Sweet Fix
It isn't unusual for large corporations with a "house of brands" structure to struggle with featuring all their offerings in one cohesive exhibit. It is, however, unusual for a company to arrive at a solution as elegant as what Mars Inc. (dba Mars Wrigley) came up with for the Sweets & Snacks Expo at Chicago's McCormick Place. Designed by Kubik Inc., the expansive stand's defining feature was a series of freestanding meeting pods placed throughout the footprint. Each structure was brilliantly branded with bold colors and backlit graphics for one of the company's iconic sweets, including Starburst, Skittles, M&Ms, and Dove chocolates. Capable of hosting up to four guests at a time, the candy-coated pods put Mars' top brands front and center while providing ample space for reps to host meaningful conversations with clients and prospects. Floating an Idea
Any marketer worth his or her salt knows that you can't just tell consumers about your products' benefits – you need to show them. So to prove that its EcoXgear speakers float and are entirely waterproof, Grace Digital Inc. installed a three-tiered water feature inside its exhibit at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, with several of its speakers sitting in pools of water. Equal parts demo and display, the branded element underscored the company's rough-and-tough claims in a single aisle-side glance. Driving Success
At the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, the John Deere brand wanted to illustrate how its OnLink cloud-based software system delivers real-time data. Working with Exhibitus Inc., marketers positioned several pieces of John Deere machinery near a large video screen. The company ran LED light paths through the flooring from the tower to each piece of equipment. As the video highlighted the software's connectivity benefits, "data packets" of bright green light flowed along the path from the tower to a piece of equipment and then back to the tower, representing the system's bidirectional communication. Live Stream
Should providers of commercial bathroom products keep things no-nonsense, or should they indulge in a couple wink-and-a-nudge antics? WizKid Products Inc. did a bit of both at ISSA Show North America, a cleaning-industry expo, where its exhibit didn't shy away from the fact that the company is in the business of splash-minimizing urinal screens. At a prominent corner of the booth, marketers placed a roughly 7-foot-tall copy of Michelangelo's "David" that was equal parts traffic builder and product demo. That's because this statue was in fact a fountain, and during the show David continuously relieved himself into a urinal outfitted with WizKid's Splash Hog screen. Super Model
When your company's offerings encompass a spectrum of automated fabrication, logistics, and material-handling solutions, your No. 1 concern as an exhibit marketer is likely "How the heck am I going to make all of this easy to understand?" At the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), Murata Machinery USA Inc. (dba Muratec) tackled that challenge by commissioning a miniature model that manifested the company's capabilities. The tabletop display of a shipping and storage facility, complete with flashing lights and kinetic elements, distilled Muratec's myriad solutions into a traffic-drawing demo. Small cards around the model offered product descriptions, additional specs, and QR codes directing attendees to more detailed info. Light 'Em Up
Sometimes the smallest of touches can make an oversized impact. Take the Bucket Boss brand, which was showcasing its full range of worksite-ready, tool-accommodating duffels, totes, and other study bags at the National Hardware Show. While many small exhibitors – especially those at a nitty-gritty expo such as NHS – would have plopped their wares on display tables and called it a day, Bucket Boss' exhibit manager positioned LED accent lights in front of several of the bags. Sized not much larger than a residential smoke detector, the battery-operated elements acted like miniature spotlights that called attention to the embossed logos and designs on the front of many of the bags – a tone-on-tone detail that most passersby may have otherwise missed. Now that's what we call putting your products in the best possible light! Build a Bear
ABB Electrification, an ABB Ltd. company, wanted a foot-stopping activation to highlight its new fire-mitigation products launching at the IEEE/PES Transmission & Distribution Conference & Exposition. The company partnered with Jessica Ewud, a contestant on the TV show "Lego Masters," who was sure to be popular among the engineering attendees. Centered at the front of its 50-by-90-foot booth, marketers posted a graphic saying, "Protect what matters most," alongside an empty spot for Ewud to create a nature-centric Lego sculpture. Ewud spent the first day of the expo building a landscape of various flowers and greenery on a pedestal. Attendees swung back on the second day to check out her progress and were jolted to find that a 5-foot-tall Lego grizzly bear and her cub had been added to the scene, as if Ewud had worked tirelessly through the night. In reality, Ewud and her team built the sculptures before the event and ABB brought them out after the exhibit hall closed. Visitors swarmed to the seemingly miraculous creation like bears to a beehive.