There's a lot going on in Miami's South Beach. Everywhere you go people and places vie to be noticed. There are crowds of people, great restaurants, beautiful architecture and serene beach.
For a business to thrive in this competitive environment, it must have a strategy to attract visitors' mind-share and dollars. Very much the same as on the trade show floor—if you think about it.
Here are five techniques for standing out that work equally well on the trade show floor as they do on the streets of South Beach:
- Create stunning architecture. Exhibits that are well proportioned, nicely lit, and marked by well-considered graphics do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of standing out and enticing people to visit. This is because people are naturally drawn to beauty—as much in a built environment as in nature.
- Employ sound, light and motion. Exhibits that appeal to the sensesstand out and are more likely to be remembered. Motion and light draw visitors' eyes. Sounds can also act like a magnet—pulling people over and increasing engagement.
- Highlight your product. Out of all the restaurant bars I could have chosen from, I entered this one. Even though I know all bars serve the same liquor, the way this particular bar displayed its bottles made its cocktails seem more appealing. Takeaway: If you present your product like it's something special, you add to its perceived value.
- Make what you have to offer obvious to people who haven't yet committed to enter your exhibit. In South Beach, the lesser-known restaurants compete with the better-known destination restaurants by displaying tantalizing samples of their dishes along the sidewalk. Likewise, at trade shows, most trade show visitors need to be shown what your product is and why they should want it to entice them to enter your booth. Also, just like in South Beach, adding an engager to invite people in just adds to your success.
- Stand out with an active demo people can see from the aisle. There are lots of people who roll handmade cigars in South Beach—but this is the only guy I saw doing it on the street. And he was also the only guy with a line of people waiting to purchase from him. Takeaway: People are more likely to notice your demo—and attend it—if what you are doing is visible from the aisle.
What techniques do you use to stand out on the show floor?
