Making a stand

Three to seven seconds, within a three-day window, just once or twice a year.  That’s how long you have to connect with your target audience via your exhibition stand, and it’s a lot of pressure on your temporary architecture. The fight for return on investment is fierce but, with the right partner and a range of interactive exhibition stand ideas, you can utilise the insider tricks of the trade to bring more visitors onto your stand – and into your brand – for longer, more meaningful interactions. Here are our top tips for making the most of your exhibition stand.

Nail your objectives

When we take a brief from a client, our first question is what do you want to achieve? It sounds obvious and generically simple for every exhibitor; footfall, leads and ultimately sales. But our designers delve deeper than that, identifying the finer points of your exhibition goals. Is there a key new launch that we need to make centre stage? Is there a particular competitor you need to outshine? Are you breaking into the market, or reconnecting with established contacts? Letting us get to the bottom of your brand helps us to maximise the potential of your stand.

Maximise the space

This is where our designers come into their own, utilising every aspect of their experience to make the most of your space. For most exhibitors, the criteria are the same; somewhere to sit / storage / a TV screen. For the experts however, there is so much more to creating a layout that works including a range of interactive exhibition stand ideas. Pre-empting your anticipating visitor experience allows us to create a journey around the stand, creating traffic flow around your key products and messages. Concealed storage, breakout hospitality areas and innovative AV solutions can all ease your exhibiting pain points, enhancing your visitor experience and boosting your sales.

Allocate a budget

For first-time exhibitors especially, allocating a budget for an exhibition stand can be tough. All too often, clients anticipate a “price-per-square-metre” system, whereby stand builders can offer a price based on the space and location booked. With so much scope for creativity however, outlining a budget from the offset is the best way to create a statement presence within realistic parameters. “We want to create the maximum impact that we can for the budget we have available,” says Smart Display’s creative director Nathan Hesslewood. “Allocating a budget doesn’t mean that we will aim to spend that amount, but it gives us a realistic idea of what we are working with so that we can do what we do best.”

Multi-facet your branding

Your brand is who you are, and our job as designers is to maximise that impact. When you work with an experienced stand builder, we will explore the options to dive deeper into your branding to make sure it’s firmly on the radar of every potential customer in the aisles. Could your exact Pantone be reflecting in feature LED lighting? Does the curve of your logo lend itself to reflective structures? There are elements you may never have considered that can bring your brand home to thousands of potential leads through creative exhibition stand design.

Go big on content

For exhibitors with strong video content, AV solutions can be a useful tool in making video the focal point over physical product. LED video tiles allow us to maximise the impact of your content with heights up to 6 metres, and the capacity to run video tiles around corners for a striking impact.

Add a new dimension

Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR) are some of the most exciting developments in interactive exhibition stand ideas, giving exhibitors the chance to augment their visitors’ experience above and beyond the confines of the exhibition stand. While VR headsets can take customers on a virtual journey, augmented reality allows us to introduce elements such as sensor tags and activations to a physical product to demonstrate further information about the item. Augmented reality can also be incorporated into the walls of the stand structure, illuminating the customer journey through your stand.

Play the game

Games and challenges are a fantastic way of engaging visitors and encouraging footfall onto your stand. From basic spin-the-wheel games to retro arcade games, Smart Display has an inspiring and extensive range of solutions for exhibitors looking to add a gaming element onto their stand. From wheelchair-accessible arcade games to vintage-style fortune tellers, the best aspect of incorporating a game onto your stand is that it can be fully personalised to your brand.

Let me take a selfie

It’s simple but effective; incorporating a selfie point into your artwork can encourage visitors to stay a little longer while they photograph the moment. Even better, the potential to share images across social media platforms lets visitors promote your brand on your behalf, making this one of our most popular interactive exhibition stand ideas. Our in-house design team is fully-equipped to take care of all of your artwork, while our in-house printing facilities afford us full control over quality and colour-matching. The best bit? Your fabrics can be stored, reconfigured and re-used, so you can roll out your selfie station next time around.

Capture today, convert tomorrow

Your exhibition is a prime opportunity to turn leads into sales, so make sure your incorporate data capture into your exhibition presence. Many exhibition organisers offer an app with scanning capabilities, allowing exhibitors to quickly scan and capture contact details from visitors’ badges. However, we can also incorporate elements into your exhibition stand to measure footfall and make sure you leave with all of the information you need to follow up leads after the event.

Sustainability

As much as we love creative stand design, we love the earth too. Working with the right exhibition stand installer can ensure that you make an impact, without impacting the world around you. All of our graphics and bespoke components can be reconfigured from one show to the next, and we invest resources into refurbishing our elements to keep materials in our 25,000 sq ft facility, and out of landfill.

Feeling inspired? Take the first step towards an exhibition stand that gets results and get in touch today. Our friendly team can talk you through your options and present a range of interactive exhibition stand ideas to maximise the potential of your trade show schedule this year and beyond #wemakeevents