This month, we’re excited to be co-producing our blog with exhibitions extraordinaire, Ellen Stokes, Founder of Be Exhibitions.
Whether it be a local conference or an international trade show, business events can offer so many benefits, regardless of the size of your company. Business events allow you to connect face to face with your loyal customers as well as potential prospects. At Octima, we believe they are an invaluable marketing channel to showcase your brand authority and increase trust.
We are going to be looking into how you can make the most of your presence at these events, with expert knowledge and advice from Be Exhibitions. Ellen has provided us with some keen insights to ensuring your event is a success and that your business stands out from the crowd.
Who are Be Exhibitions?
Be Exhibitions design and build exhibition stands. They can make the most of the space you’ve chosen with eye-catching, yet practical stands that make a real impact. They take your budget and goals into consideration, taking the stress out of the whole process to enable you to focus on everything else.
Be Exhibitions project manage the entire process on your behalf, from creating the brief to even dismantling the stand for you once the event has finished. They offer a FREE design process, so you can ensure your stand conveys the key elements of your brand. Events can be demanding, but with Be Exhibitions, their practical, hands-on approach takes the stress out of organising your stand.
How do you build a stand to represent your brand?
When thinking about building a stand for your event, it’s important to consider your brand, inside and out.
What will you be promoting? Is it your company, services, product or the brand itself?
What will this require? Do you need a product display? Maybe a leaflet stand?
This may seem a little overwhelming, so we’ve created the following checklist to help you consider how you want your brand to be represented at any event.
- Multimedia
Make sure that if you are using digital displays, that they aren’t left blank or simply presenting an outdated, low-quality video. If you wish to use a television, consider what content you would like displayed on it. It could be your brand’s vision, or reviews from previous clients, or visualisation of how your product or service works.
- Display areas and identifying key messages
What products are you offering? Of course, you want to display them but think about how you would like to present them to your audience.
Your key messages should also feature heavily in your stand content. It is important for the continuity of your brand to be consistent with style, colour, fonts, and literature.
If it is services that you provide, how can you showcase these in an eye-catching way?
- Areas for meeting people
Where will you be meeting potential clients on your stand? Make sure that there is enough space within your stand that’s easily accessible. Your stand should also facilitate the smooth movement of traffic, so your spaces don’t become overcrowded.
- Logistics
What height will be the best for your stand and how high will the organisers allow you to build? Additional height can get you seen from down the aisle amongst your competitors, but bear in mind this could add extra cost. Scale is important, too small and the clients can’t read your key messages. Too big, then your clients will have to take a step back to read it.
- Budget
Attending a trade show can be the most expensive element in your marketing plan, so having a budget in mind is vital. Consider all the elements upfront before committing to your stand, including additional costs such as storage, utilities, and, if you’re exhibiting in the states, DRAYAGE!
- Dress to impress
Make sure that you and your team stand out and are easily distinguishable from the visitors on your stand. Ensure staff are equipped with suitable attire so they represent your brand as you’d like.
- To gimmick or not?
If you wish to include gimmicks, make sure that they are well researched and will attract your clients in a way that still offers value for them and yourselves. Whilst gimmicks can grab the punters, make sure you’re not attracting every Tom, Dick, and Harry for the sake of padding out the numbers. Avoid cheap and cheesy, they must represent your brand inclusively.
- Get creative
A fantastic stand presence can represent your brand in a tangible way that can’t be replicated in the digital world. With so much space to express your brand, there are plenty of options to make your display interactive and visually exciting. This can be achieved with clever lighting, props, and other scene-setting elements. Is your product designed to be outside? Why not recreate the ‘live’ environment with fake grass and eye-catching background landscapes? A great stand designer (such as Be Exhibitions!) can help bring your products and services to life with new and innovative ideas for you.
- Lighting
Lighting is a key aspect of your stand design and can truly change the look and feel. Do you want to highlight certain displays or key messages? Use lighting to your advantage, with up-lights, backlighting, strip lighting, coloured lighting… the possibilities are endless. A word of caution, make sure your stand isn’t ‘over-lit’ – you don’t want your clients to feel like they are being interrogated!
The practicalities
The practicalities around an event can be a real headache, ensuring not only the stand itself is ready to go, but all your other assets, not to mention the team.
What can you do to make sure that they are all in order?
- Check if there is a booking system in place for cars/vehicles to access the site and book a slot EARLY to deliver the display.
- Plenty of time will be needed to build the stand itself so get in as early as possible – it’s better to be finished with time to spare than be the last one in the hall the night before curtains up.
- Make sure that you know where everything is at the event, including the exhibitor’s office and appropriate entrances to get in.
- Register the correct type of passes for those who need to be on site to support with build up.
How can Be Exhibitions help you?
Ellen at Be Exhibitions can have a display and set up ready for you in as little as two weeks! But more complex and unique stands can take up to two months to create for you.
Ellen can make you all types of displays, such as:
- Modular sets: Which have integrated panels built to configuration. These are completely custom designed, all to meet your goals.
- Full Custom: These can be wooden, painted and printed with graphics. It will look different from other stands surrounding you at the event, as yours will be designed and bespoke to your company.
- Be Exhibitions can build with curves, seamless backdrops, fabrics, and graphics. An amazing part of her designs are that they are reusable and keep the costs down!
When designing the type of stand you want, it’s important to think about your return of investment. For some events/shows, you won’t need a full display, but this is where Ellen and her team can assist you in choosing the right solution for you to represent your brand clearly and effectively.
Would you like to learn more? Get in touch with Octima and Be Exhibitions today.
