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 It's difficult to display a product that's smaller than a fingernail. So to offer attendees an up-close-and-personal look at its computer chips, Intel Corp. gave the product legs - literally. Roving staffers inside the company's 100-by-120-foot booth asked attendees at the International Consumer Electronics Show if they'd ever seen an Intel computer chip up close. Knowing that few people have ever seen the chips at the heart of most computers, booth staffers then opened their hands to reveal one of the tiny chips. Attendees could touch and hold the chip, as staffers discussed key messages and product benefits. Then, to wrap up the on-the-go demo and direct attendees to other areas of Intel's booth, staffers offered up suggestions of nearby activities and presentations, keeping visitors in the booth - and in the palm of Intel's hand.
To generate awareness for its new multifocal "MyStyle" eyeglass lens that can be customized for each patient, Hoya Lens Deutschland GmbH developed a "MyStyle" theme for its booth at Opti 2009. Giving staffers an easy segue into a conversation about the new lens, the theme permeated Hoya's exhibit, from its in-booth meeting rooms to its hospitality choices. For example, attendees could personalize their meeting-room experience by selecting one of four rooms that each offered a different theme, such as a '70s room that featured vintage furniture or a sports room with athletic equipment. To further underscore the customization theme, staffers invited attendees to create their own recipes at the booth's MyPasta and MyCocktail stands. Attendees not only left the Hoya booth with full bellies; they also walked away with the notion that Hoya had a solution for their individual needs.
 Reading product literature is about as mind-numbingly boring as watching paint dry. But British design and manufacturing company Tom Dixon decided that instead of a boring bio or cliché catalog, it would distribute a 16-page newspaper in its exhibit at the 2009 International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. The aptly titled Tom Dixon Review featured stories about the design firm, the various materials it uses, its core values and design principals, and, of course, its past projects. In addition, the newspaper featured a cartoon entitled "The Design Adventures of Tom Dixon," penned by comic superstar John Lucas, whose work has also appeared in Marvel and DC Comics. In the comic, Dixon escapes a corporate existence only to find his plans for anti-design thwarted. Part product catalogue, part press kit, part damn good reading, the paper ends with a back page that features the company's contact info and directs readers to an online press kit. With that kind of entertaining and informative content, you can bet that any client or prospect that picked up the info-packed promotional newspaper got Tom Dixon's message loud and clear.
 Celebrity appearances and green-screen activities are tried-and-true traffic builders in and of themselves, but Motorola Inc. offered the best of both worlds in its exhibit at the International Consumer Electronics Show. Staffers invited attendees to step in front of a green screen, where they could select one of two songs from Fergie, "Glamorous" or "Fergalicious." As the song rolled, attendees shook their groove things in front of the green screen. Meanwhile, in-booth monitors displayed images of the dancers superimposed on pre-recorded music-video footage of Fergie singing the selected hit. The resulting 30-second videos, which Motorola e-mailed to attendees after the show, made it look as if attendees were gyrating alongside Fergie, who ended each video clip with Motorola's "Hello Moto" tagline. Without setting foot on the show floor, Fergie made a glamorous impression on Motorola's prospective customers, and the videos - some of which attendees uploaded to YouTube - went viral, generating tens of thousands of views. Hello Moto, indeed.
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 When is a table more than a table? When it communicates your company's offerings in an instant. Rather than plopping a couple of boring tables in its exhibit at the 2009 United Fresh Produce Association show and calling it a day, Paramount Citrus built a pair of tables out of its citrus fruits, the crates they are shipped in, and simple clear-glass tabletops that left the company's colorful fruit in plain view. A functional piece of furniture doing double duty as a product display, the citrusy strategy kept Paramount's message tabletop of mind during attendees' in-booth meetings.
 While we're all hoping for the economy to bounce back, Media Monitors LLC is preparing attendees for better days. The company adopted a basketball theme for its 2009 National Association of Broadcasters exhibit, along with the tagline "Let's Get Ready to Rebound." The exhibit featured a free-throw game where visitors competed to make the most baskets in 45 seconds. A plasma screen mounted near the game displayed the high scores for each day of the show, giving winners serious bragging rights.
 Many greeting-card exhibitors at the 2009 National Stationery Show opted for rather uninspired "tape-it-to-the-back-wall" product displays. So to stand out amid the two-dimensional crowd and make a bold statement, greeting-card company Bonnie Marcus & Co. turned its cards into an attention-getting cocktail dress. Displayed on a dress form, and complete with a blinged-out alphabet necklace that matched the company's letter-centric line of greetings, the card-stock dress appealed to the company's largely female target audience - making it a fashionably functional display fit for the runway.
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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