Trade Shows happen year round. Nearly every industry has such an event that gathers vendors, specialists and customers together for the improvement of the industry. As an example, the signage industry has many events spread throughout the year. Some are regional events held in cities like Indianapolis, some are national/international events in cities like Las Vegas, which is where you would expect a bunch of sign nerds to go, right?

Dana Nelson successfully demonstrating how to snag trade show attendees and capture their attention.

So if you are exhibiting at an upcoming “target-rich environments” in your industry, we have a few tips for you. Here are the top five trade show exhibitor needs:

5.) A display.

A display is not the most important need for exhibitors. Shocked? I know that might sound odd coming from a company that designs and manufactures such displays, but I’m pretty sure we’re right. Disagree? Tell us why below.

4.) A passion.

Does talking about your business bore you? Does it bore others? People you talk to must know that you are passionate about your business. For example, I loathe the calculating and reporting of taxes. But my CPA has a delightfully enthusiastic and infectious attitude about them. Whenever I’m done talking to him, I always think, “taxes aren’t so bad, I could get excited about that.” Then reality sinks in and I remember that he’s an amazing professional who is passionate about what he does. That’s the guy I want on my side. That’s the type of passion you need to exhibit at a trade show.

3.) An experience.

2012 Southwestern Indiana Chamber of Commerce Business Expo booth design: We highlighted Evansville’s bicentennial celebration by making cutouts of many of the famous Evansville personalities.

2.) A team.

Your team could be just you and that’s fine. I’ve been at trade shows and conferences where I was the only one from SIGNARAMA Evansville representing our company. If you have multiple people on your team, you must have a unified vision and a focus. Whether one or many, always remember: before, during and after! Before the event, your team is responsible for inviting your existing clients and those you think might be interested to visit you at the event. During the event, your team is responsible for meeting new clients and solidifying existing relationships. After the event, your team is responsible for the follow-up, scheduling appointments and continuing to solidify the relationships developed at the event.

1.) A plan.

I bet you thought I was going to say something signish, huh? Nope. A strategic plan is the most important thing you need as a trade show exhibitor. Without a plan set into motion months before the event, you won’t have a display, logoed apparel for your sales team to wear, pens or other promotional items to give away to passersby. Without a plan, your team won’t have anything to do; you won’t know what to talk about and you won’t know who your target audience is. Without a plan, you won’t follow up with the contacts you make. Without a plan your energy has largely been wasted.

More about trade show and event exhibits

As I said before, we design and manufacture displays for trade shows and other exhibits. If you need help with your display, graphics or other materials for your trade show exhibit, please contact us.

The EDG Tour Group.

Here are a few of the highlights:

The entries to the EDG Hood Wrap Contest. The winning entry was submitted by Kristi Pine. Congrats, Kristi!

Billy Collins, 3M Preferred Graphics Installer demonstrates the wrapping of a car hood using 3M vinyl.

Laser engraving and etching allows us to make really cool awards, ADA signs and other architectural signs.

Cutting foamboard cleanly. Can your sign shop do that?

Matt Wagner with the army of FlatMatt

Someone got a little carried away with the dry erase marker. FakeWalterV did not mind at all.

To see more photos, check out our Facebook page. For more information about the Evansville Design Group, please visit their website: evansvilledesign.org

I want to introduce to you something a bit meatier. A bit sturdier. Something ideal for a multi-day trade show that might get bumped in to, leaned on and beat up but won’t mind it at all: Truss-based Trade Show and Event Exhibits!

These things are beefy but for all their metal glory are not difficult to set up. It took Walter a little over an hour to set up and he mostly did it alone. Check out the stop motion video below.

We are pleased to announce the Evansville Design Group’s Hood Wrap Contest!

The winning design will be wrapped live during EDG’s SIGNARAMA Evansville Tour on May 28. See that hood pictured above? We’ll remove the existing wrap and our 3M preferred vinyl installer, Billy Collins, will be wrapping that hood live during the tour.

Design Brief:

Design a hood wrap for the Evansville Design Group. The wrap will be used to promote EDG. The wrap is intended to be hung or displayed as a showpiece to raise awareness of EDG.
Dimensions: 52″W x 57″H + 2″ bleed
Must include: EDG logo, SIGNARAMA Evansville logo and your own logo.
Schedule: Designs must be submitted by Tuesday, May 21 at midnight. Winning entry will be selected by the SIGNARAMA Evansville designers.

How to enter:

• Download the Template – car-hood.pdf
• Design something epic (see Tips and Tricks if your epicness needs a boost).
• Upload your winning design here.
• Winning design will be selected by the SIGNARAMA Evansville Design Team.
• Winning design will be announced at the SIGNARAMA tour May 28.

Tips and Tricks:

• Embedded raster images should be 120dpi. Also, if you elect to design in Photoshop, set your file to 120dpi.
• CMYK – U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2 is the recommended color profile.
• Recommended file types: .pdf, .eps, .ai, .psd (immediate disqualification and lifetime ban from EDG for submitting .ppt, .doc or .pub)
• Convert fonts to outlines.
• Embed any images.
• The client is EDG. The design should promote EDG.

It might be a good idea to visit evansvilledesign.org to see their current branding, philosophy, etc.

