The biggest portion of our trade show display requests involve five main factors: uniqueness of design, production lead time, ease of setup/takedown, portability and of course price. Commonly, people will be looking for a cost-effective, easy, portable, unique next-day display. I definitely want that as well! Unfortunately, that is our unicorn. Consider these five main attributes as budgeted out of 100 “points.” Here is the trade-off, to increase one you must take away from another. I’ve put together a general guideline that I hope is helpful in assessing the right display for your organization based upon these five areas.
Custom Exhibit Build
When you want something completely unique and original, designed to the exact goals and branding elements of your campaign, you want to go with a custom exhibit build. You’ll have a memorable trade show booth and be able to attract attendees just off of the way your exhibit stands out from the pack. To achieve this, you increase your production time and price while a lot of times giving up the ease of setup and portability as these will be heavier more complex components packed into shipping crates.
Semi-Custom Build
The semi-custom category will allow you a balanced display option. You’ll be using stock components to build a unique design or configuration. Here the client has input on tweaking and accessorizing to fit their needs. Using stock pieces allows for a more standard production lead, moderate setup difficulty and a display that a lot of times will pack into rolling cases as opposed to crates (for inlines).
Most Popular Semi-Custom Displays
Quick and Easy Build
Stock displays exist for those who need a quick turn, low budget, first display or some combination of the three. These have come a long way in terms of design options and graphic quality, while providing the fastest production, 5-minute (or less) setups and can be portable to the point of riding in the plane with the client.
Quick and Easy Design Examples
What are your needs?
When taking into account for the above, clients have to consider the goals and needs of their specific campaigns. Many clients will opt to diversify within these options. For instance, they’ll identify one or two trade shows that their presence has to be top notch, and they’ll roll out the custom exhibit for those. But other times, they’ll have one sales rep displaying to a small audience in a hotel and just want the quick and easy option.
We also a lot of times see companies that start with the quick and easy options grow their brand and then want to increase their presence so they’ll move up into the semi-custom or custom areas.
Unfortunately, we see companies that have the need and budget for an imaginative custom build, but only have allowed for the production time for one of the other categories. So that’s why time is an important consideration.
Utilize the five categories noted to develop a plan for your next purchase that allows you to achieve the perfect design for your needs.