I have been involved with trade shows for well over 15 years. My experience was mostly as a vendor hosting the events but, also presenting and demonstrating products and services. So when I joined Visual Marketing Resources Inc., one the largest east coast providers of trade show booths and displays for over 30 years, it was no surprise to me that seeing a trade show from a totally different perspective would help me understand the logistics side of assisting client’s prepare for their events before and after.
I visited a local trade show recently and my sole purpose was to see some of the new and fabulous booths we had designed and built and in some cases see them for the first time fully setup. I was also curious to determine what new and exciting ideas the sales teams might have come up with to promote their product or service. So after my boss Jeff and I finished visiting with our current client’s booths, we began to wonder around the trade show floor as it all began to spring to life.
As we strolled down the first row, I began to notice a clear difference in some booths that were side-by –side next to their own competitors. It was a clear sign that based on little or no preparations some companies dragged the same display out of their boxes that collected dust from the year before. In many cases, there were rips, tears, uneven graphics, bubbled graphics, graphics applied to displays where the graphic was terrible and in many cases no display banner other than a vinyl sign hanging on the back wall or their booth.
For those of you who don’t realize this, 1 of every 2 attendees at a trade show is planning to buy one or more of the products of services they saw while visiting a trade show that same year. So why any company small or large would pay all the fees associated with a trade show, pay their staff for the hours and travel and then represent their product or service with only a 3x5 foot sign was a surprise to me. In some cases, their direct competition had beautiful graphically designed table top fabric displays with a matching stand and banners to the left and the right. Ask yourself this question, if you were in attendance and making a decision on a service/product which company would you be visiting? The one falling apart with a 3x5 foot sign or the one with an attractive presentation.
Costly mistakes are not just a part of the visible aspect while presenting at a trade show. As we continued along the trade show floor we saw plenty of other sites for sore eyes. I recall seeing a 20x20 fully caged metal production from the 1990’s with huge can theater lights hanging down. Can you just imagine how much this company is being charged to setup that metal monster for every trade show, dismantle it, ship it and store it for the next show? The weight alone has to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 pounds. So what’s the morale of the story for this vendor? Contact us at Visual Marketing Resources Inc. so we can build and design a more cost effective booth that’s not costing you a small fortune for every trade show you attend.
For any company attending a trade show this year, have your marketing team review your current booth or display options at least 6 months prior to the show in order to present your companies brand in the most cost effective way before, during and after every trade show.
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