After all, an eye-catching trade show booth is your organization’s chance to make a first impression. It increases brand visibility AND it helps you make it clear in seconds who you are and what you do. Our in-house concept designer Ries gave me some tips on designing a trade show booth. In this blog, I share these tips with you. After all, how do you make sure your booth sticks with visitors?
Designing your booth in a focused way
First, it is important to have the purpose of your trade show participation clear. Based on the purpose, the exhibition stand can be designed in a targeted manner. So ask yourself the following questions:
- What do you want to communicate?
- Where should the focus be?
- Are there any practical things to consider?
These three questions will help you clarify what your booth needs to meet. Do you want to inform about your products? If so, you may need a presentation screen. Do you want to do business right away? Then you might benefit from a seating area. By thinking this through in advance, you ensure that your booth, the hardware and the content displayed will meet your needs and those of potential leads exactly.
Communicating with your trade show booth
The most important thing about your trade show booth is communicating to your visitors. You can do this, for example, using (interactive) displays. Displays are ideal for holding your visitor’s attention. Audiovisual technology is an excellent solution to ensure that all communications together tell one story. As a result, your trade show booth fits right into your visitor’s customer experience.
Since you obviously don’t want to tell too much information at once, you can use the 3 layers idea. Here you focus on the different layers of your trade show booth: distant/close/inside. The closer the visitor is to the booth, the more you tell. The most in-depth information, of course, is at the booth itself. Here you can interact with your visitors and answer their questions. This 3 layer system also helps you leave a lasting impression on your potential lead.
To improve your brand visibility, it’s obviously nice if your booth matches your brand. The content should complement and enhance the image, feel and atmosphere of the booth. The choice of colors, fonts and images play an important role. So have your styleguide/brandbook handy for the shape study of your booth.
The attention-grabbers of your booth
With your booth, you obviously want your potential lead to take time at your booth so you can generate curiosity. Your booth crew can thus make initial contact. You arouse that curiosity with a unique, up-to-date booth design that attracts attention. Without an attention-getter, chances are your visitor will move on. But how do you attract attention?
A trade show is pre-eminently the place to make your brand stand out. Many trade show booths have remained the same in design, while the focus of the visitor has changed. People are increasingly orienting to experience, so you could capitalize on this with your trade show booth. A good experience makes your booth stick around. With different image carriers, you attract the attention of potential leads. You can do this, for example, through interactive setups. Your visitor can thus discover for himself exactly what you do. Or you trigger your audiovisual technology to show a specific piece of content at a specific time. You are, as it were, pushing the boundary between entertainment and infotainment.
A visible trend at trade shows is for brands to create their own “world” around their booth. They do this through various image mediums that fit their brand. The brand is expressed through everything on display. This created private world need not be physical, but can also be visible through digital mediums.
Furthermore, you can use different elements at your trade show booth. By uniquely combining different elements, you ensure that you have a lasting place in your visitor’s mind. For example, consider combining water and light to create a rare attention-grabber. Or make use of gobo projections. Choose one good idea and carry it out consistently. The important thing, of course, is that this idea fits within your brand.
Practicalities surrounding your booth
Before creating a design, of course, you need to consider certain practical matters. Consider, for example, the amount of square footage you have to make your booth stand out. Or where your booth is at the fair. Based on the location of your booth, you can choose a floor stand, island stand or headstand. Each form of booth has other added benefits.
You also have to consider, for example, the number of power points available. Is what you came up with feasible given the location or does the design need to be modified? And do you have certain conditions to your booth? For example, if you want to have a business meeting right away, you might benefit from a table setup. These are things you should discuss with your booth builder about the design of your booth.
The future of your trade show booth
Fairs are increasingly moving with the times. This is because visitors like to be surprised and, of course, times change. Thus, sustainability has become increasingly important over the years. Consider, for example, trade show booths that are increasingly made of reusable materials, or booths that are literally “going green. For example, you can choose maximum reuse of content and materials for various trade shows you will be attending in the coming period. Modular designs are also good “green” alternatives. But you’re left with transportation costs, packaging, and the like. One possible solution would be to set up a permanent space as your brand experience. Your own in-house experience center as it were. This means you only have to spend once, you have fewer carbon emissions, and you can more easily invite potential leads to visit. An added benefit is that it is easier for you to tell your story because you are attuned to the space.
Want to know more about the right booth design for a specific trade show? Or would you like to spar together on a unique concept that fits within your communication goals? Please feel free to contact me.
