Trade shows are the heart and soul of the marketing campaign for many companies. Exhibit booths put a face on a business, so it is essential to invest a good degree of time and thought into selecting this foundational advertising element. Companies will need to decide on an exhibit booth that is a purchased build, custom rental item, or a combination of the two, in which large items are rented and smaller items are purchased.
Trade show exhibit booths must communicate a fresh image and be able to accommodate different life cycles of a product over a period of time. Flexibility is a good quality of success in any endeavor, and a good trade show exhibit booth must incorporate this quality as well. If an exhibit booth design looks extravagant, it can obscure the message. While capturing the attention of potential customers, it may be a representation of misplaced priorities and a poor business model. Increased traffic should translate into increased sales.
Exhibit booth rental is a practical option when allotted floor space varies from show to show. The number of trade shows attended annually also weighs in the decision whether to rent or purchase exhibit booths. If a company participates in twenty trade shows a year, the shipping costs and time for transporting one purchased unit from location to location could be prohibitive. Purchasing a second trade show exhibit booth may be impractical or just plain too expensive, whereas exhibit booth rentals could solve the problem.
Another perspective on purchase versus rental is from the company balance sheet. A purchase may be amortized over a period of time and requires a large upfront outlay. Rentals are an advertising cost and appear only as a monthly expense. Rather than making a decision based upon cost savings alone, factors must be considered that will guarantee a return on investment. Are the exhibit booth displays appropriate to the content and is there quality in the workmanship and materials?
Analyzing booth exhibits may be expedited by establishing a few categories as proposed in a 2008 white paper of Catalyst Exhibits, Inc., and available from their website. Considering trade show units as panel and frame systems, modular systems that are lightweight, used exhibits, and inventory rentals is a helpful point of reference. Pop-up portables and pop-together units fall under modular systems, whereas panel and frame structures are the very common, multi-purpose projects for display, retail sales, presentations, and exhibiting. Inventory rentals offer a wide selection of parts that some firms will customize with graphics. Only now is this branch of the trade show industry stepping up to the plate as a marketing arm, versus simply providing a work space.
As companies continue to evolve, adding and removing products, and responding to customer input received at industry conventions, presentations will need to keep step. Purchasing a show unit has intrinsic costs including storage, maintenance, repair, and expansion for new features of the program. Rental units from a quality firm will engage the rental company on a marketing level, adding energy and ideas to the company’s team while including a new set of presentation tools. If graphic design is built into a rental – purchase cross, the reuse of the graphics can reduce costs. Revisiting the concept of the rental company as a marketing partner, ask if there is staff available for setup and take down as well. This can relieve much stress from the presenters, and knowledge of the unit will facilitate the assembly.
When considering extra staff to set up the presentation area, an indispensable group is a services team that provides audio-visual equipment and connections for Internet and any land line phones necessary to the project. Backwall exhibits, branded give-aways, and table top displays are integral to most trade show marketing campaigns. Arranging these details for display takes time from those manning the booth, so help with the larger lifting and moving must always be part of the planning. By downloading an exhibitor kit ahead of time from the trade show website, or requesting and receiving it by mail in advance of the show date, the entire experience can be optimized. Floor plans, rules and regulations, and any other necessary and pertinent information for trade show participants are published in the exhibitor kit.
Banners are very important in catching the attention of the many people milling about a trade show floor. There are telescoping banners, retractable banners, counter top banners, pop up banner frames, hanging banners, motorized banner stands that allow scrolling messages, and banner combination products that provide room for literature and merchandise on the supporting pole. Whatever banner is used, the message should be eye level, have simple recognizable graphics and lettering, and be well lit with no glare.
This short introduction to the world of exhibit booths can open the door to marketing success. A right objective will result in a product or service mutually beneficial to buyer and seller.