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Trade shows are coming back, and while they may look a little different, now’s a crucial time to stand out and get your name noticed.
If you’ve updated your brand recently, or haven’t printed new banners in a while, you need some new materials to help your booth pop.
The Power of Refreshing Your Materials
Creating an updated look for your trade show booth is a great way to get noticed and not blend into the crowd.
We’ve all seen booth designs that consist of a singular, faded logo banner and some supporting stands behind them that have a lot of small, unattractive, and unnecessary text.
The most effective trade banners we’ve seen have a unified theme, bright brand colors, minimal (but effective) copy, and an enticing design that attracts people to your booth while conveying a message about your company or organization.
Obviously you want to stay on brand, but a new layout and bolder design is a good way to avoid being stagnant and looking like the sea of other vendors who have over-crowded banners around their booth.
This follows a basic principle that’s often found in effective marketing and advertising–when your competitors go one direction, you should go the other way.
And while some executives within your organization may worry about not providing enough information, you should bear in mind that the banners are just the tip of the iceberg–once they get to the booth, you can give them more details.
The Materials You Should Have for a Trade Show
There are a lot of items you can have at a trade show booth, and the key to deciding what to bring is to understand your space and what is necessary information.
If you have a traditional booth size of 10×10, you’ll need at least a banner behind you and a table cover. Step and repeat banners and basic logo banners are common, but the options are limitless.
Some of our favorite banners are structured a lot like a brochure or a sales sheet. The most important information and visual elements should appear first and up top, and if people want more information, they can scan further down and approach the booth for handout materials.
This helps with locking in on a sale and provides your floor workers the opportunity to make contact with a prospect and exchange contact information.
Furthermore, with the increase in demand for social distancing and new health and safety protocols at many event centers, booths are getting larger areas, meaning you have more room for displays and tables.
Moving Past Basic Booth Design
There are many opportunities to showcase your brand at a trade show or event–it’s just a matter of knowing what’s allowed in a venue and not letting opportunities go to waste.
If you are the prime sponsor or host of a trade show and event, you are going to have more space available. Many people get tempted to just spread out their materials or add more of the same, but why not try something else?
You can place photo booth backdrops and interactive displays and demonstrations into your area, and these are designed to encourage people to interact with your brand and have more positive associations with it.
Even going outside of the booth, you can have directional floor clings to lead people to your sales table. Or maybe you just want to engage and entertain with some interesting copy and design.
Whatever you’re given for a trade show, whether you’re the host or a booth stuck in the back corner, it’s imperative you make the most of your space. If you aren’t sure how to capitalize on your live event, call the HS Sign Shop–we’ll be more than happy to create something that will drive your audience to move.
