Brand consistency extends beyond your logo and company colors to include shape, graphics, messaging, imagery, brand personality—and every other aspect of your exhibit.
Is your trade show exhibit consistent with your brand in every conceivable way? Or is there room for improvement? Here are six aspects of your booth to assess:
1. Is your exhibit consistent with your ad and marketing campaigns? The shapes, messages, and images in your exhibit should reflect—or reiterate—your ad and marketing campaigns. Even better is if you can take this one step further and create a three-dimensional version of your campaigns with your booth.
Example: At International Roofing Expo (IRE), GAF three-dimensionalized its "We protect what matters most campaign." Not only does the exhibit reiterate the same messages and images as GAF's ad campaign—the square frames featured in the print campaign are recreated as gravity-defying objects in the booth. (Exhibit design and fabrication by 3D Exhibits)
2. Have you stylized all booth elements to match your brand—even when the items in the booth aren't part of your advertising or packaging? Savvy marketers customize every element of their booth to match the look and feel of their brand.
Example: Kidfresh drew from the child-like fonts and sketches on its packaging to stylize the sampling area in its booth at Natural Products Expo West (NPEW). This took the shape of a kitchen vignette that looks like a playhouse kitchen created for a child by a child. (Design internal, fabrication by MacKennon)
3. Have you integrated props or items people associate with your brand? One of the quickest ways to tell your brand story is to integrate props.
Example: Sunbutter added a small field of faux sunflowers to its exhibit to reiterate what its products are made from. The message was clear and intuitive. (Exhibit design and fabrication Condit)
4. Have you reiterated your logomark in creative and unexpected ways? If your logo has a unique or interesting shape, consider adapting it as a design element. For instance, you could cut it into the carpet in a contrasting color or turn it into custom wallpaper for your backwall.
Example: Zevia, which is sweetened with stevia, mimicked the shape of the pair of stevia leaves in its logo with the outline of its hanging sign. This small detail ensured that Zevia's hanging sign stood out from the other hanging signs at the show. (Exhibit design and fabrication by Exhibit Partners.)
5. Have you customized your finishes? Every surface, element, and finish in your exhibit is an opportunity to reinforce your brand persona.
Example: Garden of Life reinforced its upscale, healthy sensibility with the kind of finishes you'd find inside of a farm-to-table restaurant: white subway tile, real wood—and contemporary flower print cushions. (Design and fabrication by 3D Exhibits)
6. Have you had a little fun with your brand? Allow yourself to have a little fun and you just might come up with other unique ways to integrate your brand into your exhibit. Think: is there a special flooring? Wall applique? Pattern?
Example: Hubert's Lemonade turned its winking lemon logo into a lemony version of a stained-glass window. (Exhibit design and fabrication by Expo Marketing)
What else can you do to weave more brand elements into your exhibit?
