Since the invention of the automobile its selling always took place after the same samples and structures. The automobile commercial landscape was marked by brand-exclusive dealers, who operated the new and used car sales as well as the repair business under the roof of usually very closely attached commercial nets. But in the past years movement came into the industry: new players as repair chains, used car-super-stores, promoted by the group exemption regulation (GVO) on one side and the meaning and speed of the new medium Internet on the other side, have introduced a restructuring process in the automobitive retailing. The today's customer ever more rarely exclusively orients itself at the vehicle characteristics; therefore it will be ever more important for the salesman to obtain on the one hand target-oriented product information and also to emotionally load on the other hand the brand. Because with high emotional suggestion information is longer stored than with lower suggestion. Thus therefore brand and advertising messages, which are emotional loaded, are reminded faster and more simply. Also the introduction campaign of the BMW Group for the BMW 1er "Principle Joy" set as central element on emotions - the success of this campaign confirms the thesis that emotion is a powerful component of marketing. The introduction of multimedia technologies is based particularly on these realizations.

The automobile industry and/or the autotrade therefore already began very early with the beginning of the multimedia era deploying multimedia kioskterminals, in order to be able to offer to its customers a special service. Crucial advantage versus other techniques was already at that time the realization to present complex products simply and lastingly; because contents could be visualized with multimedia by far better, because emotionally enriched, as e.g. the Volkswagen company determined. Almost all car manufacturers therefore tested the use of kiosk terminals.  However there have been also errors at the introduction of so some multimedia project which led to failures and thus to the abort of the project, because projects have not been integrated into the enterprise strategy, because they had not included em­ployees and because they possibly have been introduced it too early for some companies. With VIDIS, the moderated system at Volkswagen, nearly everything has been made correctly which concerned the form / contents tuning -  it had been however missed to diminish the barriers of the technique acceptance with the salesmen so that first the majority of the dealers rejected and did not use the system. Also today it still lacks an efficient sales management on sides of the dealers, whose given away sales potential may estimated by 10 to 15 per cent.  So the DaimlerChrysler Showroom established with large financial expenditure and many very innovative multimedia terminals in an expensive city center location in Frankfurt/Main could become only a flop, because almost exclusively apprentices were used as employees, who had not been trained at all in sales and lead management techniques. Meanwhile the majority of the buyers of a new vehicle uses the Internet in order to inform in detail about the suited car models - in the USA meanwhile 69 per cent of the buyers. 79 per cent of them will be affected by the Internet in their purchase decision. Also with the search for a used car the Internet in the USA is prominent with already 59 per cent. But the straight variety and thus vagueness of the information in the Internet have led that many automobile companies and dealers have introduced showrooms and experience parks (such as Volkswagen's "Autostadt" or the "BMW World") in order to differentiate themselves from competitors at their customers by an emotional, experience-oriented positioning. Via interactive room and medium installations, interactive posters and displays (Digital Signage) as well as interactive kiosk terminals customers are informed about the advantages of the respective car brand and the looked for car model in an entertaining way, whereby the salesman serves as an intermediary who leads the customer through the information and sales process. With kiosk terminals the complex product offering is optimally presented, supported by videos, animations or music. By interaction the product catalog becomes a product experience - the customer experiences the product world on his own way. The kiosk terminals make possible besides a low, anonymous contact threshold also for computer laymen to argue with products without becoming "frightened" by salesmen. With kiosk terminals also the customer relationship management system can be supported optimally: e.g. the lead management for new prospective customers on autoshows and fairs or the use of customer loyalty cards for exclusive and attractive add-on on services such as coupons for events or test drives. The versatile possibilties of multimedia within the sales process has been very descriptively demonstrated with the "smart" car model of MCC GmbH. In the phase, in which one is interested in the acquisition of a car, thus the "phase of the attention", Internet and public kiosk terminals on fairs are effective means for provision of information. In the "phase of strengthened interest" naturally the Internet, but also CD-ROMs for the view at home and kiosk terminals in the show rooms of the dealer have been very helpful. And in the "phase of serious interest to buy" the Internet from at home and kiosk systems as well as the salesman's desk finally play the crucial role, whereby all once seized information and data remained available and accessable in all phases of the sales process and even on all sales channels.  In the meantime also new technologies have been introduced such as RFID: like that the American automobile repair chain All Night Auto has introduced RFID based customer loyalty cards, on which the substantial information about the customer, the car and the repair history is stored - that saved at least 7 minutes with the acceptance of repairs and made these available for direct customer communication.

For the introduction of the new AUDI A6 the AUDI AG converted the complete product catalog interactively on kiosk terminals which have been presented to dealers, customers and prospects especially on automobile salons like the "Automobile Salon Geneva 2004", on dealer meetings, in VIP-Meetings as well as in showrooms. 

