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Eight Trends in Exhibit Builds

Introduction

Marketers are prioritizing and rationalizing their trade show strategies like never before.

Trade show managers don't have the same buying dynamics as they did five years ago—the resulting demand for less-expensive ways to ship and set-up booths has translated into marketers reducing real estate but increasing their on-site "presence."

"No doubt about it. Booths are getting smaller, but more richness is being built into them," says Larry Loper, strategic events manager with Cisco Systems. "We want our exhibits to work harder than ever before."

The nation's exhibit manufacturers have taken Loper's battle cry and are running with it. Most are changing their business models to make sure if they build it, the clients will keep coming back. "We have become brand managers for our clients," says Jeff Bartle, VP-corporate creative with Livonia, MI-based Exhibit Works.

Eight trends in booth building:

Size

Budgets are expected to come back in '04 or '05, but marketers made some key learnings during the last few lean years. Key lesson: Smaller exhibits offer flexibility for trade show portfolios and on-site program execution. "We're seeing more attention-getting techniques used in smaller spaces," says Don Vaughn, executive VP with Freeman Corp., Dallas. "There's now an element of people wanting quality, as opposed to quantity."

Cisco's Loper agrees. "If I sign up for a 100-by-80, I'm now asking myself why," he says. "We're changing our strategy and often taking over smaller booths across more regional shows."

Structure

Exhibits were once more like office cubicles with heavy walls filled with signs, photos of products, and logos. Attendees' eyes didn't know where to focus, and the feel was more clunky than funky. Current exhibits boast less "mass." Even large island setups that take up tons of space no longer include much in the way of old-school booth components.

Fabricators are using a variety of metal tubing systems that frame the exhibit and offer lightweight, easier-to-put-together ways to configure space at different shows. "Everything now has to be portable and modular," says Gwen Parsons, senior VP with Springfield, VA-based Nomadic Display.
Natural treatments (water, glass flooring) are continuing their growth. Exhibitors are also housing multiple brands under one booth, allowing for greater continuity and a larger unified front. "It makes for a total immersion for the attendee," says Bartle.

Taking a cue from European trade shows, domestic builders are enhancing their architectural standards and beefing up hospitality components (as well as platformed flooring, multi-level exhibits, and a heartier exploration within the exhibit space for the attendee). Incorporating more meeting space into booths allows for prospects to be converted into customers before the show ends.

Financing

There was a time when show managers had little choice but to purchase their booth. Buying the exhibit gave some permanent assets to the trade show department, but often customization was prohibitively expensive or logistically challenging. Departments held onto their exhibits until the CFO deemed it time to purchase a new one.

Fast forward. Renting continues to gain in popularity, and not totally for financial reasons: Brand managers now more involved in the execution of trade shows crave flexibility. Rentals offer easy ways to change styles of booths or adapt certain components to new ad campaigns, products, and services. Many marketers are buying the traditional booth facets and then renting the other pieces of the puzzle as needed, providing a way to keep current. "Components are being rented to round out what clients may already have," sums up Dan Cantor, CEO of Indianapolis-based Hamilton Exhibits.

Fabrics

Before, exhibitors relied on stagnate, heavy graphic displays that did little to draw attention to their booths. New fabric banners are flashy, lightweight, easy to change, and a snap to set up. "It's the biggest trend out there right now," says Mike Thimmesch, marketing director at Minneapolis-based Skyline Displays.

Fabric requires minimal structure behind it and offers a sense of translucency. Lightweight fabric can create the sense that there are walls, thereby eliminating the need for standalone segmenting or structures.

Lighting

Once used more to add illumination than effect, there is now a greater use of lighting as thematic extensions of exhibits. The right lighting against fabrics gives the look of a wall where there is none. The progression of LED lighting allows for a variety of techniques that increase look, feel, and theme of exhibits. Projected graphics allow for an artistic treatment and a theatrical environment. Using gobos that project a company's logo or slogan are being used more—either projected on the floor or high up on fabric. "Good lighting is energizing and exciting, like a beacon," says Elaine Cohen, president of Live Marketing, Chicago. "Booths that have creative lighting far outshine those that don't have any."

Strategy

Despite the fact that this may spark a few Letters to the Editor, yesterday's booths lacked true marketing messaging and branding consistency, among other strategic necessities.

But more and more, exhibits are mirror images of overall marketing mixes. "It's no longer about the cement we buy and what we put on it," says Glenda Brungardt, manager of trade shows, Hewlett-Packard. "It's about integrating the right marketing activities around that cement."

Fabricators often take a time out with clients before the design begins to define the mission the brand wants to achieve at a show, and discuss overall marketing objectives. "The era of the silver bullet is dead—we now have to think of what works customer by customer," says Mark Hager, VP with CenterPoint, St. Paul, MN. "We help them create an environment that will facilitate a business encounter, and that's about more than just picking colors."

Staffing

Who exhibitors put inside booths is as important as what the booths look like. More brands are outsourcing the booth-manning duties, training third parties before the show. Field staffers are more focused on prospects and more enthusiastic than a sales rep who views a trade show as more jail sentence than prospecting opportunity. "Salespeople aren't the best marketers at a trade show," says Sheila Bermel, an account executive with Chestnut Ridge, NY-based MC2.

The Backend

Last but not least, the most dramatic change in trade shows may be happening off the show floor. Exhibit fabricators, out to stay in step with clients, are transforming themselves into full-service marketing partners. Not only do many now offer pre- and post-show promotion and Web marketing skills, but they provide Internet status reporting, A+ technology offerings, and the latest and greatest in booth-building machinery and design.

Better rendering and design programs are updated regularly, bigger and better machinery is being implemented each day, and the flow of information from design to engineering to fabrication has never been smoother. "The rendering is only as good as your designer, the engineer's interpretation, and the programmer's skill," says Scott Stubbs, COO with Warren, MI-based H.B. Stubbs Co. "Customers are tightening the timeline, but technology is allowing us to move quicker."

Several builders also have ASP-based Web systems that allow marketers to log in, check out their jobs, share info, post questions, and more. Others have upped their Web capabilities and begun offering event-management tools (Dearborn, MI-based Exhibit Enterprises' dxcevents.com, built and operated for DaimlerChrysler, is a prime example).

And several have launched sidecar event agencies that can build the exhibit, then execute it.