Before the Exhibition
In your pre-exhibition marketing materials, you should allude to your theme. You may want to titillate the people you send your pre-exhibition marketing material to with an allusion or a question that you will answer at the expo. Your pre-exhibition marketing could ask the question “What is the most common reason to have a bad night’s sleep?”

If you send out an email or a direct mail out to your client database, you want the people to attend the expo, and to visit your exhibition stand. You could include a crossword or a find a word puzzle that introduces the theme and forms an entry form into a competition that you have running at the exhibition stand. If you do send out a direct mail flyer or brochure, you could have the design in the shape of a pillow.

The Exhibition Stand Itself
Designing your exhibition stand to incorporate a theme is an essential element in this style of marketing campaign. To create an effective exhibition stand with a unique theme, you can use a box style of exhibition stand, where you have walls, floors, and all the elements especially built for the exhibition. For example, if you have a theme that suggests people can have a good night’s sleep by using your product, you could create a huge four poster bed as your exhibition stand.

Exhibition Stand Signage
Your signage at the exhibition stand is going to attract people into your exhibition stand and to provide information about your product. Incorporate your theme into the signs that you create for the trade show. Using the example, you could have pillows and pictures of people getting a good night’s sleep and information about the product in the dream “bubbles”.

During the Exhibition
Incorporate the theme into all the marketing materials your staff will hand out during the expo or trade show. You can provide little pillows to give out, which could open to provide information on the anti-snoring product. Ensure your staff are wearing appropriate clothing that enhances the theme. In this particular example, you could have your staff wearing pyjamas in the colour of your corporate logo.

Immediately After the Exhibition
Following up the trade show with good marketing is essential. Within a few days of the trade show, you should send out an email or direct mail contact to the leads your staff collected during the exhibition. This marketing material should include the theme and mention the exhibition stand. You could include a photograph of the exhibition stand to remind people of your stand.

Six Weeks After the Exhibition
Finally, send a follow up several weeks after the expo or trade show. Immediately after the trade show, people are overwhelmed with many marketing emails and brochures from all of the companies who exhibited at the trade show, but following up several weeks after the expo can be an effective marketing ploy. Using the theme again in this final marketing campaign will ensure that people will remember your exhibition stand.

XBox Exhibition Stand, Gold Coast October 2011

Trade shows and business expos are becoming more popular as ways of marketing directly to qualified prospects within your business’ niche market. Exhibiting at a trade show or exhibition allows your business to contact hundreds and even thousands of potential sales leads within a few short days. However, you do have to compete with the hundreds of other exhibition stands at the trade show and by designing an unusual exhibition stand, you’ll attract more attention.

Here are some ways you can design an unusual exhibition stand.

Create a Theme
Use your imagination and create a theme for your exhibition stand. Instead of simply trying to display your products, or to provide information about your services, invite your potential customers to enter into an experience within your exhibition stand. Using your imagination, you can create a wonderland experience where customers briefly forget they are in an exhibition hall, so entranced will they become with your interactive, themed, stand.

To successfully create the illusion of entering into a new environment, it is much easier to use a “box” exhibition stand, where the floors and walls are part of the exhibition experience, instead of using the set walls and floor provided by the event organisers.

Build in Levels
Levels using a few steps or a ramp create the three-dimensional effect of more space. You can invite people to see your product in a new way, by elevating the people above the product you are displaying. Using different levels of height within your exhibition stand creates an unusual stand, especially when the majority of exhibition stands will be one level and almost one-dimensional in appearance.

Use Lights in an Unusual Way
You do not have to use lights only to highlight or showcase your products. You can use lights to create an atmosphere or an effect within your exhibition stand. Use coloured lights to build colours into your exhibition space and create a unique environment. Use small flashing lights to attract attention to a particular sign or product, but use this device sparingly. Consider all the different ways you can use lighting to create different effects and to build an atmosphere into your exhibition stand that is unique.