• Must use the EDG logo. Size it to your wishes. (included in the template)
• Must use your logo and the SIGNARAMA logo at the size provided (~40 sq in).
• Wrap cliches (use these to your own peril): flames, snake skin, diamond plate and really bad flames.
• Have fun. Show off.

We look forward to seeing all of you at the EDG Tour of the SIGNARAMA Evansville facility on May 28 at 6pm. Please RSVP on the Evansville Design Group website.

About Vehicle Wraps and Graphics

We have Billy Collins, a 3M Preferred Vinyl Graphics installer, on staff to ensure your vehicle’s graphics are installed with the utmost care. We want your business to succeed and firmly believe that a well-designed, expertly installed wrap gives you a distinct advantage over your competitors. More on Vehicle Graphics…

Landscaping rocks laid down this week by New Image Gardening.

The lovely ladies from New Image Gardening

One thing I am certain of is that the time to spread fresh mulch and landscaping rock fast approaches.

If you own a landscaping company, you’ve probably already been very active beautifying homes and businesses. When was the last time you checked what your vehicles say about your landscaping company? Do they present your company in a way that makes you proud? Do they simply communicate what you do? Springtime is a great opportunity to re-evaluate the effectiveness of your vehicle graphics. Bring your landscaping vehicle by for a free consultation or give us a call at 812-477-7763.

Marketing suggestions for Landscaping Companies

Your landscaping and gardening vehicles present a fantastic marketing opportunity. You drive them all over town. You park them where you are working. They are highly visible. Your vehicle needs to have graphics on it advertising you! Pickup trucks, trailers, dump trucks and any other vehicles you use for your landscaping or gardening business should naturally be branded to make your company easily recognizable.

When you are at a site trimming, pruning, planting or weeding, how many people drive, walk, bicycle or skip by? The graphics on your vehicles should be aimed at them, the passersby. Those are your prospective marketing targets.

Benefits of vehicle graphics to a landscaping company

• Your sign goes everywhere you do.
• Marketing can be expensive. Vehicle graphics are a ridiculously inexpensive means of marketing and advertising.
• Vehicle graphics will last you multiple years.

Tips to effectively use your marketing enabled landscaping vehicle.

• Be aware of your surroundings. When you arrive at a job site, take note of where traffic may be coming from. Is it pedestrian? How fast are the vehicles passing by?
• After you unload your truck, re-park it so that it is in the most visible spot available while still respecting the traffic coming to and from your client’s facility.
• Bigger is not always better. Your vehicle’s graphics should reflect your landscaping style. If you operate on simplicity and clean lines in your outdoor design, we will do the same with your vehicle design.
• We will do everything we can to stay in your budget. But we must know your budget in order for us to stay within it. The price range for vehicle graphics is similar to your price range for the landscaping services you provide.
• Plan for your vehicle graphics to last about three years. Landscaping trucks oftentimes get abused more than most, so you may want to replace the graphics more often if they get damaged.

About Vehicle Wraps and Graphics

We have Billy Collins, a 3M Preferred Vinyl Graphics installer, on staff to ensure your vehicle’s graphics are installed with the utmost care. We want your business to succeed and firmly believe that a well-designed, expertly installed wrap gives you a distinct advantage over your competitors. More on Vehicle Graphics…

Spring is a natural time of year to spruce things up around your home and your business. I mowed this past weekend. It felt great. Had I one more day of relatively nice weather I also would have put down fresh mulch, dead-head my daisies I didn’t get around to last fall, trim my rose bush, pull some weeds, clean my windows, and oh yeah, take down my Christmas lights.

As a company that helps other businesses market effectively, we are often asked for advice on ‘Spring-cleaning’ marketing ideas. This, of course, depends on your budget, needs and planned marketing efforts. For some of you, a sidewalk sign announcing your daily specials will be the perfect solution. For others, it’s really time to replace your old faded sign with a new electronic message center.

Another option for many of you will be to reassess your vehicle graphics. Whether you have one vehicle or a fleet of vehicles, take a fresh look at them. Here are some questions you should ask yourself about your vehicle graphics:

• Do my vehicles display the level of professionalism that is consistent with my brand?
• Are my vehicle graphics faded, peeling or damaged?
• Is my message relevant?

Here’s what we did for a company recently. See if you can spot the differences in the before and after pics.

About Vehicle Wraps and Graphics

We have Billy Collins, a 3M Preferred Vinyl Graphics installer, on staff to ensure your vehicle’s graphics are installed with the utmost care. We want your business to succeed and firmly believe that a well-designed, expertly installed wrap gives you a distinct advantage over your competitors. More on Vehicle Graphics…

We love having a professional baseball team in Evansville. We love spending a few hours at historic Bosse Field with our family while we root, root, root for the home team. We love the smell of the grass and the infield dirt and the well-cared-for leather. We love our Evansville Otters.

For family entertainment value, it’s a steal. Just $5 a person to get you in and relatively inexpensive ball game food.

We are proud to be a corporate sponsor for the Otters because the Otters are good for Evansville. If you are interested in sponsoring the Otters, give GM Joel Padfield a call (812-435-8686) and he’ll get you set up. Check out the Otters’ website for game time info for the 2013 season.

And finally, consider this: where else can you watch people pull polyps off a giant wooden colon and still feel good about yourself after you get done laughing?

About Where’s Walter

The Where’s Walter series highlights the mysterious activities of the owner of AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama in Evansville Indiana. See all of the Where’s Walter posts.