The Greatest Showman? How to Build a Show within a Show and Create a Powerful Community Connection at your Trade Show…
Exhibitions can get busy, in fact, really busy.
There’s so much to see and do and so designing your stand for success means designing a stand that truly ‘stands out’ – and importantly keeps people engaged, creating a memorable experience and attracting some serious attention amongst the large crowds. We liken it to building a show within a show. And whilst you want to deliver a “stand out” performance, you also need some balance. After all – bigger is not necessarily better.
So here are just three key tips for box office success:
1 Go with the flow
Your stand has to really understand the visitor journey and user flow with a clear navigational path which allows visitors to explore as they wish as well as with the help of the brand’s friendly and expert team. You’ll find more about the psychology of the user journey in this Exhibition Stand User Journey Ebook and also this blog.
2 Ditch the demos on your exhibition stand
The demo pod exhibition experience is dying. Exhibitions have become even more creative, more engaging and more about the benefit of the product than the product itself. The way people consume brands at exhibitions – as on the high street and online, has changed. People are no longer simply after a showreel of your best bits or a stack of products; instead, they want to be seen and heard and involved with an opportunity to embrace the overall experience. Exhibition stands which are designed to allow the visitor to embrace the product or brand and the story behind it, rather than a static demo pod, are seeing much higher success rates now and in the future. We’re delighted about this because this fits exactly with how we work with our clients – we focus on winning hearts and minds. Remember, it’s all about them not all about you.
3 Create a powerful community connection amongst tradeshow visitors
As stated earlier, at trade shows, you are building a show within a show: you are inviting customers and tradeshow visitors to join you on your journey and to come away from the experience having learned something. This relies heavily on how the design of your exhibition stand works. It’s an advertisement for all of the features, experiences and unique selling points the audience can’t physically see. And then once the audience are engaged, it’s about how your stand functions to make a difference. Take virtual reality, for example. Visitor-to-visitor moments can be created by the passing of a headset, the smile shared and the words of encouragement. That feeling of all being “in it together” braving something new and unexpected. That sense of community connection is super powerful and from our experience is something most definitely not to be underestimated.
We’d love to hear your comments and views re the above and…
If you’d like to take your exhibition stand or tradeshow presence to another dimension – then our 4D team would love to hear from you.
Simply email Suzanne Malhotra on suzanne@4d-design.co.uk or call on + 44 (0)1494 680088. Visit: www.4d-design.co.uk to see our work, creds and to get in touch.
4D Design is like a SWOT team operation when it comes to designing creative spaces that convert and drive success. Operating globally for over three decades they’re lucky to have some of the most experienced and respected experts in the industry on the team. As their brand name suggests, their creations continually take exhibition and tradeshow stand design to another dimension.
Photo Credit: Fox Movies.