Use the Height Space Available
Unless the organisers of the event puts a limit on the height of your exhibition stand, you are limited only the by the height of the ceiling. Consider having a blow up section to your exhibition stand that raises high above the other exhibition stands. This will make your exhibition stand appear to be the main focus when people enter the convention centre or trade show space and everyone will see part of your stand from any part of the room. This attracts attention and people will want to visit such an unusual exhibition stand.

Creating an unusual exhibition stand is not difficult, but it can take the skills of a professional exhibition stand designer to bring all the elements together. Make the most of your limited exhibition space and create an unusual exhibition stand that people will remember.

Jura Coffee - Custom Exhibition Stand

Walking into an exhibition venue can be daunting to the consumer. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of booths and salespeople vying for their attention. It’s hard to know where to begin.

This is why it is very important for your exhibition stand to ‘stand out’ from the rest. No matter how brilliant your product is, if no one sees it, your attendance will have been a waste of time and money.

Exhibition attendees are bombarded from every direction with colours, sounds, moving models, life-size replicas and many more design elements. So, whilst securing the best possible space at the exhibition is one hurdle, the next is designing an eye-catching stand that will attract customers and make your business stand out from the crowd.

The design of your stand is really only limited by your imagination (and finances of course). If you sell bathroom fittings, why not make your stand a mock-up of an elegant bathroom, complete with a mirror, tiles, bath, shower … you name it.

Another option is to display your product in a completely unexpected scenario. Think outside the square! Focus in on something unique about your product…..for example, showing a piece of gym equipment within a mock-up of a passenger car, is not only unexpected but also illustrates that your product is so compact and portable that you can take it anywhere.

Once you have decided on the general theme for your exhibition stand, you will need to employ a specially trained exhibition stand designer. But in order to give your designer the best possible brief, you can experiment with your own ideas and floor plan. Find an area large enough to fit your allotted exhibition space, and mark it with tape or chalk. From here, you can physically move items around and test how easily staff will be able to manoeuvre around the space. It’s no good having a wonderfully eye-catching display that prevents workers from interacting with customers, or showing functionality of your product.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the saying ‘less is more’ rings true for a reason. Before a customer even walks past your particular exhibition stand, they have already been exposed to many other stands and people. By having a clutter-free, relaxing booth you can help the customer avoid being overwhelmed with a multitude of messages.

Whilst your business might sell numerous products, or different versions of a product, you will need to come up with a good compromise between showing customers everything you have on offer, and keeping your limited space clean, uncluttered and simple. It might be a good idea to display only a few options or versions of your products with the rest available upon request. Remember, exhibitors often do not do much actual ‘selling’ at the exhibition; rather they introduce the products to the market and make connections with customers. Following up on any leads generated at the show is crucial, you must ensure that when customers request a particular product you are able to procure it quickly. If it is going to take too long the customer may forget or go elsewhere.

Not only is the appearance of your exhibition stand important, you must consider practicalities too. Keep in mind you will be in for a long day (or days) and a masterpiece of an exhibition stand that requires a scientific degree and hours of assembly, is not the best way for you or your staff to begin the long, gruelling – but potentially rewarding – process of exhibiting your business and products to the world.

KTM Exhibition Stand, Melbourne Aug 2011

Many people believe that networking is the only way to grow a small business, but holding an exhibition stand in an expo or trade show could be the key to meeting many potential customers and sales leads in a short space of time. Exhibiting at a trade show gives you access to hundreds and thousands of people who are in the market for your services.

Exhibiting is a far more cost effective marketing campaign than cold calling or sending out direct mail brochures on a “hit and miss” marketing campaign.  This is because the trade show organisers advertise directly to your target market and you can target your marketing campaign to the people who will be attending the trade show. This means you don’t waste resources as every person who attends the trade show is a potential customer within your target market.

Creating an innovative exhibition stand that really enhances your branding and product recognition can help you to grow your business. By exhibiting at trade shows that attract the potential customers you want, you have the opportunity to market directly to the people you need to grow your business. The business opportunities for networking and gaining good sales leads during a few days during a trade show are immense.

