Stopping traffic

Highways UK draws to a close today, and Smart Display is happy to report that its seven stand installations saw an increase in visitor traffic compared to previous seasons.

Annual event Highways UK brings together professionals responsible for planning and developing the nation’s road network. With an impressive 350 exhibitors this year, Smart Display’s seven clients were keen to stand out from the competition, and tasked the specialist stand designer and installer to make sure their brands were the ones to stop traffic in the aisles.

Having previously exhibited within a shell scheme structure, MJ Church made the progression to space-only this year, tasking Smart Display with creating enough of an impact to drive traffic to its stand. Smart Display took the brief seriously and, just halfway through the first day, MJ Church was delighted at how much its investment had paid off.

“Our footfall this morning alone speaks for itself,” says Aidan Boyle, MJ Church’s head of civil engineering. “Our stand is the first thing you see when you walk towards this area, and it’s done the job of attracting visitors to our brand. The screen in particular has had an amazing impact – we will definitely be re-using that next year.”

Fellow new kid on the block Nicander was also keen to improve on its experience at last year’s show, and turned to Smart Display to help create an eye-catching stand that delivered the right message.

“We were looking for something more professional that we had last year and, having worked with Smart Display in a previously role, I knew they were the right choice,” says business manager Sam Brierley. “We’ve already seen the customers that we were hoping to see, so we are really happy.”

For those customers returning to Smart Display meanwhile, the flexibility to re-use certain stand elements was particularly appealing.

“We’ve used the same counter and cabinet as last time, but have added some new graphics and elements to keep it looking consistent, but fresh,” says Aidan Byrne, commercial director at MSF.

“I added some new graphics to the walls to align with the new message that we want to send out,” agrees Kelly Spear, marketing executive at Messagemaker. “Smart Display has built this stand for us several times now, but I am new to the team and had some ideas of my own. Everyone at Smart Display was really helpful in adding the new elements, and communicated deadlines with me at every step of the way so I never missed a deadline.”

With around 75 per cent of its operation being made up of repeat business, Smart Display is proud of its customer retention. The opportunity to re-use stand elements gives customers the flexibility to take a sustainable and consistent approach to exhibiting, while making making amendments as their brands progress and flourish.

“We decided to opt for a higher stand this year, taking the height to four metres instead of the previous three metre height,” says Maggie Pytlas, sales & marketing director at Valmont. “It’s created a real impact, and we have had a lot of compliments.”

For Nexus Vehicle Rental meanwhile, re-using the same stand has contributed to a certain level of brand consistency throughout the brand’s hectic exhibition schedule.

“We don’t have any physical product to showcase because we are a tech platform, so our stand has to do the talking for us,” says Adam Archer, marketing manager at Nexus. “We have used this stand four times now, and we are looking at refreshing it ahead of our exhibition schedule next year, which could span seven shows in total.”

Installing, storing and re-using exhibition stands is Smart Display’s speciality, offering an alternative to the tradition exhibition stand business model of creating one-off, disposable designs. One of Smart Display’s longest-standing clients Westcotec is still using its creation several years on, and even takes it to overseas exhibitions to reinforce its international brand presence.

“Our Smart Display stand has become part of Westcotec’s identity and it is still standing steady,” says managing director Chris Spinks. “Exhibiting is the best part of the job for me, and we have a lot of dates on our calendar for this year and next. We are heading out to Amsterdam once again for Intertraffic and, as always, Smart Display will make our live so much easier. We wouldn’t want to exhibit without them.”

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