Drive Traffic to Your Trade Show Booth (and Away from Competitors)

Trade shows are an excellent way to show off your new products and connect one-on-one with existing and new clients. People travel hundreds of miles to attend trade shows, many of whom have buying power and are looking to make connections with vendors.

But getting people to your booth isn’t always easy. The average exhibition attendee spends over 8 hours looking at exhibits. With hundreds of booths to visit, that precious time is very limited, and so is your window of opportunity.

It’s not impossible to stand out though – you just need to know what will stop people in their tracks. Here’s why trade show attendees are so important and why stunning, unified branding is the best way to capture and hold their attention.

Before digging into ways your company can stand out at your next trade show, let’s take a step back. Not everyone thinks that the benefits outweigh the costs of exhibiting. After all, it can be expensive to transport staff and build an exhibit.

Here are a few reasons why your company should start exhibiting at trade shows and live events.

First of all, let’s look at the people.

About 4 out of every 5 trade show attendees has some form of buying power within their company.

Along with that, 77% of surveyed executive decision makers found at least one new supplier at their last trade show.

In other words, people attending trade shows aren’t just looking to take home cool swag. They’re looking to make strong business connections and financial decisions.

This is great news!

It means that nearly everyone visiting your trade show booth is valuable to your business. These attendees may need a new vendor, have a problem you just happen to solve, or might represent an untapped market.

Now, let’s look at the cost benefits. Did you know that the cost per lead at trade shows are almost 55% less than in the field?

Consider that decision makers are coming to trade shows to find new vendors, this makes sense. Your trade show exhibit and staff can reach hundreds (or thousands) of leads. Compare that to the few leads you may meet on sales calls or trips and it’s no wonder businesses find trade shows so dang valuable.

Understanding the value of trade shows and live events is only half the battle. Other companies understand the importance of these events. Even if you’re not looking for new clients – maybe you’re focused on brand awareness – competition is fierce.

With so many competing exhibitors in one place, a lot of companies struggle to even catch their audience’s eye.

You know how important it is to make a strong impression – but what can you do to stand out among hundreds (or more) competing companies?

It’s not enough just to catch visitors’ eyes on the trade show floor. You need to hold their attention and draw them in. Stunning, photorealistic and interactive graphics and animations can do this while elevating your brand above competing exhibitors.

But you need something unique. You need eye-catching trade show display ideas that your competitors aren’t using.

Consider this: videos and animations quite literally keep your audience engaged – they want to watch to the end! Here’s your opportunity to connect with trade show attendees and bring them to you…and away from your competitors.

Try a unique brand video, a silly animation, or even a VR experience.

In other words, offer passing attendees something new to see or hear. They’ve spent hours, even days, looking at exhibits. At this point, attendees are likely experiencing trade show fatigue and won’t remember half of what they’ve seen. Here’s the opportunity to help them remember you.

With impressive trade show display visuals, you can tell your story without needing to say a word. After all, the last thing you want to do is lose a potential customer because your staff is too busy. So, let your visuals and visual effects do the talking. Find out more about how our commercial animation studio can develop a 3D product rendering strategy and create stunning package artwork!

Beautiful, pristine visuals across all your marketing channels will give your brand a unified look and feel. If you want to improve brand awareness, unified visuals help people remember what you do and who you are.

Use the same exhibit visuals in your social media posts, website banners, in print ads, and even in broadcast spots. These unified, branded visuals will remind attendees who you are both in person and online.

Not only does this build up a recognizable brand, but it also helps with your company’s overall image. With this unification, you come off as organized and strong. As a bonus, this will help you rise above competing brands who haven’t unified their visuals across channels.

Building and maintaining your brand’s look and feel doesn’t have to be complicated. 3D rendered visuals are versatile, meaning you can use the same images and animations across all your marketing channels. That includes both digital and print formats.

For example, we can deliver high-resolution, large-format trade show graphics, or high-resolution scalable assets for your website or social media posts.

No need to edit or manipulate files to make them fit your needs – 3D assets are built to meet your specific needs for your marketing plan.

Modern trade show attendees aren’t just interacting with the content in front of them. They’re connecting on professional sites, checking in on social media, and even playing around with event apps.

According to a study conducted by Google, 66% of trade show attendees engage in online activities during the event. With that in mind, bringing attention to your trade show booth and away from their phones is only half the battle.

You need to curate content that gets in front of them everywhere, not just in-person at your booth.

There are a few easy ways you can keep that engagement going online after attendees have walked away:

• Share the same graphics, animations, and visual content on social media and connect with attendees and their business colleagues after the show.
• Encourage the people walking by to connect and share with your brand.
• Prepare these assets ahead of time and be able to engage with digital conversations on the fly.

You can do all this without needing to curate separate content that’s perfectly suited to each platform (that’s right: no more re-sizing, formatting, or struggling with image requirements). 3D assets are multi-purpose and versatile, making it easier to bring your brand online.

By opting for 3D visuals using rendering engines like Redshift, you not only have large-format graphics and eye-catching animations but also photoreal digital assets usable across every marketing channel.

You’ve captured the trade show attendee’s attention, got them to engage with your brand, and left a lasting impression. The exhibit is over, and your booth is dismantled. Now what?

Another reason to opt for 3D images and animations is their evergreen-ness and versatility. You can keep using them long after the trade show.

Continue using those same perfectly formatted graphics to encourage social sharing among attendees and reach out to leads. You can add those visuals to new Google Ad campaigns or on your website.

You don’t have to skip a beat between repping your brand at a trade show to continuing brand awareness campaigns and outreach.

For upcoming media coverage or press releases, your company has ready-to-use visuals to accompany the piece. Many trade shows even give out awards for best exhibit visuals and experiences. Your brand benefits from the coverage and boosts its reputation, letting you extend your reach even farther.

Related: What is 3D Animation?

FUSE is an award-winning 3D animation studio with extensive experience in delivering powerful trade show imagery. In fact, our tradeshow VFX and animation work with Sleep Number earned them Best of CES awards 4 years in a row.

Ditch photography! The team at FUSE can create incredible photorealistic visuals and deliver them in any format you need: large-format graphics, animations show attendees can see from three rows over, and digital assets for your website or social sites.

Read More: Project Highlight: Battlefield Animation by Artist Zak Katara

Whatever your trade show needs, each of our team members can deliver. Have an upcoming show and want to talk strategy? Give us a call or reach out on our website.

If you’re interested in finding out more about 3D product rendering, please check out our 3D rendering guide here.

• Building AR from 3D Models
• How to Create 3D Product Animation Videos for Your Brand
• CAD Files: Before and After with 3D
• Steps In The Animation Production Pipeline
• Photorealistic 3D Medical Device Animations
• Stunning 3D Rendered Windows and Glass
• Guide to the Best 3D Visual Effects Software