Innovations in technology, such as the increased use of lightweight materials to create exciting exhibition stands, allow people to design an exhibition stand that attracts attention at relatively low costs. Printing costs of brochures and even signage have reduced over the past few years and you can now get higher quality for less with large banners, digitally printed posters, printed flooring panels and walls for your exhibition stand. Computer rendered designs can help you see exactly how your exhibition stand will look when it is built.

This means that it is far easier to attract attention from your target market at a trade show with an innovative and well-designed exhibition stand, than it is to send out mail brochures to thousands of people, many of whom are not in the market for your products at all.

Innovations in technology in exhibition furniture, display cabinets, lighting, and all the other extras you need to ensure your exhibition stand is practical as well as attractive, have made exhibiting at a trade show far easier and cheaper. The lightweight materials make transporting the exhibition stand easier, while the technology that allows you to hire furniture in almost any colour you can think of ensures you can create a unique look for your exhibition stand.

All in all, exhibiting at a trade show can be an extremely effective marketing campaign to grow your business. You reach your target market without making “hit and miss” mail out campaigns and you don’t waste resources by marketing to people outside of your potential customer target market. Creating beautiful and innovative exhibition stands is easier and cheaper than you might imagine, especially when you use the lightweight materials and brilliant colour printing technology now available.

Roband Exhibition Stand at Fine Foods, Sept 2011

When most people design an exhibition stand, they think about the large items, such as the exhibition furniture and where and how they intend to display their products and signs. Few people realise the importance of exhibition lighting in attracting attention.

Usually, a trade show or exhibition is held in a convention centre, such as the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. The roof space will have long panels of fluorescent lights. This may provide light for people to see inside the space and to generally walk around, but it certainly does not provide highlights or attract attention to your particular exhibition stand.

Relying on the existing lighting within the building is not a smart move.

Professional exhibition stand designers always incorporate several different lights within the structure and design of the exhibition stand. You can use downlights, uplights, and spotlights to create highlights within your exhibition stand and to shine on certain products or signs.

With new technology, it is easy to get small halogen lights that will shine on the exact area you want to attract attention. Exhibition stand lighting can be hidden within the structure or walls of a custom designed exhibition stand, saving space, and creating the illusion that you are not using additional lighting.

You can use coloured films on the top of spotlights to create an ambiance within your stand. Using coloured lights can make your exhibition stand look completely different from its neighbours, so it will be easy to attract the crowd at the trade show. Choose your colours to match your theme or branding, so that the slight shade of colour from the lights simply adds to the experience your exhibition stand offers to people.

Lighting is not only about creating highlights, but it can be about creating shadows. Using lights to create shadows within your exhibition stand adds a third dimension and makes the areas you want to highlight stand out more. You can create interesting effects with flashing lights or lights that move in a defined pattern around your exhibition stand.

Each display case should have individual lighting, so that the products on display are easily seen by the people passing by your exhibition stand. You will also need lights to create a comfortable area where your staff and potential customers can chat and can look at brochures or make sales of your products.

Lighting is essential component of any professional exhibition stand. You need to use lights to attract attention and to highlight your products within your exhibition stand. With new technology, lights have become smaller and easier to use or to hide. You can create a myriad of interesting effects using colour and movement in lights to bring people to your exhibition stand.

Eminence Exhibiiton Stand, Spa & Beauty Show Sydney August 2011

A custom built exhibition stand provides many benefits to the exhibitor above the traditional “booth” style of exhibition stand. The traditional stand uses the walls and flooring provided by the exhibition or trade show organiser. A custom built exhibition stand creates is designed and built from the ground up -  creating the walls, floor, and features within the exhibition stand area. Here are six reasons to consider using a custom exhibition stand for your next exhibition, convention, or trade show.

1 – More Freedom to Design an Effective Stand
When you use a custom exhibition stand which includes options for the walls and floors, you have far more freedom to use creative design techniques in your stand. You can choose the height, shape, and colour of your exhibition stand walls, for example, instead of using the colour of the walls that the exhibition centre provides. You have far more freedom to create a unique exhibition stand when you start with an empty space, rather than set walls.

