In today’s competitive business landscape, one of the essential components of a successful trade show is the strategic use of media. This brief guide to using proper media at trade shows offers valuable insights and tips on utilizing various marketing mediums to your advantage.
Understanding the Role of Media at Trade Shows
Media plays a vital role in connecting exhibitors with potential customers, partners, and industry influencers during trade shows. It helps create a memorable experience and adds value to your booth, ensuring your brand stands out in a sea of exhibitors. The right media mix can empower your brand to capture attention, promote your products and services, engage your audience, and drive your business objectives.
Harnessing the Power of Digital Media
In this fast-paced digital era, electronic media is indispensable in trade show booth strategy. From incorporating interactive elements to projecting social media feeds, digital media can enliven your booth and enhance audience engagement. Consider creating an attention-grabbing digital display to highlight key product features and achievements, or offer a gamified experience to build excitement around your products and services. Remember to keep your digital displays user-friendly and focused on your brand message.
Utilizing Print Media Effectively
Despite the rise of digital media, print materials—such as banners, posters, brochures, and fliers—remain essential to trade show booths. Print materials work wonders in not only giving attendees a tangible reference for your products or services, but also in reinforcing your brand identity. When designing print media, ensure that your brand’s message is well represented. Be sure to use eye-catching visuals, memorable messaging, and easy-to-read fonts to make a lasting impression.
Incorporating Audiovisual Media
Incorporating audiovisual elements in your trade show booth creates a multisensory experience that captivates attendees. From product demos and testimonials to captivating animations, audiovisual media is an excellent tool for delivering information in a digestible and intriguing manner. Think about how you can integrate audiovisual media into your booth to complement your brand’s unique qualities and attributes. Just be mindful of volume, content duration, and booth space to ensure a seamless experience for your visitors.
Devising the perfect media strategy for your trade show exhibition is essential to securing your brand’s success. Remember this brief guide to proper media for trade shows as you design your next booth layout and incorporate various mediums as you see fit. If you’re looking for exhibition design services to guide you through the different marketing options and implementations for your booth, trust West Coast Exhibit. Our team of experienced exhibit designers will help you create an engaging booth with cohesive branding and media usage.
There are many reasons you should prioritize replacing your exhibit’s floor coverings, especially from design, safety, and practicality standpoints. For these reasons and more, explore the importance of adding new floor coverings to your trade show exhibit.
Makes Your Exhibit Appear More Professional
Your exhibit’s flooring is one of the elements that starts to show wear and tear the fastest. Between scuff marks from shoes, dents from fallen items, and tears or rips in places, your floor coverings can start to show their age after attending many events. It can be easy to forget about your floor coverings because they don’t draw the most attention out of your overall booth, but neglecting these surfaces will make your exhibit appear dirty and unprofessional. To help your booth maintain the same quality standard throughout, remember to address your floor coverings regularly.
Minimizes Tripping and Falling Hazards
Maximizing safety is another benefit of swapping out your booth’s old floor coverings. When flooring panels or rolls go too long without repairs or replacement, they may start to develop slick patches, bends, dips, and other conditions that could pose tripping and falling hazards. To make sure your booth’s attendees stay safe and comfortable while passing through, inspect your flooring after every show and test it before each show. If you notice any of these conditions that could cause your guests to trip, schedule a replacement for your exhibit flooring.
Keeps Your Exhibit Branding Cohesive
Managers don’t always show the same urgency to replace and upgrade exhibit flooring as they do for the more visual elements of their booths. However, if you update your exhibit’s marketing elements, such as banners, screens, and displays, without updating your flooring, you could create an unbalanced design. For example, if you don’t update your flooring color to match the rest of your booth’s new branding, your exhibit won’t look cohesive. Consider choosing a flooring material in a neutral color that will match the rest of your booth no matter how often you update the rest of your marketing.
Knowing the importance of new floor coverings for your trade show exhibits is crucial for maintaining an appealing and functional design. If you’re looking for trade show fabrication experts who consider elements of your booth design from top to bottom, choose West Coast Exhibit. We offer exhibit design and fabrication services to help you create a new exhibit or upgrade elements of previous booths, including floor coverings.
