February 2013

ammunition

Sometimes the simplest products are the most challenging to display in an exhibit. But Albert Bauprodukte GmbH stepped up its game with a no-frills arrangement of its protective flooring at the 2012 Surfaces show in Las Vegas. Its Floorotex products are rolls of slightly adhesive, breathable blue material that protects flooring during construction or remodel projects. So the company rolled out the blue carpet, so to speak, and created a product display with a perfectly suitable context. Albert covered three wooden stairs with Floorotex, and knocked a half-full can of red paint over on the second step, demonstrating the kinds of messes the product protects users against. Simple but effective, the display did double duty, stopping attendees in the aisles, and ultimately moving them one step closer to a sale. Gadget-case manufacturer Speck - a company with a corporate motto of "Products don't need to be boring. Boring products make life boring." - set out to build some buzz about its Artsprojekt cases, which feature authorized reproductions of original artwork. But rather than issuing a press release and avoiding attendees to a static in-booth display at the International Consumer Electronics Show, the company commissioned artist Jim Mahfood to create a work of art live inside the Speck exhibit, which would later be transformed into a limited edition iPhone case available shortly following CES. Speck positioned signage throughout its exhibit, promoting the live creation of the new case design, which Mahfood painted over the course of the show's first two days. The in-booth event kept attendees coming back again and again to watch the artwork evolve from a blank canvas into a finished product, and the resulting limited-edition case, entitled "Funky CES," sold out within weeks of the show. In 2010, when 33 miners were rescued from a deep hole in Chile, Center Rock Inc. of Berlin, PA, was there. The company, which makes drill bits for mining, oil and gas drilling, and other heavy-equipment industries, provided one of its custom drill bits as well as expertise in underground rescue efforts to help bring those trapped workers to the surface. So to attract attention to its exhibit at the ConExpo-Con/Agg show in Las Vegas, Center Rock touted its rescue activities while educating attendees about its products. At the front corner of its 20-by-20-foot exhibit was a replica of the rescue capsule that ferried miners to the surface. Staff encouraged attendees to step into the rescue device and have their pictures taken. A drill bit like the one used in Chile was on display behind the capsule, and a monitor next to the booth's reception desk ran a looping five-minute, documentary-style video that recounted the ordeal and Center Rock's part in the happy outcome. Between the rescue capsule and the video, attendees learned what the company can do and how heroic its efforts can be.		Lancer Insurance takes part in as many as 10 shows and events each month, and its target market would be overwhelmed by pre-show promotion if the company sent out announcements every time it hit the open road. Instead, Lancer's website features a Roadshow Calendar with a road-sign graphic. Clicking on the sign takes visitors to a calendar that lists Lancer's appearances and links to additional info such as dates and locations. If you ask attendees at the Radiological Society of North America conference to describe the show floor in one word, chances are that word wouldn't be "whimsical." But if you ask that same person to describe CoActive Medical LLC's exhibit, "whimsical" just might top the list. That's because the modest 10-by-10-foot booth was topped with 14 blue-and-white, plastic, inflatable clouds. The data-management company hung the baseball-glove-sized clouds from vertical bars connecting the exhibit's four corner columns. The charming adornment not only helped CoActiv get noticed on the crowded show floor, but it also hinted at the company's cloud-computing services. To give attendees at the 2012 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society a glimpse of how its health care technology consultants do their most creative work, Burwood Group Inc. teamed up with 3D Exhibits Inc. to fill its 20-by-30-foot booth with white boards. Reflecting the company's appreciation for white boards, then, dry-erase surfaces were used as the finish material on 75 percent of the exhibit properties (e.g., in-booth demo stations, back walls, and tabletops). Attendees could chat with staffers who sketched and scribbled their thoughts across the exhibit components' surfaces, just as they would at the office. The playful detail aptly showed off the company's individuality, and as a reminder of the exhibit they'd experienced, booth staffers gave attendees dry-erase markers featuring the Burwood logo.
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