2 – Create Unique Shapes
When you use a custom exhibition stand, you are not limited to having a square or rectangular shaped exhibition stand. You can create your stand in almost any shape, such as an oval or oblong. This makes you easier to spot amongst the traditional square “shell” style stands. You can even create a series of shapes or sections within your exhibition stand. You can create an exhibition stand that looks like a logo, a product, or has a variety of elements.

3 – Building Themes is Easier
Many exhibitors like to create themes for their exhibition stands, which complement the other marketing and promotional materials. When you create a unique custom exhibition stand, you can create a stand shape, with walls, colours, and furniture that matches your theme.

4 – Floors can be Raised or Multilevel
One of the big advantages of a custom exhibition stand is that you can create floors which can become a big feature in itself. You can raise your exhibition stand within the space, giving your stand a height advantage over other stands. You can even create a multilevel stand, so that some aspects are higher than others, creating three dimensional effects and added interest.

5 – Use New Technology
A custom designed exhibition stand can take advantage of new technology, such as using light-weight metals for framing and fabrics for the walls. This can make your exhibition stand more attractive to passers by and can help you to create a good atmosphere within your allotted area. You can use the latest technology to create something no-one has ever seen before in a trade show. You can use lighting that you can hide within the walls, ceiling, and floors, or your custom built exhibition stand. New technology has made exhibition stands lighter and easier to move, pack, transport, and re-use at the next trade show, so your cost per trade show can be reduced.

6 – Attract Attention
The main reason to use a custom exhibition stand is that it will always attract more attention than the traditional “booth” style stands, especially if the majority of other exhibitors choose to use the standard shell stands. With greater freedom to use colour, lights, heights, and other features that will attract attention, you will be sure to get the most of your exhibition stand spend.

Opting for a custom designed exhibition stand has many advantages and is well worth considering when you’re thinking about your your next trade show. Exhibiting at any trade show is a good investment of your marketing funds, so make the most of your experience by creating a unique custom designed and built exhibition stand that complements your branding and other marketing tools.

Bioline Exhibition Stand, Spa & Beauty Expo, Aug 2011

When you spend money to book an exhibition stand with the goal of growing your business you need to be sure that your stand will actually attract people to your business, otherwise your money will be wasted. It doesn’t matter if thousands of people attend the trade show if no-one actually visits your particular exhibition stand or you end up with no viable leads. To prevent this scenario, you need to make your exhibition stand different from the rest of the exhibition stands.

Create a theme for your exhibition stand. This theme allows you to consistently provide a single message to your potential customers in a memorable way. You want people to remember your stand after the event. You can begin marketing with the theme before the trade show or exhibition, by sending your customers an invitation using the theme. That way, your customers will look out for your stand at the trade show and it will trigger recognition.

Designing your exhibition stand around a theme allows you to create an image that stays in potential customers’ memories long after the event too, enabling your follow up sales and marketing teams to tap into this memory using the same theme. This is the best way to convert leads into real sales following a trade show or exhibition event.

If you really want your exhibition stand to stand out from the crowd, you should consider using a custom designed stand. Custom designing your stand can creatively use your allocated space by building the floors and walls of your exhibition stand, instead of using the provided “booth” style exhibition stand walls and floors.

A custom designed exhibition stand provides you with more opportunities to be creative as you can create multi-level floors, with raised sections to attract more attention to certain areas. You can use shapes, colours, and fabrics to create attractive walls that match your theme. You do not even need walls around every section of your exhibition stand space.

To enhance visibility of your stand, use large, colourful, and professional signs. Huge printers are now being used to print massive banners and images which will ensure that your signage is visible from everywhere in the exhibition centre or trade hall. You can have posters and banners printed in your brand colours using the theme you created for your exhibition stand.

Lighting is an essential feature for any exhibitor who wants to stand out from the crowd. Relying on the lighting that exists within the exhibition or conference centre will be insufficient to highlight the areas of your exhibition stand that you want to attract the attention of people walking past. You will need to include lighting within your creative design of your exhibition stand.

When you design your exhibition stand, make it memorable by using a theme, bright, attractive colours, good branding techniques, unique designs in the stand design, visible and professional signage, and excellent lighting.