Attending a trade show is an excellent way to market your business and promote new sales leads. However, if you’re still using a standard rental booth to market your business at trade show events, you could be losing precious engagement and leads. For companies that attend trade shows frequently, designing and ordering a custom display is a much better investment for trade show ROI. Keep reading to learn how a custom trade show display can benefit your business.
It Helps Your Business Stand Out
At a trade show, one of the biggest measures of a booth’s success is how much foot traffic it receives. To promote more interest in your booth and encourage more people to stop and look, you need your exhibit to stand out. If your booth blends in with the rest of the exhibitors, potential customers will be more likely to pass your display in favor of another more eye-catching booth. If you don’t want your display to become lost in the hundreds of other vendors at an event, you need a custom design. Custom displays feature unique layouts, marketing materials, and overall designs that help attract more attention.
Its Professional Designs Can Match Your Branding
Another benefit of customizing your trade show display is that you can tailor it to match your branding. Premade booths or rental booths will only ever be able to match the most basic elements of your brand. Depending on the booth you rent, you may not be able to match your brand’s colors and aesthetics. However, with a custom trade show display, you can decide on its design elements down to the font size and style. This promotes brand consistency and helps your brand stick out more in your customers’ memories.
It Fits Your Trade Show Plans
Every business will market its products or services uniquely at a trade show. Some products and services are most successful and engaging when you perform a demonstration. Others work better with a verbal explanation or a video wall featuring footage of your business’s products or services. When planning your trade show displays, you should consider what design works best to showcase your products. You only have so much control over this layout when renting a booth, but customizing your own can provide all the space and features you need. For example, a product demonstration might take up more space, so you’ll need an accessible area in your booth layout. Custom designs can help you plan the exact dimensions you need.
It Saves Your Business Time and Resources
Planning and designing a trade show display is a demanding process. If you’re planning a trade show booth on your own as a business, you’ll need to dedicate many hours and resources to the design, ordering, and setup process. However, when you work with professional exhibition design services, you can take back those resources and channel them into your business. Many trade show design businesses, such as West Coast Exhibit, also offer exhibit fabrication and construction services to assist you at the trade show itself. This helps you get off to a strong start at your trade show and minimizes the chances of damaging your booth during the setup or dismantling stages.
It Saves Your Business Money
While getting a custom exhibit will be a greater investment up front, it can also help your business save money over time. If you continue to rent a traditional trade show booth each time you sign up for an exhibition, these costs can add up. If your business attends multiple trade shows per year, it is much more economical to invest in a custom booth and use it regularly instead of renting. Plus, your booth will be specific to your business rather than using a generic booth design each time you rent.
It Encourages a Greater Return on Investment
Investing in a custom display for your trade show is a smart choice because it can also help increase your ROI from the event. If you have an eye-catching display that prioritizes engagement and brand consistency, you’re more likely to cultivate more leads during the event. Leads are visitors that have the potential to become future customers for your business. The more connections and leads you promote during the event, the higher your chances of leaving with a positive ROI. Trade shows can be big investments, which is why it’s vital to improve your ROI with strategies like using custom designs.
How To Create the Perfect Custom Booth for Your Business
Now that you know how a custom trade show booth can benefit your business, you may wonder how to acquire one of your own. Customization services like ours at West Coast Exhibit Services, Inc. can help walk you through the process. However, you may want to read this quick rundown of things you can do to prepare your custom booth.
Consider Your Target Audience
The biggest things to remember when customizing a trade show booth are your target audience and retaining your brand consistency. Consider your audience who will attend each trade show you visit and how a custom booth will be able to best attract their attention. Using colors that reflect your brand to make your booth more recognizable is an effective way to accomplish this. There are many design choices like this that you can make to enhance your custom booth and encourage engagement from your target audience.
Work With a Professional Fabrication Company
If you want to enjoy all the benefits of a custom trade show booth, the best way to do so is to work with a professional design company. For example, at West Coast Exhibit Services, Inc., we take care of professional trade show exhibit design, fabrication, shipping, and management. Our experts help manage the trade show display process from start to finish, and we can even help with booth setups.
