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Small-Scale Strategy
For the past several years, Astec Inc. has been saving big bucks thanks to one little idea: using scale models to represent its massive concrete equipment at trade shows. Previously, the company packed its 15,000-square-foot outdoor booth space with 20 truckloads of equipment, costing more than $800,000 in transportation, setup, and labor fees. For the 2012 World of Concrete show in Las Vegas, for example, Astec shipped a single truckload of scale models that represented its various concrete-related offerings in a 40-by-40-foot indoor exhibit space.
Not only do the models offer attendees a pseudo-aerial, big-picture view of the company's products, but they also allow Astec to occupy a smaller footprint than was previously required – ultimately saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in shipping and drayage costs at each show. It all goes to show, sometimes good things do come in small packages.
Folding Chairs
Inspired by origami, the Flux Chair can go from a flat piece of plastic to a funky chair that supports more than 350 pounds in 10 seconds. Twenty-one folded Flux Chairs, which weigh only 10.6 pounds apiece, can be stacked in a pile that stands just 1 foot tall. So to showcase the attributes of these lightweight little seats, booth staffers continuously
unfurled, refolded, and unfurled them again for attendees at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. And to highlight how little space they occupied when folded flat, the company built an 18-foot-tall tower and strapped four Flux Chairs to it. Text at the tower's pinnacle read, "24 chairs are on this wall." The ingenious display/demo combo presented key messages without a single spoken word.
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Time is Money
One of the primary drawbacks with handwritten paper timecards is that employees often exaggerate their hours. But Exaktime Inc.'s time clocks eliminate the need for paper timecards, minimize workers' ability to fib about their hours because they have to be on site to clock in and out, and generate significant savings. Anticipating that attendees at the 2013 International Builders' Show would be skeptical of the potential savings, Exaktime decided to position a Harley-Davidson motorcycle inside its exhibit, accompanied by a sign that read "Eliminating handwritten, paper time sheets can save your company enough money to purchase this Harley-Davidson in just 15 days." The sign included text explaining that shaving just 15 minutes of time off each employee's time sheet for a crew of 300 workers adds up to $22,500, which is more than enough dough to purchase the motorcycle. The eye-catching display not only drew in passersby, but also served as a tangible demonstration of just how much money Exaktime can save, proving that sometimes seeing really is believing.
As the Booth Turns
Nothing catches the eye like a giant, rotating structure
– a fact Expotechnik International Holding GmbH & Co. KG discovered firsthand at EXHIBITOR2013. The exhibit house wanted to increase booth traffic and present attendees with something few had seen before on the show floor: an exhibit on a turntable. The resulting booth comprised a central, white, 18-foot diameter elevated stage that slowly rotated beneath a circular fabric canopy. The continuously moving platform caught attendees by surprise and gave booth staffers an obvious conversation starter.
Two-Timing Theater
At the Food Marketing Institute show in Dallas, Hill Phoenix Inc. – a manufacturer of display cases, refrigeration systems, and power systems – created a multipurpose theater that did more than house a presentation. The company positioned a roughly 20-by-20-foot presentation space comprising mostly fabric wall panels on the corner of its footprint. A main entry point within the exhibit allowed staffers to control access to the theater and to collect lead information from attendees. Several doorway-like openings in the theater walls gave passersby a glimpse inside, while metal stanchions in the doorways prevented them from wandering in on their own. Inviting yet prohibitive, the design offered prospects a sense of exclusivity while allowing passing attendees to pick up key messages without making a commitment to enter the space.
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A Sign of
the Times
To promote subscriptions to its mobile-friendly digital edition, The New York Times treated attendees at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show to an engaging activity. Staffers began by helping visitors input contact information into an iPad and select their favorite sections from The Times. Then booth staffers asked participants to select a single word of significance – whether it be their name, or a term relating to their passions or interests.
Next, staffers used the iPad to snap a photo of each participant against a white background. In a matter of moments, the iPad scoured the newspaper's archive from the section selected, identifying terms that have been used in stories relative to the word selected by the attendee, and those terms became customized word clouds in the shape of attendees' portraits. The portrait was then printed, matted, and packaged for pickup. For three minutes of their time, attendees received a giveaway as customizable as The New York Times is comprehensive.
Cleared for Tweet-Off
To promote eXConnect, its in-flight entertainment and communications (IFEC) system, at the 2013 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, Panasonic Avionics Corp. staged a Tweetathon during the show's opening day. It dispatched six travelers on transcontinental flights departing from five different continents. Once cruising at 10,000 feet they logged onto Twitter via the IFEC systems, and started tweeting with the other airborne participants. Meanwhile, a monitor in Panasonic's booth displayed a live feed of the travelers' in-flight conversation, and tracked the number of tweets and mentions. The clever tactic illustrated the product's effectiveness and showed the world how IFEC systems make airborne miles fly by.
It urged recipients to share the book with someone they love, then "watch the reaction, and you'll see why Compendium continues to set new sales records in retail gift stores across the nation." Branded with the company's logo, booth number, and the show name and date, the gift lived up to a quote from Compendium founder Dan Zadra, which was also inscribed on the page: "The true value of a gift is not its price, but its significance."
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