Going to the trade show is only the first step. If you want to make the most of your event, you need to ensure that people will visit – and engage with – your display. Creative booth ideas can help push your marketing to attract more visitors and make your products stand out.
Fun and interactive trade show exhibits do not have to be expensive, either. Simply adding in some music can boost consumer reactions tremendously. For instance, a study of background music in a grocery store found that people were much more likely to choose French wine if French music was playing in the background or German wine if German music was playing.
Though you may not have to break your budget, you need to apply best practices and be creative with your presentation. Expect that all of your competition will try hard to attract the greatest audience share, and be prepared to make some effort to stand apart from the rest.
5 Essential Best Practices for Your Trade Show Booth
Creativity is fantastic, but it needs to be backed by sound trade show science. You want to follow the best practices for effective engagement and marketing.
An engaging host
Exhibits should be hosted or emceed by a personable, exciting representative. Make sure the host you choose relates well with a wide range of audience members, has the charisma to draw in an audience, and can think on their feet. They’ll need to answer questions from the audience, so they should really understand your products and services.
Interactive components
A boisterous host can get people to your booth. Now you need different tactics to help your audience interact with your products and services. This is where you can get creative! The key is to focus on the senses, with opportunities for visualization, tasting, touching, and smelling.
Takeaway information
Takeaways are very important. Make sure you have brochures, pamphlets, or more creative reminders for attendees to recall their experience at your booth later on.
Product and service demonstrations
If you have a physical product, you will want to have demonstrations established to show off. Services can also be demoed with videos or interactive programs.
Prominent branding:
Your entire exhibit should be branded with your company logos, colors, songs, and whatever other corporate branding you have. Visiting the booth should imprint that brand into peoples’ minds so they remember you later.
Best Creative Booth Ideas to Make the Impression You Want
Within these essential booth best practices, you can get very creative. Think about different experiences to help people take away information, imprint your brand, and experience your product or service in a lasting and sensory way. You don’t have to have a huge budget to be interesting, either. Some of these ideas even help you create exhibits that you can use again and again into the future.
Wheel of Fortune
Everybody loves a free prize! A great way to create buzz at your booth is a spin wheel, where a person gets branded giveaways for landing on different notches. While the wheel is spinning, you can take the few seconds you have to pitch your product or service. At a minimum, it will get people to your booth and looking around at your amazing instructional videos and marketing materials.
Some good gift ideas include:
- Hats and t-shirts.
- Product samples.
- Coupons.
- Gift cards to popular partner restaurants or stores.
- Toys for children, like stuffed animals or coloring books.
Repurposing pallets for a DIY rustic look
Shipping pallets can be a versatile and inexpensive tool for any trade show marketer. They can help you display information in rustic and interesting ways, in a versatile manner that helps you design on the fly.
For instance, if you’re a service offering and your “main event” is a great video, you might use a funky pallet display to rig up a flat screen monitor and create benches for a mini-theater.
What is great about untreated wood is that you can treat it anyway you like. You can paint your pallets with your brand colors, and mix and match different signage depending on each event and its audience.
Create a selfie moment with a fun photo opportunity
People love selfies! What better way to remember your product or your service demonstration booth than by snapping an Insta photo at your booth, in front of a fun display area. You can get creative and design a backdrop that is brand relevant, or just make something fun up that has your logo nearby. Some ideas are:
- Celebrity cardboard cutouts.
- Put-your-face-on-the animal or scene cutouts.
- Exotic backdrops of tropical islands.
- Live stuffed mascots or action heroes.
Free food
A definite winner is free food. You can serve finger foods or beverages at your booth to attract people who are hungry, or you can wrap marketing materials around takeaways like energy bars, lollipops, or water bottles.
A best practice with food is to try to use it as a tool to encourage people to stay at your booth for a while. If you’re handing out a takeaway, ask people to watch a brief video first for a free water and power bar pack. Or you can heat up pizza in a portable pizza oven while people listen to a brief pitch!
Eco-friendly booths
A creative booth idea that can help you with your bottom line is going green. There are a number of ways to be “eco-friendly”, and it helps demonstrate your company’s commitment to environmental responsibility.