Now that you know more about custom booth displays and how they can benefit your business, you may be interested in finding out more about custom exhibits. You can learn additional information about the custom design process by contacting us. Our team of designers and management experts can help guide you from the initial plan to the setting up of your completed custom booth. Start investing in your own custom booth to make the most of your trade show appearances and encourage a larger ROI for your business.
If your business has ever attended a trade show, you may have leftover display pieces packed away in your warehouse or storage unit. However, you could be wasting your investment if you’re not making use of it outside of trade show events. Keep reading to learn some alternative uses for your trade show displays.
In-Store Marketing Signage
If your business has a retail store or other physical location, you have plenty of options to repurpose your trade show display. When designing trade show displays, companies create them with their branding in mind, which helps them look right at home in the corresponding retail space. You can place wall displays, stands, signage, and more in your storefront display window or use them as display stands throughout your business. Display walls make excellent backing behind your customer service counter and other central spots in your building.
Small or Local Events
Trade show events are examples of large-scale events that your business can attend. However, your business can repurpose its trade show display for several smaller events throughout the year. Browse your community newsletters for events like recruiting programs, fairs, markets, and other events that your business could attend. You could also use your displays for events your business runs personally, such as training programs, retreats, sales meetings, presentations, and more.
Lobby Displays
A company lobby or atrium makes an excellent home for your display materials during their off-season. Your display materials can provide the same eye-catching and educational effect that they have during a trade show at your business’s regular location. A lobby display can provide information and engagement for new clients and become a talking point for returning customers.
Office Partitions
Freestanding display walls and panels can make excellent office partitions to separate cubicles, meeting rooms, and more. Partitions are especially helpful if your business works out of a small office space, as they can section off certain areas and create more privacy.
Next Show Expansions
Finally, save your trade show displays for your next event. If you have plans to upgrade your booth size or display, you don’t have to dispose of the pieces you already have. Instead, expand from your current materials and find ways to incorporate your previous display parts. This helps reuse and recycle materials to prevent unnecessary waste and saves you money on your booth upgrades.
Now that you know these five alternative uses for trade show displays, your booth materials don’t have to collect dust in your warehouse. Get more use out of your custom display materials by finding ways to use them during the off-season. And if you’re looking for ways to expand your display for your next show, you can trust our trade show booth builders at West Coast Exhibit. We design and create materials that will amaze your trade show customers.
If you’ve ever attended a trade show as a consumer or guest, you may already be familiar with getting lost in a sea of identical booths. Many trade show exhibits use the same combination of banners, posters, and other materials to promote their products or services. If you want your upcoming booth to really stand out, consider using any of these alternatives to banner stand walls for your display.
Truss Display Back Wall
Banner stands can be effective for beginner vendors and displays, but once your trade show booth starts to expand, they can become lost. Truss back walls offer a much larger space for images than a single stand can. This allows your business to get more creative with its marketing and booth designs. You can also incorporate more eye-catching text and colors into your displays. Truss displays utilize industrial materials to provide a unique and eye-catching appearance for any marketing exhibit.
Interactive Displays
Rather than displaying a simple vinyl or fabric banner on your back wall, consider turning this space into an interactive exhibit. Interactive elements provide a unique experience for your visitors and create a longer-lasting impression of your booth and business. For example, when designing your booth’s back wall, consider turning it into a functional space where you can hang and display items for customers to browse through. You can even incorporate technology into the back wall, such as touchscreen kiosks for showcasing and explaining your products or services.
Mobile Exhibits
If you want to take interactive displays to the next level, consider ditching the traditional booth setup altogether. Mobile exhibits are becoming more and more popular for pop-up shops, conventions, and more. For example, AWS, a notable welding foundation, has created a mobile exhibit that allows attendees to watch and test equipment in a hands-on setting. Trailer exhibits like these can tour trade shows and conventions across the country due to their mobile natures. Mobile displays also offer creative solutions to many supply shortages currently affecting the display manufacturing industry.
