Dakota Murphy explores the value of spatial planning at exhibitions.
As an exhibitor, your space at a key trade show is a prime opportunity to engage customers and demonstrate your product in the best possible light. With time and budgets limited, it’s imperative that you make the right impression at your exhibition by planning ahead to maximise how you use your stand.
This article will look at the value of spatial planning to demonstrate and market your products as well as possible.
Plan ahead with a spatial strategy
Once you have decided to promote your product (brand or services) at an exhibition, your initial thoughts should be about choosing the right exhibition for your business. While you’ll want to be original and pick a popular event, you should still consider if it’s a good fit for your product, so:
- Define your strategy and be aware of what exhibitions are on during 2024 and beyond. Have an idea of your businesses key objectives before you invest in a stand.
- Know your budget and calculate how much space you’ll need to pay for. Be careful to think about all the overall costs, from the registration fees to your display, any travel, accommodation and freebies that you are planning to give delegates.
- Do your research and consider the location, size of the exhibition, date and whether a particular event (and the space) are suitable for your product.
- Target your audience. Getting the right customers and footfall is key to your marketing success and profit margins.
Once you have ticked off all of the above, when space at an exhibition is of the essence, check what floor space options and layouts are available. This is especially important when showcasing large products or if you need any ground space to lay out your products or will want extra room to show how your product works as well as inviting attendees to trial it.
Create a safe space for demos
Once you have settled on an exhibition, get a feel for what your stand will look like spatially, where it is located and what exactly you’ll be demonstrating there. If your business markets itself in the sports sector, for instance, your ideal exhibition space will be geared up to showcase sports gear. Whether your market is for outdoor fitness gear or indoor home- fitness products, the space needs to comfortably fit. This will apply for a huge suite of commercial gym offerings to a smaller indoor golf putting mat. For either, you will have to ensure the flooring and surface is suitable for a treadmill and that there is enough elbow room to safely swing a golf club.
Whatever products are on show, the space must also comply with the exhibition’s health and safety regulations. Likewise, for compact training items or smart fitness wearables, check that visitors can see the details of products close-up and in a manner that flags up all their unique selling points. With some forethought and planning, you can create an inviting event space that allows attendees and prospective buyers to safely try, test, touch and operate your products.
Opt for flexible spaces
Ideally, you would have measured up and booked a flexible exhibition space to suit the size of the product you’re expecting to demonstrate but this might not always be the case. Once you have calculated the total space you need for your product, look for venues offering ample room and layout flexibility. For example, many exhibition spaces will offer adjoining rooms or sectioned floor-plans that allow you to zone and organise products better.
Before the event kicks off, take careful measurements of the products you plan to showcase. Be sure to account for extra vertical space for tall products or equipment extensions. Spaces with moveable walls and modular booth or stand components are great and can provide even more customisation capability if you want to showcase individual products.
Map out footfall and flow
Once you’ve secured an appropriately sized venue and space, turn your eye to attendee footfall. The exhibition itself signals the start of a unique marketing opportunity as your goal is to grab the attention of every visitor to your stand and engage them from the get go. Therefore, it’s valuable to map out where and how visitors might enter and circulate around your exhibition space. You’ll also want to navigate the area to ensure that attendees are able to operate and see each product as they weave their way around.
To do this well, position the most interesting aspects of your product and the most intriguing items in easily accessible points near entrances to capture initial interest. Group products in designated sections on the floor or stand tops so attendees can compare variations. Always allow ample area for multiple onlookers and avoid anything that might obstruct their view during demos.
Use lights, signs and props
Treat your exhibition space as if it were a theatre stage to captivate and attract visitors. When people come into your space, use visual cues to draw their eye towards key products primed and ready for demo. Spotlights, coloured and focused lighting can all help to showcase your products literally in their best light. Colourful lighting transforms standout pieces into glowing centrepieces while installing unique floor panels for designated demonstration areas, such as artificial turf under sports equipment, will add extra interest.
Signage with eye-catching fonts and prominent arrows urges visitors towards noteworthy exhibits they won’t want to miss. Keep décor minimalist so as not to visually compete with the products themselves taking centre stage.
Encourage interactive demos
Within your exhibition space, consider how you can encourage and invite attendees to touch, explore and operate products via interactive demos. With the return of physical trade shows, customers are more likely to be impacted by your product if they experience it first-hand. In addition to guided demos and tours of your stand, therefore, inviting people to operate the equipment personally is a winning strategy.
Likewise, designing the space at your exhibition to create an immersive multi-sensory marketing experience can make your product stand out during a busy event. The stand’s design and spatial layout will make the first impression, so by incorporating interactive elements such as touchscreens, games and virtual displays, you can create a lasting impression that stays. Find out how to create an interactive demonstration within the confines of the space you are working in. In doing so, you’re likely to engage an audience, make the item more memorable and have a greater chance of selling it.
Appoint product ambassadors
No one can describe key product features and value better than knowledgeable sales people. Have an employee presence near every display zone ready to proactively engage visitors about product capabilities and benefits. If you are inviting delegates to interact and operate with equipment, from the safety perspective mentioned before, it’s important to supervise product use. Provide helmets, straps, braces or other apparatus to allow for protected testing.
Showcasing products with engaging demonstrations requires diligent spatial planning tailored specifically to your products and the specific format of the exhibition. With careful planning, creative layouts, visual ideas and interactive access, you’ll have attendees eager to see your products in action while maximising every part of your allocated space.
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