Think ‘Small’ at Your Next Trade Show
Hey Newman, I’m in the process of selecting my exhibit space for our next show. I want to make a big splash. Do I need a big booth to do it? —Tom in Mystic, Conn.
Tom, you don’t have to pay a fortune to get people to pay attention.
You can re-skin your booth. You can have a smaller trade show footprint (and in doing so have a smaller carbon footprint). You can use a small space to reduce your costs while keeping your booth packed with people, which looks better anyway.
Too many companies choose large booths because it’s a status thing. Look how big we are! That model just doesn’t work anymore. It’s not essential and it’s not cost-effective. Think about it like this: People will always cram into the smallest room at a party. The same psychology exists at a tradeshow. There’s nothing more depressing than a 50×50 booth with four people walking around … and three of them are the exhibitors. When you have a 10×10 and people are bumping into each other and crowding around a single kiosk or a single monitor to watch a demo, that creates a wow factor and the impression that “there’s something really exciting going on here!”
I say use a small footprint and then put more money into what’s going on IN your booth. Consider a three-hour training session for your staff. Then, create real excitement in your booth with a live presentation. I’m seeing more live presenters than at any time in recent memory performing in the smallest booths at the show. At a recent trade show, the big players had 60×60s and 80×80s—enormous footprints with 12 kiosks. But there were a considerable number of big companies with booths as small as 8’ X 10’. One had a magician. Another, a juggler. A third had a professional speaker on a podium telling a half-dozen different stories in rotation, with each mini-presentation lasting just a few minutes. Each one played to consistently large crowds.
At this same exhibit, our client had one of those 8’ X 10’ booths. With a registration desk and two demo stations, that left virtually no room to spare. I did my presentation on a small riser at the very edge of the booth, stopping attendees as they walked by. I delivered a short, entertaining pitch to anywhere from 10-60 people per show. Those people would then come into the booth, get their badges scanned and many would hang around and talk to our booth staff.
Our client for this three-day event got over 2,000 leads. Considering the size of the booth, they paid a heck of a lot less for their leads than the large booth next door. And, they got much bigger bang for their buck.
So, no, you absolutely don’t have to have the biggest footprint at a show. If you make the biggest splash, create the most buzz and get the highest value for your investment, then that’s a success. A big success.
Note from Ken: If you’re interested in booth re-skinning or a smaller, more efficient booth design, a great resource is Tim Patterson with Interpretive Exhibits.
Do you have an industry-related question you’d like answered on “Hey Newman”? Send him an e-mail and get your inquiry answered on the blog.
Ken,
What great advice. I too have been seeing more professional presentations in smaller booths. Looks like more clients are “figuring it out” in that, you don’t need to spend a ton to make a big splash. Cut down on space, not on the activity, and the ROI will follow.
Love your blogs … keep ‘em coming!
RL
Hey Ken!
I was just at a show in a 20×20 booth and my area of the booth was a small section. I had a fun, 4 minute interactive presentation that filled my area of the booth and then I guided the attendees on into the booth to other game type stations run by the booth staff. We stayed crazy busy for most of the show. The point is what you do with the space you have and you offer great advice for that!
I wish I had taken a picture. A classic 10×10 trade show booth where I really could not detect what they do. One guy sitting there, avoiding eye contact. Natually, I had to ask “What do you guys do?”. He mumbled something is broken english and gave me a pencil with his company name as a gift. Yes, a pencil. I’ll bet it had lead paint on it too.
Small is often better, but having a plan and a message is still a good “safety tip”
One “small is better” strategy that saved me tons of money in years past is to have a small space, lots of signs to drive traffic our way, and a “private invitation only” suite at the venue hotel. Makes prospects feel special too, and is much cheaper floor space.
Ken, have you every done a “show” purely at the hospitality suite and not on the show floor?
Cheers!
Thanks for this post, Ken, lots of wisdom in it. I agree with your core idea: It’s not the size, it’s what you do with it that matters. People will be far more impressed by a positive experience within your booth than by the size of the booth itself!