In January 2002 BMW of North America has set up with all US BMW dealers new kiosk terminals, called "Virtual Sales Center (VSC)". The goal was to bring the BMW WebSite into the showroom, but with functionalities and videos, which one could not look at home, and with the possibility of having a salesman as advisor quite nearby. Therefore it was also substantial that the salesman could sit with the customer in front of the kiosk terminal, instead of otherwise usually standing before it. A specialty was the "iDrive Simulator" with that the customer could try out the car and its functionalities. Almost 3 years BMW has worked on the concept of the „Virtual Sales Center (VSC)". The unusual design and the strategic concept of this project obtained therefore several renowned honors. For the announcement of the "BMW X3 Lite Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV)" in the autumn 2003 the dealers of BMW of North America asked to let develop a system that should not deployed in showrooms but at public places, where the target group of the X3 Lite is present - and with it again brings potential customers into the showrooms. For this purpose a kiosk terminal was developed, which is transportable and is accordingly flat to be folded, so that it fits into a BMW X3 Lite. So that it could be immediately used at the new location, it was WLAN- oriented. A further characteristic of the "BMW X3 Portable Wireless Kiosk" was its design: in order to make the sporty target group attentive on the terminal, it was arranged in form of a surfboard. It is obvious that these kiosk terminals found likewise large attention and received several renowned honors. For the introduction on the market of the new BMW 1er the BMW Group had realized 24 interactive systems for the Automobile Salon 2004 in Paris both for promotion tours and events for dealers, employees and press in numerous European cities in order to give visitors a medial impression of the new car. BMW succeeded in addressing the target group from the used one. In the form of interactive terminals, combined to a comprehensive room installation, the visitor could experience quality, competence and innovation strength of the new BMW 1er. Traditional representations e.g. the configuration of colors, lacquers and materials became a new touchable feeling and caused such an intensive product experience. This comprehensive solution was therefore honored with the German Multimedia Award 2005 in the category room installations. Also the brand MINI belonging to the BMW Group uses very effectively again and again kiosk terminals to the emotional customer attraction. Thus a very large attention on that was obtained at the Geneva Automobile Salon 2004 with a multi user game, which was presented over three levels on the central video wall. For this a big 3D-city was created in the MINI CI. Four hidden movement sensors integrated into the architec­ture of the booth registered the individual hand movements of the players and trans­lated them into the game. In a similar way on Detroit Motorshow 2005 the new MINI Cooper S was introduced. To putting out its special characteristic - the particularly quick automatic gear-shift - a exhibit was provided  with which the visitors could experience the efficiency of the fast automatic gear-shift in an entertainable way. On the 75th. Internationa­le Auto-Salon 2005 in Geneva MINI inspired its visitors with several interactive exhibits. Thus on 30"-Touch-LCDs of the" MINI Builder " wish cars could be configured, those afterwards were printed out as folding brochure - with a photo of the visitor behind the windshield.  

DaimlerChrysler Motors Co. LLC in the USA began in the year 2000 to deploy at about 1.850 of their 4.300 Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep dealers „Vehicle Infor­mation Center (VIC)"called informa­ti­on kiosk terminals. At the VIC terminals customers could view not only color variations on the inside and exterior, but could also call up information about the vehicle as well as technical details. In the autumn 2004 the system became re-designed due to the experiences made in practice and received 4 roles, so that it became mobile and could be moved in the sales room to a vehicle or a customer discussion. Also the „Vehicle Information Center (VIC)" kiosk terminals found international acknow­ledgment by many honors. In order to let visitors at fairs discover the A-class in an entainable manner, four terminal games have been developed for the Mercedes Benz exhibition booth at the Automobile Salon 2004 in Paris, which afterwards have been available to visitors also on other fairs world-wide. Therefore the from the childhood well-known games  Senso, Tetris, Labyrinth and Zau­bertafel have been interpreted multimedially new. Each game presented thereby a product highlight of the vehicle - namely the interior equip­ment, space volume, navigation system and design. Also the safety system PRE-SAFE of Mercedes Benz should be made experiencable to the customers in an entertainable way and was therefore presented on futuristically seeming terminals for the flexible usage at fairs.  PRE-SAFE means the transmission of the natural reflex, the protection reflex, into the world of the technology. The function of PRE-SAFE was explained to the viewer by nature analogies which becomes already active before a threatening accident - by looking further ahead, recognizing and reaction. The terminals expressed the fusion of technology and bionics with their silver surface and the behind-shone Silicone intarsia. The korpus served thereby as interactive monitor: a video was started in the inside of the ball by affecting the grasp surfaces.

