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Well today's episode it's about a couple of articles I have written and published on
my LinkedIn page you can check them there and in this one I'm combining the first two
of the four.
The first one is Top 10 things media should never do at an automotive press trip and the
second one Top 10 things automotive media members hate at press events.
So let's hear the first one.
All right, buckle up Buttercup, let's do this properly.
Here we go.
Welcome back to the automotive media ecosystem.
That strange traveling circus where journalists, influencers, engineers, PR
people, drone operators, YouTubers, and at least one guy wearing full Porsche
merch to a Ferrari event.
All pretend this is completely normal behavior.
Every year manufacturers drop millions launching vehicles.
Every year some absolute menace has to ruin the vibe by treating the event like
it's Coachella, LinkedIn cosplay, and an all-inclusive cruise for emotionally
exhausted adults with too much camera gear.
Iconic.
So in the interest of preserving what little dignity remains in this industry, here
are the unofficial rules of automotive press launches or as PR teams call it
internally.
Please stop making us write incident reports.
Number 10, don't forget what the event is actually about.
The vehicle is the centerpiece of the program, not you, not the influencer, not
the content creator making that ridiculous, shocked YouTube thumbnail face
with both arms extended like they just saw God in a crossover.
Nobody has ever looked natural doing that.
Nobody.
Press launches exist to showcase the product, the engineering and the poor
bastards who spent four years surviving internal meetings, budget reviews,
compliance approvals, and powertrain debates just to bring this thing to market.
Thoughtful analysis is welcome.
Strong opinions are welcome.
Main character syndrome, not so much.
The most respected journalists are usually the ones who stay curious,
collaborative and actually focused on the car instead of treating the launch
like their audition for a streaming platform with seven subscribers and a
ring light.
You can always spot the rookie influencer because they show up acting
like the entire event was organized specifically for their Instagram story.
Meanwhile, the engineers are standing there thinking, I missed my daughter's
birthday for this suspension calibration.
Number nine, don't regress into vacation mode.
Yes, your flights, hotel, meals and driving routes are all taken care of.
Know that does not make the PR team your personal concierge, travel agent,
emotional support human or emergency sandal procurement specialist.
Experienced media show up, behave like adults and can locate a bathroom
without filing a support ticket.
Revolutionary, I know.
And while we're here, bringing your current significant other as your
videographer is rarely as convincing as you think it is, especially when they
spend the entire event at the spa and accidentally photo bomb your TikTok in a
hotel robe holding a margarita.
Some people roll up to these launches like they've won a radio contest.
You're not on vacation.
You're at work, a very weird version of work where someone hands you artisanal
coffee at sunrise and then asks you to drift an SUV through the desert.
But still work.
Number eight, don't misinterpret professional courtesy.
The PR staff is there to make sure the event runs smoothly.
Their friendliness is called professionalism.
It is not flirting.
It is not a vibe.
It is not an invitation to get aggressively handsy after two cocktails and some
aggressively mediocre airport Chardonnay.
Treat every member of the team with respect at all times.
The fact that this still needs to be explained in 2026 is genuinely depressing.
Nothing kills the atmosphere faster than one media person turning basic
hospitality into their personal romantic subplot.
Nobody flew to Napa to watch a middle-aged podcaster try to run game after
three old fashionants.
Number seven, don't treat event merchandise like a warehouse liquidation.
A welcome gift is a welcome gift.
It is not a wholesale opportunity for your cousins, neighbors, gym buddies,
podcast co-hosts, or someone who would absolutely love this quarter zip.
If they give you branded gear, take what was meant for you.
Not enough to start your own automotive lifestyle brand.
This also applies to snacks, mini bar items, charging cables, and anything
that isn't physically bolted down.
Yes, we notice.
Yes, we talk about it afterward.
Sometimes in great detail, there is always one guy treating the gift table
like society is collapsing tomorrow.
Relax, Greg.
The embroidered backpack is not an investment portfolio.
Number six, don't ask questions already answered in the press kit.
The press materials exist for a reason.
They were put together by people who haven't slept in weeks, asking something
that's literally on page two doesn't make you look detail oriented.
It makes everyone wonder if you even opened the folder.
And for the 20th year in a row, no, this is not the event where we secretly
announced the return of the discontinued diesel manual wagon that enthusiasts
would totally buy.
The sales data says three people in Belgium and one guy in Portland.
Move on.
Number five, don't turn the presentation into your personal engineering
TED talk.
Technical curiosity is great.
Holding the entire room hostage while explaining suspension geometry
to the engineer who literally designed the suspension geometry, less great.
If you have super technical questions, save them for the breakout sessions.
The group presentation is not your platform to reenact your mechanical
engineering thesis defense while everyone else slowly dies inside.
Every launch has that one guy.
You can literally watch the audience age in real time while he asks
his seventh tire compound question.
At some point, even the engineer starts looking for the emergency exits.
