders, to one of the most popular products at AIMExpo last year. Since then, it has evolved into one of the most invaluable tools for dealers to engage with their customers.

CycleMate co-founder and Activation, Inc., President Stephan Galfas is an enthusiast at heart. As an individual who loves motorcycles, he simply wanted to find a way to make that passion more entertaining by taking advantage of the digital-driven world.

“CycleMate was our first foray into the powersports world of any kind,” he said. “We had a product that we thought could be considered interesting to fellow enthusiasts and we decided the best place to put CycleMate in front of a large audience of like-minded people was AIMExpo. We went to the show to see if there was a fit for CycleMate in the marketplace.”

In their interactions with dealers on the show floor, Stephen’s team began to see that the mobile-centric product could be improved to be a platform for business enhancement between dealers and their customers. With digital retail and communication expanding at a rapid pace, the face-to-face interactions that once defined the powersports marketplace are gradually declining, particularly with the new generation of consumers.

So, while CycleMate was built to provide a way for enthusiasts to connect with one another, its overwhelming appeal to dealers helped reshape the app into an innovative marketing tool for business owners to engage with consumers, build loyalty, drive sales and increase service. Today, CycleMate is delivered to dealers as a branded mobile app specific to their business with an administrative panel. It provides dealers with the ability to individually target customers with personalized messages, invitations and promotions based on a user’s location, bike, interests, and engagement history.

And the best part about CycleMate for the dealer’s increasingly important bottom line? It’s extremely cost-effective at less than $50 a month.

And Of Their AIMExpo Experience?
“We were blown away by the response and we ended up being very busy throughout the four-day event in our small little booth,” continued Galfas. “We saw in excess of 600 people at our booth throughout AIMExpo and we ended up with 70 new clients, mostly dealers. With such a large and dynamic audience we were able to get direct feedback with peer-to-peer interaction, which allowed us to refine the app to be even more effective for dealers. That was hands down the most critical aspect to our success at the show.”

In addition to the overwhelming success of the CycleMate app with attending dealers and the media, Activation, Inc., also acquired new business by establishing partnerships with fellow exhibitors in need of mobile accessibility – SidebySideStuff.com and Ace Cafe Orlando.

“The AIMExpo mantra is exactly how our success played out,” concluded Galfas. “We were in the right place, at the right time, and perhaps even more importantly for us, we had the right price to make CycleMate a success. With dealer feedback we were able to refine the app and effectively transform many dealers’ business model by giving them a service they’ve so desperately needed at a truly cost-effective price point.”

Who Will Be This Year’s CycleMate?
If you’re a dealer looking for new ways to be competitive in an online world – looking for new, innovative products and services – AIMExpo is where you need to be in October. See you in Orlando!