Remember these three alternatives to traditional banner stand display walls as you design and order your company’s next trade show exhibit. If you’re looking for unique display fabrication or rental options, learn more about our conference booth rentals here at West Coast Exhibit. We’ll help match you with the best design for a successful conference or trade show.
Now that yearly conventions and trade show companies are scheduling events again, many businesses are excited to reserve spots at upcoming 2023 shows. However, if your team requires a new exhibit to showcase its goods and services, you should start planning as soon as possible. Material shortages have made it difficult to ship display parts on time. Keep reading to learn which inventory shortages could impact your trade show display the most.
Shipping and Shipping Cases
Every business has likely experienced issues with shipping times since the pandemic. Did you know that even shipping containers themselves are experiencing delays? Shipping containers require the use of time and resources to produce a durable, sturdy product that will protect all your equipment. Because these containers are so large and bulky, they can be difficult to ship, adding to increased shipping times and costs. Hard shipping cases could be delayed by several months this coming year.
Power and Lighting
Technology shortages are still extremely common in the manufacturing industry. Due to technical builds and complex part requirements, some companies are having difficulty stocking their usual products. Many modern trade show booth designs utilize technology such as lighting and power supplies to keep various elements powered and charged. Power supplies, transformers, and lighting elements have all become difficult to keep in stock, so be sure to prepare based on your booth’s design needs.
Staff
While not directly part of inventory shortages, staff shortages have also impacted events and businesses. If your business is still struggling to find suitable team members to help run your exhibit, consider investing in management services. For example, at West Coast Exhibit, we offer both booth design and management services. An exhibit manager can help run your booth during events by directing customers, answering questions, collecting customer information, and more. This helps relieve the burden of being understaffed during convention season.
When conceptualizing your ideal convention exhibit, remember to consider these three inventory shortages and how they can impact your display. If you’re planning to attend a trade show in 2023 and need exhibition design services, be prompt and put in your orders as soon as possible. At West Coast Exhibit, our knowledgeable team keeps our clients informed and updated every step of the way during the fabrication process. We also work with steel and aluminum welders on two-story booth fabrication to promote faster turn-around times and less reliance on manufacturing materials that are facing shortages.
If you’ve ever attended a trade show, whether as a business or a consumer, you know how easy it is to get lost in the crowd of booths, consumers, and more. Fortunately, West Coast Exhibit is here to provide seasoned tips and tricks to help you design and set up an attractive booth. Create a trade show exhibit that stands out from the rest of the crowd with these five tips.
Use Bright Colors
Monotone colors often blend into the background at trade shows and conventions. Don’t decorate your exhibit with exclusively black and white colors. Branch out and choose bright, eye-catching colors to draw more attention to your booth. Just be sure to choose colors that fit within your company’s branding to stay consistent throughout your booth design.
Design Large, Readable Signage
Your trade show exhibit won’t be very eye-catching if customers can’t read your signage. While bright colors can be eye-catching on their own, small fonts can be difficult to read when you combine them. Choose bold, large fonts to pair with your exhibit’s bright colors to ensure that customers can read them from across the show floor. Our team of trade show fabrication experts here at West Coast Exhibit can help you bring these design choices together to create the ultimate booth.
Utilize Vertical Space
Vertically displaying signage, products, and more can attract visitors’ attention from across the showroom floor. If you keep your signage and displays too close to the ground level, attendees won’t be able to notice them from through the crowd. Utilize vertical pop-up displays and supports that fit within the convention’s guidelines.
Create an Interactive Space
Get passing attendees involved by adding engaging, interactive elements to your trade show booth. Consumers will be more likely to spend time at your booth if you create an engaging space that features unique elements. Consider including activities such as workshops, product demonstrations, interactive displays, and touchscreens. These elements provide customers with an extra reason to approach your booth, which allows you to provide more details about your product.
