Go With the Flow
Simply placing a water faucet in your exhibit does little to illustrate the beauty of the fixture in action. Pfister Faucets (a division of Spectrum Brands Inc.) was well aware of that, so at the Hospitality Design Exposition and Conference in Las Vegas, the company added some waterworks to its dynamic product display with the assistance of Corona, CA-based exhibit house K2 Fabrication Inc. A display counter, which measured roughly 2 feet deep, 3 feet high, and 6 feet wide, was situated at the front of the booth. Five identical faucets were mounted in a Plexiglas container on top of the counter, and water continuously cycled through the faucets and cascaded onto a bed of decorative white pebbles to produce the refrain of a babbling brook. The display didn't just create a comforting sound effect that attracted attendees with soothing aural qualities; it also showed how beautiful Pfister's faucets are when in use.

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Rainbow Bright
When your new product is available in practically every color under the sun, why showcase only a handful of hues? To place its latest Supermarket Trolleys in the best possible light at EuroShop – and quickly communicate that the grocery store go-to can be manufactured in any company's corporate color – Wanzl Metallwarenfabrik GmbH placed a single white trolley atop a circular raised pedestal. As guests turned the pedestal, overhead fixtures painted the trolley with theatrical lighting, effectively turning the stark-white shopping cart into a color-shifting chameleon. The psychedelic strategy attracted attendees, positioned the new trolley as a museum-worthy work of art, and effortlessly conveyed the customizable nature of the product's coloring.

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Dry Demo
It's easy for exhibitors to talk a big game on the trade show floor, but it often pays to put one's money where one's mouth is. So to prove that its waterproof socks really can keep users' tootsies dry even in the deepest of deluges, Sealskins Ltd. put that claim to the ultimate test at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City. The company positioned a 2-foot-diameter clear tub inside the booth and filled it with roughly 6 inches of water. A brand ambassador stood in the tub, greeted passersby, and explained how despite the makeshift puddle she was standing in, her feet were still dry thanks to Sealskins. The simple demo took up scant space in the company's in-line exhibit while communicating Sealskins' main selling point and serving as an effective ice-breaker between staffers and booth visitors.

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Meditative Marketing
Skyline Exhibits set out to inform attendees at EXHIBITORLIVE that it can help them reach trade show Zen by eliminating the common stressors of exhibit management. So what better environment for that conversation to take place than a Zen garden brought to life on the trade show floor? An oasis of calm amid the hustle and bustle of EXHIBITORLIVE, the Skyline stand featured natural materials, faux-grass flooring, a tranquil backlit tree graphic, and even an in-booth koi pond (which was actually a flatscreen monitor embedded into a raised platform covered with greenery and river rocks). The relaxing respite beckoned to passersby, who happily sauntered into the surreal space and engaged in casual conversations about how Skyline can help them manifest marketing nirvana.

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The Wheel Deal
According to Skech, a designer and manufacturer of protective cases for mobile electronics, each of its Trax iPhone cases has a story to tell. Because the products are made from recycled tire tubing, no two are exactly alike. To communicate that fact at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Skech embedded a product display into a side wall in its exhibit that chronicled each case's journey from bike tire to stylish accessory. Wall graphics reinforced the "Every Trax has a story to tell" theme, explaining, "This Trax started life as a bicycle tire. It has traveled far and seen things. It has been recycled to begin the next step of the journey with you." Inside the display case sat a piece of a bicycle tire, a coil of tubing extracted from the tire, a flat sheet of recycled rubber, and a trio of the one-of-a-kind Trax cases. While interested attendees could choose to further investigate each element of the display at their leisure – with staffers at the ready to explain the recycling and manufacturing process – others could easily extract the meat of the message in a single aisle-side glance.

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Craning for a View
The majority of in-line exhibits comprise traditional components, such as reception desks, tables, banner stands, back-wall graphics, and little else. So adding even a single unexpected element can help you stand out amid the aisles of other booths. At HydroVision Interna-tional, a trade show for the hydropower industry, Ames Construction Inc. put an approximately 5-foot-tall scale model of its signaturered crane atop a table inside its 10-by-20-foot booth space. The model added a little visual grandeur to the 200-square-foot exhibit, alluded to the company's building prowess, and turned the heads of many passing showgoers.

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Shoes and Ladders
When a company prides itself on sustainability and using recycled materials, it stands to reason that its exhibitry would follow suit. That's why Joy & Mario Footwear Inc., a Los Angeles-based manufacturer of eco-friendly shoes, opted for upcycling old wooden ladders and lumber in lieu of conventional shelving for its booth at the Magic trade show in Las Vegas. The modest wooden elements were stained for a cohesive look and assembled into wall-to-wall fixtures showcasing the brand's Green-minded products. The company saved some green as well, as the sizable displays could be broken down to fit onto a single pallet for minimized shipping and drayage costs.