- Give away trees or something incredibly biodegradable, wrapped with your marketing. This will help differentiate you from the rest who are handing out paper brochures or plastic bag giveaways!
- Use green materials for backdrops and renewable energy. Companies design amazing modular exhibits with 100% recycled materials, earth-friendly toner, and LED/solar lighting.
- Use real potted trees and plants for your booth decoration. You can even create a nice “shade” seating area to mimic a park or natural cafe environment.
Virtual reality (VR) experience
Virtual reality headsets can make your product or service come alive to the user. They can also help a visitor understand how your product is made, where you source your materials, or the communities that benefit from your company.
Keys to success with VR are to:
- Keep the experience short, so that you do not get a large line. Time-controlled videos often work well, such as a one-minute quick factory tour, or a walk through the forest where you source your essential oils.
- Provide opportunity for interaction. The video should use tools for interaction, such as picking fruit or taking a product off an assembly line.
- Have batteries and backup on hand! Tech can be your friend and your enemy. Make sure you have enough charged batteries and backup equipment on hand to address any technical issues. This includes ensuring that your emcee and hosts understand the equipment, with proper training for maintenance.
Live music and entertainment
Music should definitely be incorporated into your booth on some level. If you make it live, you will draw even more attention! Live music cameos can help you advertise your booth before and during the event, too, encouraging people to mark off your booth as a place they must visit at a certain time during the trade show.
If it makes more sense for your company, you can use any type of fun entertainment to draw people into your booth. Juggling fire or other circus events can be fun, or simple celebrity appearances at set times during events.
Vertical booth space
Designing your booth to be very tall or multistory will draw attention to your space and attract visitors. Columns, high signage, floating or rotating devices and balloons can all help you use more of your space.
Using the vertical space also helps mark your spot. Visitors can easily spot you from across the exhibit hall and reference you to colleagues.
Use visual marketing
Try to replace your words with pictures and images as much as possible. How do you tell your story with visuals that resonate and imprint your brand?
- People in motion are always a high level visual, affiliating action with your product or service.
- Bright colors and iconic images can help people relate to your work, or interest them in visiting your space.
- Proprietary images that call attention to who you are, such as mascots, should be large and uniquely displayed.
Create a separation between your booth and the rest of the trade show
You can help make your booth a go-to spot by separating yourself from the rest of the competition. If you have a nice corner spot or a more hidden location, this is a great tool. Provide some tables where event attendees can rest (while watching your service or product video and enjoying your free coffee).
If you are in the middle of the rest you can still achieve this type of atmosphere with partition walls and creative spacing. Visitors will have a more intimate experience within your inner sanctuary.
Themed exhibits
One of the most creative booth ideas is to develop a fun theme for your entire exhibit. Invite people to get away from the rest of the show and visit a Carnival celebration, a casino (with a roulette fortune giveaway wheel), or tropical beach.
A theme can also help with virtual trade show exhibits. If you have a virtual counterpart to your booth, you can draw attention to your products and services through a fun marketing campaign. The virtual exhibit will make more people want to visit your unique experience in person, too, once they attend the show. Create print outs for free rolls of the roulette wheel, or a tropical cocktail giveaway!
Does Booth Geography Matter?
Your booth location is important. Many people think that they need to have their booth at the front of the exhibit space or they will not receive much traction. There is truth to the fact that people tire, so having your space at the beginning or the very end can help draw more attention.
In reality, though, the actual space matters less than the quality of the booth exhibit. If you have a fun, interactive, creative booth experience, people will come to you. Also focus on the marketing beforehand to draw people in to want to attend your exhibit when they visit the show.
Takeaways – Top Tips for a Creative Booth
Even if you are on a tight budget, there are plenty of ways you can draw more people into your trade show booth. Focusing on the senses and making your booth pop visually and audibly are definite winners.
Engaging a service like Blazer Exhibits can help you discover even more ways to share your particular brand story with your trade show audience. We can help you discover new, creative booth ideas to take your trade shows to the next level of engagement before, during and after events, to maximize the benefits of registering and attending events in the first place.