Exhibition Signage

When walking around a trade show or convention centre filled with exhibition stands, what is the first thing you notice about each stand? Nine times out of ten, you will first notice a sign, poster, or banner. Your impressions of this signage will help you to make a split second decision about whether you are interested in stopping at the stand to learn more or will just keep walking to the next exhibition stand.

Your signs do far more than show which company is exhibiting at the stand. While adding to and complementing the corporate and branding recognition, your signs should encourage people to want to find out more about your products or services.Showing the benefits a person will receive by using your products or services is a good way to use the signage space you have available. Instead of simply showing a large logo and the company name, your signs can provide people with reasons to stop and learn more. The most effective signs are those that ask the reader a question, such as, “Do you want more $$$ in your pocket?”. Most people will stop to discover how the product will give them money or save them money. This type of questioning sign talks directly to the reader or the passer by and attracts their attention on a personal level.

Obviously, you need to ensure your signage provides a true description of your product or service and is not misleading in any way. You can be sued for false advertising at an exhibition stand just as easily as when you advertise in any other medium. False advertising and misleading statements on your exhibition signage will not endear your company to prospective customers and will degrade rather than enhance your company’s profile in the industry.

Keep your signage text simple as people will not spend a long time reading a sign. You want a few very simple bullet points if you want to create a list of the features of your products. Often you can convey a clearer message to people using one or two words on your signs, rather than full sentences. Remember, that people will glance at a sign and decide whether to read on or not. You want signs that people can take in at a glance and will let people know what you are offering quickly. You will be able to go more in depth with customers who want further information at the exhibition stand, but you need effective signage to draw people into that discussion.

Your signs may the first thing anyone sees of your exhibition stand. If your signs are of poor quality, look unprofessional, or are too hard to read, people will be likely to miss your stand and move on to the next one. Professional signage will enhance and attract people to visit your stand.

Besides listing the benefits of your products in text, your signs can use pictures to attract attention. With new printing technology, you can create signs in almost any size. You can use computer technology to layer images, text, colours, and shapes, to create the signs that really attract attention. Whether you opt for digital printing, coloured vinyl decals, large format UV printing, banners or even old fashioned hand painted signage, make sure you create effective, colourful, and bright signs that will enhance your exhibition stand. Talk to your exhibition company, stand designers or graphic designers to discuss all your options.

Roband at Fine Foods

More than 25,000 people will see the 1000+ exhibition stands at the Fine Food Australia trade show on September 5 to 8 at the Sydney Convention Centre. If your business caters to the food service and hospitality business, you can’t afford not to exhibit your wares at the largest international show for the industry. The problem will be making sure your exhibition stand attracts attention amongst the hundreds of other exhibition stands at the conference.

As with any major trade show, attendees will be keen to visit all the stands, but the sheer abundance of stands at this trade show will make it almost impossible for anyone to remember more than maybe ten individual stands when they get home after the event. Marketing and promotional tools for this event will need to be exceptionally high quality as most of the people will remember only a handful of actual exhibits and will rely on marketing materials they take away with them.

However, you can certainly take steps to ensure that your exhibition stand is one of the ones people remember from such a big event, where all six exhibition halls will be filled. You must carefully design your exhibition to make the most of the space you are allocated.

Move away from the traditional “booth” style exhibition stand with the standard blue walls and a table at which your staff stand and display your products. You do not have to create a ‘box’ or a square or rectangular exhibition stand to fill your space. Use your imagination and, together with your expert exhibition stand designer, come up with something that enhances your branding and image. You can make an exhibition stand in almost any shape, so think about something different you could use or create the exhibition stand in the shape of your company logo.

If you create a theme for the Fine Food Australia event, you can use this theme to help people to remember your particular exhibition stand. If your product “makes working in a kitchen a dream”, you could create a dream theme which you use throughout your exhibition stand and in your marketing materials. You could, for example, create the illusion of someone (in a chefs’ hat) sleeping on a mattress at floor level and then raise your exhibition stand by a few steps where people enter the “chef’s dream” which is your exhibition stand. Your staff could hand out little pillows (that show the product of their dreams). This is just one idea which would create an imaginatively themed exhibition stand that will certainly attract attention during the trade show and is more likely to be remembered long after the event. 