The Mazda North American Operations in 2003 started under the title „Maz­da's Retail Revolu­tion" to make the showrooms of their dealer organisation an experience for the customers - and kiosk terminals play a crucial role. While waiting for the oil change or a test drive, customers can configure at the terminals their wish car, buy accessories, look at Mazda videos or surf in the Internet on the Mazda WebSite. The "Mazda Retail Kiosk" offers always current, detailed and individual information about the different Mazda products to the customers. They can look at all important data and facts of the cars, compare the selected Mazda car with appropriate competitor models, look at local dealer privileges, read other marketing information and print everything on a color printer. The "Mazda Retail Kiosk" likewise received several renowned honors in the past three years 2004, 2005 and also 2006 and caused with some Mazda dealers even double sales figures, as was only recently communicated.

The French car manufacturer Renault had already used in the middle of the 90's multimedia terminals on which the individual models were represented by videos. At the Inter­nationale Auto­mobile Fair  2003 in Frank­­furt/Main Renault presented itself with two long LED strips with a length of 25,5 and/or. 13 meters, which were integrated into the 70 meters construction. The topic driving safety was represented in an information island with twelve 61"-Plasma-Displays arranged in the circle as well as a suspen­ded projection. At the Inter­na­tio­nale Au­to­mobile Fair for Commercial Motor Vehicles 2004 in Hano­ver Re­nault Trucks presented value and specialties of their commercial motor vehicles via kiosk ­­ter­minals with three interactive games. In order to attract the visitors, the games could be seen very impressively by everyone on 3 to 4 meters high luminous terminals.

At thr In­ternationale Automobile Fair 2003 in Frank­furt/Main, but even at the Automobile Salons 2004, 2005 und 2006 in Geneva and the Tokyo Motorshow 2005 Saab has been prominent in the presenta­tion of me­dium-technicall ­inno­vations. In a 36 square meters large VIP Lounge three curved LED walls with each ten LED modules were integrated into the booth concept.  The con­tents provided for this employment produced dynamic video and light effects and created thereby a special mood and unusual atmosphere in the VIP Lounge. In addition there have been installed five plasma displays with a size of 50 inches hanging over the cover, eight vehicle assistant terminals as well as two Internet stations. Furthermore Saab presents since the autumn 2001 "Saab Interactive Car Display Systems" as vehicle assistant ter­minals. A self-describing software leads the user by the installation and the car configurator. The customer can meet its language selection by touch and then calls up information about the entire model pallet as well as performances, design and security about the vehicle in the showroom and much more and finally configure itself  his dream car.

The American Suzuki Motor Corporation (ASMC) found out by market investigations that their salesmen often not possess the product, market and competitive product knowledge like their customers and pros­pective customers. Therefore one had decided to use kiosk terminals which should serve above all the salesmen for the selling assistance, and furthermore give also the customers the possibilities to configure their dream car, their dream motorcycle in 3D-view by adding different accessory components e.g. chrome linings, bags and lights as well as by changing the color selection. In February 2002 the „Suzuki Sales P.R.O. (Professional Retail Out­let)"-Kiosk for the first time presented to the public at the  Indianapolis Dealer Expo 2002. In the meantime more than 60 per cent of the dealers use the „Suzuki Sales P.R.O." - some of them report that they obtained between 20 to 35 per cent more sales with them; further terminals are to be installed also with the Suzuki dealers in Europe, so that altogether more than 900 terminals will then be in use. It therefore does not surprise that also the „Suzuki Sales P.R.O."-Kiosks are honored with several awards.

Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc. has gone with the new Scion new ways in the customer attraction - via its own WebSite and via separate sales rooms. The customers and prospective customers - here one aimed primarily at young customers - a special purchase experience should be offered, they should configure themselves their car and should be able also to order it - without being addressed by salesmen. They supported them only when they were asked by the customer. For this purpose a "Discovery Zone", a Showroom was created where the customers could have access to the Scion WebSite via Internet kiosk terminals and could configure there their car - and afterwards in order to accelerate the sales process they could store and print the data.

The British car retailer Hartwell plc deploys inter­active wall-mounted terminals in his repair shops for his service employees. As well as at them they can query detailed order contents, update their hour account and order accessories. All these information are necessary in order to be able to provide lateron the bill. This solution has been awarded with the famous „Elec­tronics Industry Design Award 2004" in the category „Design to Manufacture for the Best Example of Design and Manufac­turing Staff Working Together".

Many further examples you will find shortly in the "MediaCityReport" - the extensive study over the practical deployment of KioskTerminals and Digital Signs all over the world.