Originally published May 22, 2006 in MeetingNews
Savvy event marketers are taking to heart the buzzword of the Internet age "interactive" and turning it into reality on the trade show floor.
Instead of a booth with pictures of the exhibitor's product along with maybe a PowerPoint presentation and literature to take away, more sophisticated exhibitors are building booths with an array of displays that both engage attendees and draw them deeper into the booth. The hope is that attendees will leave with a longer-lasting impression of the exhibiting company and its products.
Show organizers who encourage exhibitors to build more interactive exhibits help themselves in at least two ways: interactive exhibits often require larger booths, which increase booth space sales; and more effective exhibits encourage companies to sign up for subsequent shows.
"We're seeing more booths that are experiential," said Dan Hoffend, vice president of sales, corporate accounts, for Freeman, the show services contracting company based in Dallas. "Exhibitors are creating something that visitors to the booth can physically do. You have to create an experience that gets people to do more than simply pick up a brochure."
While automobile-show exhibitors have for years created sound and light spectacles and provided attendees plenty of opportunity to interact with the cars on display companies in other industries started building more elaborate exhibits in the past year or so, said Hoffend.
He attributed the increase to a growing economy combined with a more competitive business environment, which has induced companies to outdo their rivals when competing for attendee attention on the show floor.
"If you're competing with other companies, you need to pick up your exposure on the show floor," Hoffend contended.
Freeman debuted its own redesigned booth at Exhibitor2006 in March in Las Vegas, not only to attract more visitors but as an example of a state-of-the-art booth that the company can create for clients.
The booth was designed to entice visitors to discover its various interactive elements, starting from the outside and moving deeper into the booth. Standalone kiosks equipped with light boxes, or illuminated displays, with self-contained video players were set up as well as six 60-inch plasma video screens. Using a touchpad, visitors could select presentations on specific subjects to view on the plasma screens. The software that activated visitor selections also tracked the choices to determine which topics generated the most visitor interest.
The average visitor stayed at the booth three times longer than in previous years, and Freeman exceeded its target goal of obtaining 150 leads by nearly 50 percent.
Exhibits such as Freeman's often require more construction and audiovisual production in addition to more space, which typically means a more expensive booth.
A booth similar to Freeman's at Exhibitor2006 would cost a client about $255,000 for the design and construction, not including the audiovisual components, according to Manda Quinn, a Freeman marketing manager. She said the AV elements would cost an additional $70,000 for labor and to purchase the equipment, or less if the equipment is rented.
Some companies are paying for the greater booth expense by diverting marketing dollars from advertising to events, said Hoffend. Companies also are exhibiting at fewer events, focusing instead on shows, or proprietary events, that more narrowly focus on their target audience.
Even some smaller companies are beefing up their exhibit booths in a bid to compete more effectively against larger rivals. "If a company wants to create an impression that it is a player in an industry, it may need to take more space, especially if it is introducing a new product that competes with larger companies," Hoffend said.