Creating a unique and interesting exhibition stand is essential for any trade event or show, but this show has so many exhibitors that a boring or hum drum, or unprofessional exhibition stand will simply be lost in the crowd. Using a professional designer and hiring the right exhibition furniture, accessories, signage and other equipment such as lighting and flooring, to make your exhibition stand appeal to the crowds will be well worth the investment when you gain new business from the 25,000 people with buying power who will be attending the Fine Food Australia trade show.

Verint Exhibition Stand

When you exhibit your products and company at a trade show, you engage in an unique marketing conversation with your current and prospective customers and industry representatives. The following top ten tips will help you to make the make the most of your marketing opportunities within the trade show environment.

Top Tip 1 – Plan, Plan, Plan
Preparation and good planning is the key to a holding a successful exhibition stand at the trade show.  The earlier you can book your stand and start to plan your stand design, the better your stand will be. You do not want to arrive on the day to discover that your exhibition stand does not fit in your allocated space, or that you do not have sufficient marketing materials, such as business cards and brochures available. Plan for every contingency.

Top Tip 2 – Train Your Team
Manning an exhibition stand at a trade show is not an every day task for the majority of your employees. Provide your staff with plenty of training in the products you will be displaying, as well as expected behaviours at the trade show as representatives of your company, and other important factors, such as how to encourage potential customers to provide their details for follow up contact.

Top Tip 3 – Create with Colour
Colourful stands always attract more attention than bland or boring stands. Remember that when potential customers browse through a trade show, their senses are almost overwhelmed by the variety of stands on show, so making bold use of one or two strong colours as a theme for stand can be quite effective.

Top Tip 4 -  Implement Your Imagination
Your imagination is one of the most important elements of designing an outstanding exhibition stand and marketing campaign for the trade show. Think about what makes your company or product unique and why people love your product. Then, use your imagination to capture the imagination and interest of the people attending the trade show. This includes using a box design for the exhibition stand, which you can create in almost any shape, instead of sticking to the traditional “booth” style of exhibition stand.

Top Tip 5 – Theme Your Things
Building a theme that runs though your entire trade show marketing campaign helps people to distinguish and remember your exhibition stand. You can use this theme in the invitations and pre-trade show marketing materials, in the design of your actual exhibition stand, in the give-away products and brochures your team will give to attendees at the trade show, and in your follow up marketing materials.

Top Tip 6 – Sight Your Signs
When you design your exhibition stand and create the appropriate signs for your stand, you need to ensure that the signs are exactly what you need. You also need to consider how people will approach your stand (from all possible directions) and ensure that everyone can see your signs at your trade show stand.

Top Tip 7 – Lighten Your Load
Using new technology, including lightweight metals, materials, and flowing fabrics, you can create an exhibition stand that is easier to transport to and from the trade show. As well lightening the weight of the stand itself, using the new materials allows your stand to create a modern, interesting atmosphere, that shows you are the industry leader in your field.

Top Tip 8 – Step into the Spotlight
Lighting is an essential element of any well-designed exhibition or trade show stand. However, this is one area that people often neglect, sometimes with disastrous results. Use spotlights, downlights, and uplights to create shadows, highlights, and three-dimensional effects throughout your exhibition stand, attracting your customers’ attention where you want it.

Top Tip 9 – Hire a Design Diva
Designing an exhibition stand is not an easy task and great design rarely comes from an individual employee in the company who may have good marketing ideas but rarely needs to design such a compact space. Exhibition stand designers, who design exhibition stands every day, know the latest trends, and how to make the most of a miniscule space.

Top Tip 10 – Enjoy Your Exhibition Experience
Finally, relax and enjoy your exhibition experience. If you enjoy your experience, you will show that in your body language. No customer wants to talk to someone who appears to be bored and tired. Have fun, encourage your team to have fun, and you will attract people into your trade show stand.

These top ten tips will help you to ensure your exhibition stand at the trade show is a real success.