Walking Billboards
How do you convince attendees to wear your company's name on the show floor? Cold, hard cash certainly helps. That's what Case Construction Equipment (part of CNH Industrial America LLC) used at ConExpo-Con/Agg in Las Vegas, where staffers distributed nearly 10,000 branded roadwork-orange construction vests. To entice attendees to don the fluorescent gear, reps explained that wandering Case employees would randomly award $100 to "uniformed" showgoers several times a day. The gambit worked, as Case's giveaway was visible nearly everywhere – in the aisles, in competitors' exhibits, on buses to and from the show, etc. You might say the equipment manufacturer was a Case study in building brand awareness. Breathing Room
At its Connect with Confidence hybrid event, Marriott International Inc. recognized that, due to the pandemic, its 30 in-person attendees would have differing levels of comfort regarding how close they wanted to be to presenters and each other. So the company designed what it called Sanctuary Seating, in which attendees preselected their spots through a digital registration process. Using the event's app, in-person guests could preview the meeting room and opt for either a lone chair or a two-person couch in their preferred location. When attendees arrived, they found their name badges and "personal sanitation minibars" that included hand sanitizer, wipes, snacks, and other amenities affirming Marriott's commitment to hospitality. Double Duty
During the first week of the Frankfurt Motor Show, which was open to press and car dealers, tire manufacturer Continental AG hosted scores of closed-door meetings with customers and media. However, throughout the public days that followed, the company required an open recruitment zone to attract new talent. So the company constructed a flexible solution that allowed one space to fill both needs. For the opening week, Continental built four divided in-line conference rooms that covered 213 square feet. An exterior wall of each room consisted of large hinged panels with eye-catching arrows on one side. Before the show floor opened to the public, Continental removed the walls dividing the conference rooms, rearranged the furniture, and rotated the outer panels open. The enclosed meeting rooms became a welcoming space with arrows directing visitors into the newly created recruitment zone. Its creative transformation allowed Continental to meet two major goals with only minor changes.
Business Cycle
Exhibitors often struggle when trying to decide whether to create in-booth displays featuring their companies' products or to use technology (such as interactive touchscreens) instead. But rather than hem and haw over which solution best suited its exhibit at Interbike Marketweek, Maxxis International USA used them both to create a touchscreen kiosk that offered up oodles of info beneath a display of four bike tires that allowed guests to get hands on with the company's offerings. With a half-dozen similar kiosks positioned throughout the booth space, Maxxis marketers were able to give interested passersby both a tactile and technological product experience. String Theory
Conveying your company's key milestones can be an effective way to demonstrate stability and a long-term standard of excellence. But traditional timelines are often more suited to textbooks than trade show booths. However, Polish exhibit firm Melinski Minuth SP.z o.o. turned a typically dull element into a dimensional design accoutrement with little more than a few vinyl graphics and some string. Displayed against the back wall in the company's stand at EuroShop in Düsseldorf, Germany, the simple materials intertwined to form a timeline detailing the firm's 24-year history, denoting everything from the debut of the Melinski Minuth headquarters in 1996 to the International Federation of Exhibit and Event Services (IFES) Sustainability Award the firm received in 2013. The resulting retrospective provided a fitting context for in-booth meetings and proved that in the hands of a great designer, even mundane materials can become informative, eye-catching elements.

Laying Tracks
Institut Straumann AG partnered with Sacks Exhibits Inc. for creative help in highlighting six key advantages of its BLX dental implant system at the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAMOS) Annual Meeting. And since the king of the jungle is the system's mascot – as evidenced by the overhead graphic element – the company laid a trail of lion's pawprints that meandered from the entrance of the 20-by-70-foot island to the exit. Numbered decals along the path cued attendees to "paws" at six stations and learn about the innovative implant process. By the time booth visitors completed their journeys, they'd acquired the lion's share of knowledge necessary to persuade them to pounce on the BLX system.

Blades of Glory
Making a standout impression amid all the massive video elements at the Licensing Expo is no easy task, especially for small-booth exhibitors. But JPatton Sports Marketing Inc. did just that in its 10-by-10 with a Hypervsn Wall display. A three-by-five grid of seemingly invisible spinning LED blades created kinetic 3-D graphics shifting between exploding holograms and the company's promise of brand protection. The dazzling display resulted in a traffic jam that gave staffers plenty of time to lure qualified prospects into the booth.