For exhibition and event marketers, the design of exhibition stands is extremely important. After all, it provides an opportunity to draw attention to a stand and gain a competitive edge over other exhibiting companies, while also telling an audience something about the business or brand itself. While attractive designs are part of the battle, stands have to be functional and unique as well, which is why marketers focus on innovative designs and interesting features. In this blog post, we take a more detailed look at some of the most popular features seen in recent, innovative exhibition stand designs.
1. Social Media Walls
Social media walls display a live feed of posts made on a social media platform, like Twitter or Facebook, which is useful for encouraging attendees to make posts about your exhibition. This, in turn, is helpful because it allows your exhibition to reach beyond the confines of the event itself, promoting your brand to its followers. Less than half of event attendees remember to use the relevant event company hashtag when posting to social media from an exhibition. It is, therefore, important that you promote your hashtag as much as possible, and it may be sensible to include it on the social media wall itself.
2. Gamification
Gamification is a hot topic when it comes to increasing audience engagement with exhibitions, and there are many different ways to include game elements within your design. For example, you can use computer games, classic arcade stands, and virtual reality. In addition to helping to drive engagement, gamification can be used to introduce an element of competition, which can help to create a buzz among attendees.
“This type of interactive booth will attract more attendees towards your brand and products,” the Online Editorial Team at the event company EventMB wrote in a post for the company blog. “And you could facilitate any type of cool technology, such as virtual reality headsets or multi-player games.”
3. Multi-Tiered Stands
Another increasingly popular feature seen in some of the most innovative exhibition stand designs of recent times is the use of multiple tiers or floors. This second storey can either be used to add decorative elements and showcase products or used as a second floor to the exhibition, effectively increasing the amount of space available. Typically, event organizers charge based on floor space, so adding a second story to an exhibition can be a cheaper option than purchasing more floor space while delivering the same benefit. Multiple tiers can be added to modular exhibition stands or custom-built stands, but are not likely to be available on cheaper pop-up stands.
4. Beacon Technology
Beacon technology has dramatically increased in popularity within retail settings over the past few years, and it is now being incorporated into many exhibition designs too. The chief benefit of this technology is that it provides the opportunity for location-based marketing, meaning messages can be sent via Bluetooth to people as they pass a stand. When combined with special offers or discount codes, this can provide a major incentive to visit.
“Apple’s decision to drop the headphone jack on the iPhone is forcing more people to naturally have Bluetooth switched on,” says Asif R. Khan, President of the Location-Based Marketing Association. “As more users have this turned on, the marketing and advertising opportunity becomes more appealing to brands.”
5. Giant Screens
Screens have been a common feature in most modular exhibition stands for many years, but some of the most innovative exhibition stands are now including giant screens, rather than traditional flat-screen televisions or monitors. The appeal of over-sized screens is the ability to attract attention and display information to a wide audience, even if that audience isn’t currently within the confines of the booth itself. One of the big advantages of using over-sized screens for this purpose, rather than more traditional booth graphics or banners, is that the information displayed can be changed at the touch of a button. This allows for different messages, graphics or videos to be shown over the course of the exhibition.
6. Lounges or Workspaces
Finally, many of the best exhibitions of recent times have made use of a dedicated lounge, breakout area, or workspace and if you have the available floor space, this can be a hugely successful strategy, because it can encourage visitors to step away from the exhibition floor, spend time at the stand and give contact details.
“Create a workspace area for people to catch up on emails, recharge their mobile phones and enjoy a free cup of coffee,” suggests Martin Walker, writing for Torpedo. “If visitors want to use the Wi-Fi, they must give their details. To get a coffee, they must give their name and email address.”
