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 To draw attendees to its booth at the 2009 Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) annual conference, Spectrum Human Resource Systems Corp. turned its booth into a compact carnival. While a popcorn machine in the company's 20-by-20-foot exhibit attracted attendees with its steamy, buttery scent, a Spectrum staffer urged passersby to "Step right up!" with the gusto of an old-time carnival barker. Once visitors entered the booth, staffers representing the Denver-based maker of software for human-resources departments led them to a Nintendo Wii game console hooked up to a 50-inch television monitor, where they tried their luck at virtual versions of traditional boardwalk games. Each participant won a prize no matter how high - or low - he or she scored, from a temporary tattoo of the company's superhero mascot, Ivan, to a stuffed toy monkey. Visitors who played had their badges scanned, which automatically entered them in a drawing held at show's end for a Wii console of their own. Costing just a few hundred dollars, the carnival-themed amusements were a simple but sticky tactic that helped Spectrum obtain the same number of leads
as the year before at SHRM, even though the show's attendance had dropped almost 25 percent.
 
It's easy to say your products are waterproof, but it's quite another thing to prove it. At the 2009 National Association of Broadcasters Show, Thermodyne created a prove-it-style product
display for its waterproof cases,
which are made to protect expensive digital videography and photography equipment. A branded column in the Thermodyne booth featured one of the company's waterproof cases inside a glass enclosure. The case floated on top of several inches of standing water, while a sprinkler system inside the column continuously doused the case with streams of water. The proof is usually in the pudding, but in this case, it was definitely in the demo.
Displaying your company's flowers, shrubbery, and trees is as easy as plunking down some potted plants in your exhibit space. But when you're selling aquatic plants, pot plunking is not an option. So at the Minnesota Green Expo, aquatic-plant supplier Cook Water Farm created a mini pond in its 10-by-20-foot booth space, complete with a gentle slope to illustrate the different depths at which the various flora thrive. A 30-gallon aquarium became the "pond," and foam and plastic
were cut to fit inside the glass tank and mimic the slope of a real body of water. Then the assorted plants were placed at the proper depths - turning a pet-shop purchase into an easy-to-transport and easy-to-understand in-booth product presentation.
Fearful of being attacked by hungry salespeople, many attendees prefer to look on from the aisles rather than entering - much less sitting down in - an exhibitor's booth. So at GlobalShop 2009 in Las Vegas, Mohawk Carpet LLC offered attendees a fear-free activity that had nothing to do with its product and everything to do with a soft-sales approach. Mohawk figured that many GlobalShop attendees have little experience with casino gaming, aside from knowing how to operate a one-armed bandit. So it positioned a poker table and dealer on one edge of its island space and offered Texas Hold 'Em lessons to any attendee who wanted to learn. The aisle-side attention getter drew attendees like gold diggers to a whale on a hot streak. Plus, it allowed staffers to sit at the poker table and talk with attendees - first chatting about poker and then subtly segueing into talking shop as the poker hands wore on. Talk about stacking the deck for the house.
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 Looking for a surefire way to make your press kit a sweet success? Try tempting editors' taste buds with a sweet
treat to lure them in. Jacki Paper, a Belmont, CA-based greeting-card company with a whimsical brand identity, packed its press kit (which comprised a 5.5-by-8.5-inch folder, a press release, product photos, the company's Winter 2009 product catalog, and a one-page summary of the company's history) inside a clear cellophane wrapper. Visible through the transparent wrapper were bright blue Pixy Stix that matched the vibrant blue hue from the company's logo. The treat not only proved almost irresistible to any journalist with a sweet tooth, but it also offered some sweet insight into the company's charming personality as well.
 Why just show an in-booth video when you can create an in-booth experience instead? At the International Consumer Electronics Show, Sennheiser USA adopted an air-travel-inspired presentation space to complement its promotional video, which positioned the company's noise-canceling headphones as the perfect in-flight accessory. When attendees approached the booth, Sennheiser asked them to take a seat in its miniature in-booth airplane. Comprising six airplane seats, a curved tension-fabric wall with window cutouts, and a plasma screen that ran the promotional "in-flight" video, the faux airplane cabin allowed booth visitors to feel as if they were flying the friendly skies while actually soaking up the company's key messages. During the presentation, staffers dressed as flight attendants distributed treats to complete the airplane-themed experience.
 Obviously, a Brazilian
hardwood floor cut into interlocking puzzle pieces is about the coolest flooring you're likely to find - even at a trade show like Surfaces 2010. But the manner in which Brazfloor LLC displayed its funky flooring product elevated it to a whole new level. Rather than simply slapping a product swatch on a typical display board and calling it a day, the company used its custom, puzzle-piece product as the exhibit flooring. However, unless attendees gave it a careful look, they might easily pass it by without a second glance. So staffers removed one piece of the puzzle flooring and put simple white sheets of paper in its place to highlight the puzzle-piece-shaped void. The simple but eye-catching flooring tactic forced all but the visually challenged to stop and stare, allowing staffers to open a conversation about not only the puzzle-floor product, but also Brazfloor's other lines of Brazilian hardwoods.
What's The Big Idea?
Do you have a clever exhibit-related tip? Did your last exhibit have an über-cool traffic builder?
Contact Travis Stanton at tstanton@exhibitormagazine.com.
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