Share Samples and Giveaways
One of the best ways to encourage leads and follow-ups at your trade show exhibit is to hand out free samples and giveaway items. Using high-quality merchandise will ensure that potential customers don’t throw away their freebies as soon as they get home. Instead, when consumers see your customized products, they will remember your business’s name and be more likely to follow up on your products or services.
Remember these five tips to help your trade show exhibit stand out while designing and ordering your trade show booth. Our experts here at West Coast Exhibit can apply all these tips and more during booth fabrication to deliver an utterly unique and eye-catching exhibit.
When planning and designing a booth for your business’s next trade show appearance, be sure to consider all your options. Experiential trade show booths are a specific type of design that can generate more engagement with potential customers. Learn more about experiential trade show booths and what you need to know before designing one.
What Are Experiential Trade Show Booths?
Experiential trade show booths are exhibits that showcase your brand through interactive displays, demonstrations, and more. If you’ve ever visited a trade show or convention and walked past a booth that was demonstrating their products, this is a good example of an experiential booth. Rather than pitch your product through words alone, experiential setups allow you to take a more hands-on approach and create a first impression that potential customers are more likely to remember.
Pros and Cons of Experiential Booths
Setting up an experiential trade booth can have many benefits for your business at a trade show. Utilizing an interactive booth design can help your business promote its products or services without pitching and preaching too much to potential customers, which can be a turn-off for some. Creating an interactive space can also lead to more engagements from consumers passing by on the trade show floor. Just make sure that your experiential booth fits within the guidelines for the convention and follows all booth requirements. Some trade shows have stricter guidelines than others, so always check the venue’s unique requirements.
How To Create an Experiential Booth
There are many ways to turn your traditional marketing booth into an interactive experience. Some popular examples of experiential booths include product demonstration tables, photo-taking setups, virtual reality stages, and more. You can use state-of-the-art technology like virtual and augmented reality, touchscreen displays, and more to attract consumers passing by your booth. Even setting up a small display where consumers can watch your product or service at work can leave a more lasting impression than traditional media.
Now that you understand everything you need to know about experiential trade show booths, you can start designing one for your next show. If these booths sound like the perfect fit for your business, but you’re not sure where to start, consider looking into our services here at West Coast Exhibit. We offer trade show exhibit rentals and management services for businesses who want to get the most out of their next convention appearance.
Attending trade shows is one of the best methods to promote your brand face-to-face with consumers and other businesses. However, some attending businesses will get more out of the experience than others based on their exhibit design. Learn the importance of compelling exhibit design at a trade show and how to get the most out of your booth.
Boost Brand Visibility
Boosting brand visibility and recognition are some of the biggest reasons that companies attend trade shows. The best way to help your brand stand out and be more memorable at a trade show is to have an eye-catching booth. This is one of the reasons why you should consider your exhibit design and how to make it stand out amongst the sea of other booths and vendors. When consumers walk by your booth, a colorful and engaging design will encourage them to stop and learn more. This helps visitors remember your brand even after they leave, which increases your brand recognition and visibility.
Showcase Products and Services
The more consumers who visit your booth, the more people you can educate about your company’s products and services. Use your booth design to highlight your brand, products, and services by creating a unique theme that matches your marketing. To get consumers even more interested in your products and services, consider offering expo-only specialty pricing to promote urgency. But the only way you’ll be able to offer these discounts to consumers is if you can attract them to your booth in the first place, which is where compelling booth design comes into play.
Form Connections Within Your Industry
A compelling booth design won’t exclusively attract consumers—it will also allow you to build connections with other business owners attending the show. Trade shows provide the perfect opportunity to network and meet other professionals in your field. Whether you’re trying to scope out the competition or find companies and services that can help streamline your own business, you can find it all at trade shows. And having an eye-catching booth will allow you to bring these company representatives straight to you. But you don’t need to feel tethered to your booth either. At West Coast Exhibit, we also offer trade show booth management services that allow you the freedom to leave the exhibit and continue networking.
Now that you understand the importance of compelling trade show booth design, you can start planning an even better booth for your next trade show. If you’re looking for professional custom exhibit fabrication to help take some of that work off your hands, you can count on West Coast Exhibit.