BEST OF 25
	Category: Best of 25 Years Exhibitor: Chrysler Group LLC Design/Fabrication: George P. Johnson Co., Auburn Hills, MI, 248-475-2500, www.gpj.com Show: New York International Auto Show, 2004 Budget: $575,000 Size: 380-by-135 feet Cost/Square Foot: $11

f you can't bring Manhattan to the mountain, you bring the mountain to Manhattan. That is exactly what Chrysler Group LLC did for its Jeep exhibit at the 2004 New York International Auto Show.

Chrysler teamed up with marketing firm George P. Johnson Co. to design an exhibit that embodied the four-by-four's rough-and-tumble attitude. And what they came up with hauled in an Exhibit Design Award for one of the three best exhibits of the past quarter century.

GPJ drew inspiration from Chrysler's existing Camp Jeep (an owner-appreciation event that features trail-rated, off-road driving courses). GPJ replicated that experience inside a 51,300-square-foot pavilion at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. What started as 250 truckloads of dirt, rocks, and logs brought in from neighboring New Jersey quickly evolved into a bona-fide, trail-rated driving course in just one week.

The resulting indoor track was designed around the same categories used to qualify a vehicle as "trail rated" on outdoor courses, such as traction, ground clearance, and water fording.

Positioned in the center of the space and bordered by road-construction barriers, the track - complete with a mud pit and 15-foot-tall climbing hill - was filthy with Jeep messaging and logos. From the 14-foot-tall branded signs marking the five sections of the track, to the 18-foot-tall dirt pile that served as the backdrop for photo ops, the Jeep logo was everywhere, a feat that impressed Exhibit Design Awards judges - as did the overall concept. "Prior to this, the interactivity at car shows was limited to opening the doors and sitting in the car," one judge said. "This, however, is a realistic, memorable, impactful car experience."

Indeed, the concept not only changed the way automakers and exhibitors think about product demos; it proved that sometimes the path to success is a dirt road.e