AT-SHOW PROMOTIONS
 While I’m well versed on pre-show promotions, my brain is tapped when it comes to at-show promotions. What are some of the most common at-show promotion techniques?
 Pre-show promotions put your company front of mind with attendees, and at-show promotions cement your place in their post-show recollections. Here are 12 techniques to consider for your next at-show promotion.
Mobile Advertising. Attendees don’t inhabit the show hall 24 hours a day, so extend your promotions beyond the show hall to anywhere and everywhere attendees spend their time. Consider using taxi tops, airport carousels, bus billboards, train tickets, venue exteriors, skywriters, etc. to reach attendees outside the show hall.
Hotel Advertising/Room Drops. Hotel promotions include everything from registration-area signage to key cards to logo-adorned bar coasters. While room drops of collateral are common, consider dropping more memorable items, such as logo-adorned T-shirts or beach towels, warm cookies, or even miniature bottles of liqueur.
Sponsorships. While show management typically offers sponsorship packages for everything from bag inserts and hall advertising to hospitality events and lounges, don’t assume you’re locked in to a package deal. Management will often consider exhibitor-authored sponsorship packages that meet exhibitors’ specific budgets, goals, and objectives while also benefiting management.
Hospitality Events. Hospitality events don’t always have to be evening cocktail receptions. Breakfast or lunch events are relatively low-cost alternatives; minus the sometimes mind-numbing alcohol, they’re often more effective.
Show-Directory/Show-Daily Ads. As with sponsorships, don’t limit your ads to management’s offerings. Suggest your own innovative ways to reach attendees, such as blow-in cards, belly bands, or tipped in 3-by-5-inch cards.
Hall Advertising. While the most common type of hall advertising is freestanding modules, also consider column wraps, ceiling banners, floor signage, stairway graphics, etc.
Press Opportunities. Media opportunities abound at trade shows, including everything from press kits and conferences to in-exhibit media events and after-hours functions. However, be sure your promotions are geared specifically for the press, rather than for traditional attendees.
Contests and Games. Attendees are more likely to retain information when it’s presented in interactive environments, such as those created through contests and games. Look to popular game shows, TV programs, and cultural themes to create company- and product-specific competitions. As with any in-booth program, build the contest/game to deliver important messaging regarding your company and/or product.
In-booth Premiums and Giveaways. You can give away just about anything (within legal limits) to build traffic in your booth: cars, iPods, products, pens, etc. However, to make the most of your investment, make sure the giveaways tie in to your messaging and have staying power. You want your giveaways to end up in attendees’ offices, not the garbage can three aisles down from your booth.
Live Presentations. Live presentations, including everything from a multimedia company overview to an interactive product demo, generate buzz while communicating a message. Plus, they can be adapted to almost any booth size and budget. That is, live presentations can be one-on-one demonstrations or overhead Cirque du Soleil-style performances for a crowd of 100. Expand your live-presentation definition to include celebrity appearances, book signings, magicians, color consultants, musicians, comedians, handwriting analysts, etc.
Partner Booths. Consider partnering with related companies or distributors at the show. Opportunities include joint messaging, speaking engagements, product demonstrations, and cross-promotional signage.
Speaking Opportunities. Keynote speeches, seminar presentations, and industry panels are great ways to generate awareness for your company and to brand it as an industry leader.
— Katharine Chester, CTSM, director of research and measurement, Derse Exhibits, Boulder, CO
OVERHEAD BANNERS
I want to hang a 20-by-20- foot banner over our exhibit. What do I need to know to avoid problems during setup?
Before you do anything, check with show management to determine what restrictions, if any, the convention center imposes on overhead banners. For example, some venues restrict banners completely, and others restrict the size of banners and the height at which they can be hung. While your show manual should spell out all possible restrictions, it’s always a good idea to verify your plans with show management (in writing) before you arrive at the show.
Also investigate the cost to hang the banner, as costs can vary significantly from city to city and even venue to venue. Remember, banners don’t necessarily have to be suspended from the ceiling, so be sure to investigate other, potentially cheaper options, such as floor-based pole systems.
Make sure your banner arrives with your exhibit and is one of the first crates you open on the floor. Since laborers will usually have to drive some sort of lift into your space to hang your banner, most banners will need to be hung before your exhibit is built. If your banner doesn’t arrive until the middle of setup, you may have to stop work — or worse yet, undo some of the work that’s been completed — to hang your banner.
Scout your location on a venue plan that includes columns, ceiling structures, and air ducts. While solid obstructions can block your banner from attendees’ view, ventilation systems are just as problematic, as they can easily turn your signage into a sail. Work with show management’s operations director to detect such problems before you arrive.
Sometimes you’ll need to abandon the banner altogether; however, you might also be able to compensate for ventilation systems by adding weights or extra support lines to your banner — or to raise or lower your intended banner height to ensure visibility. Also ask show management if nearby exhibitors are using banners, which can block your signage.
Finally, don’t forget the lighting. Just as with your exhibit, lighting is critical to the success of your banner — and lighting varies not only by venue but also by show. Be prepared to order and install a spotlight or two once the banner is hung.
— Chuck Michel, business development, Group 360 Communications, St. Louis
TENSION FABRIC
I’m considering changing from a standard wood-laminate booth to one made from tension fabric. Although I hear anecdotally there is an economic advantage, how much money can I actually expect to save?
When tension fabric first appeared on the scene almost 30 years ago, it liberated exhibitors from office-cubicle architecture to freewheeling structures. But there’s another reason why as much as 60 percent of custom exhibits now use fabric: Fabric is frugal. It weighs less and is more portable than wood-laminate booths, which means hefty savings for exhibitors.
A comparative study of the costs of a 20-by-20-foot wood-laminate exhibit compared to a tension-fabric booth of the same size shows you could save close to $30,000 per year. Based on five shows per year, the savings are spread over several main categories, including labor, shipping, drayage, and storage. Here’s how the comparative costs would break down for our hypothetical example:
 Installing and dismantling a 20-by-20-foot wood exhibit would cost an average of $3,859. A fabric booth would cost roughly $3,344, a savings of about 13.3 percent.
Transporting a wood booth, which generally weighs 6,400 pounds, would routinely cost $2,350, as opposed to $799 for the 1,400-pound fabric exhibit. This would save you nearly 66 percent.
Toting a 400-square-foot exhibit from the shipping dock to your booth space for set up and back again at the show’s end would generally set you back $3,616 for the wood booth and just $791 for its fabric counterpart, saving you about 78.1 percent.
Boxing up a wooden booth would require eight standard crates and total approximately $2,580, while you could easily tuck a fabric version into just two containers for roughly $645, almost 75 percent less.
Based on this calculation, you would save an estimated $29,000 in the first year. But if you kept that booth for three years, the total savings would total approximately $87,000.
For a detailed chart comparing exhibit-related costs of wood vs. fabric booths in five U.S. cities, visit www.ExhibitorWebLinks.com.
— Laura Powell, marketing specialist, Moss Inc., Belfast, ME
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