Wild and Wet
The only thing better than a little friendly in-booth competition is an engaging activity that attracts attendees, pits them against one another, and helps you communicate your key messages. At the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, Columbia Sportswear Co. wanted to emphasize the waterproof properties of its OutDry line of jackets. So the outfitter set up a water gun arcade game inside its exhibit. Three attendees at a time stepped up to squirt guns mounted on pedestals. Once a staffer yelled "Go," water started squirting out of players' guns as they aimed their streams at large red cones approximately 5 feet away. When water made it into the cones, mannequin busts wearing Columbia rain jackets slowly inched up a track until one player propelled his or her mannequin to the top, thereby winning the game. Meanwhile, staffers-turned-announcers cheered on players while peppering their spirited chants with product attributes. Attendees lined up by the dozen to play, while onlookers crowded into the booth to watch the wild game. But regardless of whether or not they stepped up to the water guns and tested their aim, all visitors learned a little something about the company's waterproof wearables.

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Shopping-Cart Capers
At a major international show such as EuroShop 2017, which features thousands of exhibitors scattered about several different buildings, you better go big or go home. And that's the approach Caddie, a division of Les Ateliers Reunis SAS, took when celebrating its 90th anniversary. The maker of shopping carts for retail stores, airports, and hospitals supersized one of its most iconic models and parked it in front of a double-sided graphic denoting the significant corporate milestone. Standing more than 10 feet high, the gigantic replica made a big impression on EuroShop attendees and helped the company draw their attention to its long-standing presence in the market.

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Thinking Inside the Box
When's the last time your trade show swag helped you pivot from small talk to substantive business discussions? Eco-Systems Sustainable Exhibits distributed an unexpected item that did just that at EXHIBITORLIVE 2017 in Las Vegas. Attendees who visited the company's 20-foot in-line booth were treated to milk-carton-like boxes full of purified water. The unusual offering segued smoothly into conversations about how small steps – such as choosing water packaged in paper cartons rather than plastic bottles, or purchasing modular exhibits made from more sustainable materials than traditional trade show structures – can make a big environmental difference. Quenching attendees' thirst and piquing their curiosity, the curious little cartons attracted attention and helped booth staffers communicate Eco-Systems' eco-friendly priorities.

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Strip Tease
It's practically impossible to make the Las Vegas Strip come alive within the confines of a trade show booth. But that's exactly what the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority hoped to do with its exhibit at IMEX America. With the aid of Inhance Digital, the LVCVA accomplished the seemingly impossible via an engaging video wall. Four 55-inch touchscreen monitors featured an interactive map of Las Vegas Boulevard, which offered detailed information about hotel, convention, and event spaces. By tapping the video wall, attendees could access any of 4,000 pieces of content ranging from 360-degree videos, time-lapse photography, and still images. Positioned aisle side, the display drew in IMEX America attendees for a closer look, and staffers then guided them through the experience, which helped to virtually transport them off of the show floor and onto the Sin City thoroughfare.

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Money Talks
Few things grab the attention of passersby like cold, hard cash. So at the International Builders' Show, GAF Materials Corp. placed dozens of crumpled bills into a Plexiglas case and installed a blower in the base to make the cash swirl in the air. On the wall nearby was a graphic with $13,545 in huge numbers, representing the average increase in home value that homeowners can expect when a GAF roof is installed. It was also the amount that GAF would give away to one lucky winner selected via a random drawing. To enter, attendees only needed to have their badges scanned. The tactic ensured that the booth had a long line of visitors who earned a shot at a cash prize while learning about the value of GAF roofs.

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Packing it In
In-booth signage and product displays can become the visual equivalent of white noise for jaded showgoers. So how do you ensure that attendees will read your messaging and look at your new wares? If you're AeraMax (a Fellowes brand), you give your products legs – literally. At the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference, the maker of air purifiers equipped a pair of staffers with lightweight models of the company's products outfitted with straps, which allowed employees to wear them like backpacks. Each purifier was branded with the AeraMax logo and bore simple messages such as "Sick of sick days?" and "Bad air kills productivity." Staffers periodically took short treks around the show floor to drive traffic to the company's booth.

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Ring Around the Collar
Kyon is billed as the thinnest GPS pet-tracking collar on the market, but it boasts another unique differentiator: It allows your pet to communicate. For instance, if your dog goes missing, you can use an app to trigger the collar, which can scroll the message "I am lost" across its LED display. So to quickly convey the collar's unique ability to give voice to users' pets, the company employed an equally inventive graphic in its booth at the 2017 International Consumer Electronics Show. A tensioned-fabric image of a fluffy white Shih Tzu wearing a Kyon collar was positioned in front of LEDs hidden behind the taut graphic. Throughout the show, a series of text messages appeared to scroll across the collar exactly as they would on the actual product, demonstrating the device's capabilities while kindling the interest of passersby.