Product demo or booth attract? How about a trade show marketing solution that does both?
Savvy exhibitors create innovative ways to demonstrate their products on the show floor that draw attendees and communicate key product attributes. Six best practices:
1. Hands-on proof. Back up your claims by giving attendees the opportunity to test your products for themselves. Anchor Hocking cleverly proved that its drinkware is chip-proof by inviting attendees to crash suspended flatware into samples of its glassware. Attendees were immediately converted participants into believers when they experienced just how much force the glassware could withstand.
2. Show it in an unexpected way. Surprise is always a powerful draw as evidenced by the response of Home Builders attendees to the subterranean wine cellar displayed on the show floor. This demo was cleverly created by setting the cellar above ground and placing a glass ceiling with presenter across the top to indicate where floor level would be if the unit were installed inside of a home.
3. Add motion. The best demos have something happening—and the bigger the motion, the bigger the demo's drawing power. In the case of the wine cellar, the action was supplied via the live presenter. Nearly everyone slowed down to peer into the wine cellar beneath the woman's feet.
4. Turn it into a game. This drywall manufacturer demonstrated the durability of its product by inviting visitors to earn money for charity by tossing softballs through cutouts in sheets of its product.
5. Position for optimal viewing. The position and location your product is normally used isn't necessarily the best way to display it on the show floor. Sometimes products that are used horizontally are best displayed vertically—and vice versa (See Anchor Hocking durability demo above). Likewise, for whether you should display your product at floor level, counter height, or higher. Example: Demo of floor care products at floor level? Expected. Floor care demo at counter height? Hard to miss and much easier to view.
6. Create the most extreme circumstance. A prime consideration in purchasing broadcast camera equipment for outdoor use is the equipment's ability to capture high contrast situations. (In other words, to capture shots that combine both shade and bright light in a way that all objects are clearly visible.) This company proved what its equipment could do by placing a rock climbing wall—complete with climbers—in its booth, and then lighting the climbers with stripes of shade and ultra-bright light. Visitors who viewed the climbers through demo cameras saw for themselves how well the equipment captured both highlights and shadows on the same object.
