Brand Events’ Top Gear Live continues its drive into global destinations, with the addition of a Hong Kong event in February 2009.

The Hong Kong show will be put on in partnership with Quintus Events and fronted by Quintus’s former Brand Events employee, Andrew Strachan, who will work alongside former London Boat Show commercial director, James Gower, to deliver the launch. Gower himself will then launch his own event in a separate sector, details of which are imminent.

Top Gear Live expecting 500,000 throughput

The live package for petrolheads rides on the coat tails of the international distribution of the TV series starring Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. So far Brand Events’s boss Chris Hughes has successfully established the Top Gear Live Theatre at the Clarion-owned MPH show in London, as well as his complete package of theatre and exhibition in Birmingham, Dublin, Johannesburg, Sydney and Auckland.

Hughes’ formula is simple, yet smart. The company brings the ideas, the franchise and the experiential skills, while the local joint venture partners outside of the UK deliver the regional sales, marketing and logistics. In the next 12 months, Hughes expects up to 500,000 consumers to pass through the Top Gear Live experience, delivering touchpoints for global brands, exhibitors, and sponsors throughout.
 
“The power of the Top Gear brand, worldwide, combined with the live theatre concept is hugely popular and ticket sales year on year continue to far exceed our expectations,” commented Hughes.
 
Delving further into the success behind the roll-out, Hughes added: “Right from the start we took the consumer’s perspective and decided that we wanted to create events that we would want to go to ourselves. Now we’ve decided that we want to go one step further and have them held in really nice places we’d like to go to as well! We dispatch our chief scout, James Cook-Priest, to search for the best harbours in the world for fun, sun and event partners. If the harbour fits, and the champagne is well chilled, then we’re three parts of the way to another leg of the tour!”  At this point, Hughes excuses himself a muffled chuckle.
 
Hughes uses his own thirst for entertainment to feed his creative team and the success of resulting consumer brands include The Vitality Show, The Outdoor and Adventure Show and Taste. All are testament to Hughes’ ability to sniff an opportunity and replicate it where a market exists. Taste, for example, is now licensed to countries and event companies the world over with the exception of London where Hughes and Brand Events remain headquartered.
 
Who knows what the next experience will be that keeps Top Gear’s top gun amused, but with a talent for spotting something fun to do, the shareholders at Ingenious Media should keep the leash off their bloodhound and see where the scent takes them.