Exhibiting 101 – 10 ways to lure delegates to your exhibit – Trade Show Exhibits
A common mistake on trade show exhibitions is thinking that the visitor will come and see you. Whilst it is true that exhibitions bring your target market to the venue, visitors in South Africa are still of the shy sort and need to be enticed to your stand.
If you are the type of person that can “get on a soapbox and start selling” then you wont have a problem. However if you are like most of us and are a bit more reserved, then you may need a little extra assistance.
People are a funny lot. Once we are in a comfortable environment that we understand we loosen up and are able to engage far better than in a foreign environment. For this reason your exhibit needs to be a familiar territory for your visitors.
So how do we go about drawing people to the stand…here are some ideas and these of course all dependant on what type of show it is and the rules pertaining that show.
1. Use Large, Quality, Impactful graphic panels. For me the bigger the better. The louder the prouder. Do make sure your graphic designer understands the need for “LARGE” format and impactful. What works in a magazine does not work on an exhibit! Simple, Low text, visually stunning images are whats needed.
2. Have a large banner rigged over your stand to alert people on the other side of the hall to where your stand is. For what it does the cost is minimal.
3. Use Audiovisual – plasma, demo PC’s, demo MACS (way cooler), xbox, playstation…but do show quick and easy to digest footage
4. Have a stand feature eg: make your stand a Wi-Fi zone so delegates can use their smart phones & laptops
5. Show live sports. Check the calendar. Whats on during show time. showing the super 14 semi final will draw a large crowd to your exhibit especially since they can’t be watching it with their friends and family. …and
6. …run some sort of bar facility concurrent with the sports…it doesnt have to be alcohol. Virgin cocktails and light snacks.
7. Bring in a celebrity
8. Technical Point 1. whilst 100mm raised floors may be all the rage in Europe & the US, where visitors are far more engaging, in South Africa people are reluctant to take that step up
8. Run a competition. But do make the prize worthwhile and make sure you advertise the competition!
9. Create a good viral campaign before the show to entice people to come to your stand for the result
10. Catering – Food and Drink. Water is scarce at trade congresses. An ice-cold bottle of water goes down very well. Make sure all catering is branded!
Not all shows can use the same techniques and ultimately the show being a good one for you will depend on a positive attitude by the staff on the stand. If they sit around and look bored no-one will approach them. But if they are up and about, looking busy on the edges of the stand people will want to come up and talk.
If someone makes eye contact, it means they want to talk. All the tricks-of-the-trade are meant to create that first eye contact and then the work switches to the representative.
We think out the box for our clients.