Number four, dress like you intended to attend this event.
We get it.
You've collected 17 branded black jackets and one suspiciously expensive
motorsport backpack over the years.
Still, showing up to one manufacturer's launch, wearing a direct
competitor's full outfit sends a message, usually not the one you want.
Neutral is safest and maybe wear something that suggests you checked the weather.
Shorts and flip flops at a Rolls Royce dinner is actually insane.
Number three, don't become that driver.
Track sessions and Canyon roads are not your Le Mans qualifying lap.
Drive within your limits, listen to the instructors and remember that crashing
a prototype creates about 400 emails nobody wanted to write.
Mistakes happen.
Professionalism after the mistake matters.
Also, the fastest driver at the event is almost never the one people actually respect.
Usually it's the person who didn't eat a pre-production car into a gravel trap
while yelling, bro, did you get that shot?
Number two, don't forget you're still working after dinner.
Open bars do not turn this into spring break.
Everything is being recorded, screen-shotted and remembered forever.
Good judgment gets remembered.
Bad judgment becomes that story that follows you for years.
If a PR person quietly says, maybe let's call it a night, that's not a suggestion.
That's the corporate version of a check engine light.
Heat it. And the number one rule, don't complain about absolutely anything.
Constructive feedback is useful, constant complaining is exhausting.
These events are ridiculously complicated operations involving hundreds of people
working insane hours so everything looks effortless.
If the oat milk runs out or the Wi-Fi hiccups for five minutes, maybe take a breath.
Every invitation comes with an RSVP option that literally says unable to attend.
Use it if you're going to be miserable.
And if most of this felt personally directed at you, maybe that's the correct selection.
Automotive press launches are one of the last great traveling social experiments.
You take journalists, influencers, engineers, free alcohol, sleep deprivation,
ego and performance cars, throw them in a blender and then act surprised
when someone's crying in the valet area at midnight.
So wherever you're headed next, drive safely, answer the RSVP honestly
and maybe leave at least one branded hoodie for the rest of the industry.
See you at the next launch, probably in another hotel lobby.
All of us pretending we slept more than four hours.
And the second one, it's kind of the answer to that.
This is kind of a survival guide for PR professionals.
Top 10 things automotive media members hate at press events.
A 2026 survival guide for PR professionals.
After decades of launches from Germany to Dubai, Detroit to Seoul
and the occasional Knoxville, we've seen it all.
So here's what we'd love you to stop doing immediately.
Number one, stop treating us like tourists.
We didn't fly across the world for winery tours, local dancers and cultural immersion.
If we leave knowing more about regional cheeses than the car suspension,
you've officially messed up.
Number two, over scripted drive routes fool nobody.
Endless traffic, paced cars, no passing, driving at 43 miles an hour in a convoy.
We can spot a damage control route from space.
If the car is sporty, let us drive it like it's sporty.
Number three, death by PowerPoint is still thriving.
Three hours of executives reading bullet points off the screen before we even see the car.
Blink twice if you need help.
Number four, you'll have five minutes with engineering.
We flew 7000 miles and spent more time talking to the hotel staff
than the people who actually built the car.
Those conversations matter, not your story about driving your daughter to school.
Number five, some schedules were clearly designed in 1997.
14 hour driving days, dinner at 730, wake up at five.
When exactly are we supposed to create all the content you expect?
During REM sleep?
Number six, surprise schedule changes.
Nothing inspires more joy than hearing small update and suddenly the whole day is rearranged.
We have deadlines, not infinite patients.
Number seven, embargo confusion.
Discovering halfway through the event that you can't use anything you just shot is always delightful.
Would you also like to change gravity while you're at it?
Number eight, more is not always better.
Three hotels in two days, back to back cars, presentations while eating.
We're not productivity machines and forced fun after long haul flights.
Nobody wants to build a raft with strangers at 2 a.m. jet lag.
Number nine, poor Wi-Fi in 2026 is an international incident.
If I'm spinning in circles, holding my laptop up to the ceiling like I'm trying to contact aliens, you failed.
Number 10, remember who this is actually for.
When the event becomes all about executives and VIPs, we turn into background props.
We're here to drive the car and tell consumers what it's actually like, not to be extras in your corporate show.
And one more thing, the industry has changed.
There are over 62 million Hispanics in the U.S. with massive buying power.
Yet events still sometimes run on a 2005 playbook.
Maybe update the guest list to match who's actually buying cars in 2026.
Well, there you have it.
And there's two more episodes about this.
One about the top 10 difference between old media and new media.
And the final one will be about a very serious topic.
If automotive media can survive in this kind of environment in 2026.
So check those out later.
That's it for today's AI Auto podcast with Javier Moda.
Hope you enjoyed the ride as much as we did.
Tune in next time for more on how AI steering the wheel of tomorrow's autos.
Drive safe, stay curious and catch you later.
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