Stay on Top! Elevate Your Design Ideas for your Exhibition Stand

Events at which you can interact with potential customers for your brand are hugely important for raising awareness. The exhibition design concept that you bring to the event can be very influential in whether your attendance is a success or a failure.

Elevating your design ideas to the next level can help you to gain more leads and attract more attention. Here are some ideas to elevate your stand and make more of an impact.

Make it big

When your products are big, normally you might feel like you can’t showcase them in full. Rather, you imagine you will have to put together a stand around brochures and leaflets that show your products in picture form.

Thinking big ensures a big impact. Why not make room for your larger items to go on display? You can even put cars – or even larger vehicles – on display in most exhibition spaces. Think about it: they often have very high ceilings, and your only limit is your square meterage on the floor.

Make sure that you check ahead with the event organisers that your exhibition stand design concept will be alright with them, and then feel free to go big.

Think about the uses of your product, too. Maybe you don’t sell cars exactly, but rather a kind of car polish. Why not park a car in the middle of your stand along with some sample bottles, and invite your visitors to polish the car themselves? This could make a real impact as you demonstrate exactly how your product works. It’s a design that is sure to attract attention, meaning more people come over to take a look.

Our design can include marked out spaces for each vehicle to be parked as well as a large backdrop which keys customers in to what your product is and what your brand name is. You can see a sample of this idea in the design we put together for Iveco at the Australasia Bus & Coach Expo.

Create divided areas

It can be difficult to lay out your exhibition stand graphics and effectively get your message across when the space is wide and open. If you have a large enough space, why not make more impact by dividing it into smaller areas?

This is a great way to both split up your display area for different purposes, and to create more wall space onto which you can print advertising graphics. A welcome desk area can be manned by helpful and friendly representatives, who can direct new customers as to where they might want to go.

Inside the stand, behind the first barrier, you can use the space for whatever is relevant to your product. A beauty brand might set up several private booths with mirrors where makeup artists can trial the product directly on volunteering customers’ faces for a free makeover.

If you have a product that the customer will be using directly, you can set up an area that shows them how it is done. If you have several products, each of them can be given their own space.

If you are worried about making the space feel closed off, then simply use white or light colours and mirrored surfaces in the design. This will open everything back up again and make the stand feel fresh and inviting, offering balance so that customers are enticed to come and explore each side of your stall.

Creating divider walls is a really effective way of putting multiple things into one space, and even giving the impression of visiting a real office or showroom. It gives a professional feel, and will definitely attract the eyes of those walking by. Our exhibition design concept for Theralux is a great example of how this can be done right.

Have a focal talking point

What is guaranteed to attract the eye of an exhibition visitor? Something completely unexpected. If possible, something that you would never think you would see in that specific exhibition space.

We talked before about parking vehicles in your space, and this can have a real impact. However, there are plenty more exhibition ideas that will take up less space, however, and will still turn the heads of delegates.

Have a talking, moving robot standing in your stand and explaining things to customers that walk by. Have a giant balloon shaped like your company mascot. There are endless exhibition concepts you could come up with here that would both suit your brand and be totally unexpected.

The important thing is that the concept makes people look, but don’t forget to ensure that it means something. For example, our exhibition stand design inspiration when we worked with Pacific Life Re was their logo: a whale breaching the surface of the sea.

While this image doesn’t have much to do with insurance, it does have everything to do with the brand image. For their stand, we were able to put in a fish tank – something that keys in directly to their message and really made people stop and interact.

What you then use this focal point for is making your point come across. Give it a message. Maybe your inflatable balloon deflates every now and then to remind people that bubbles can burst, which is why they should invest in your insurance. It will be enough to pull them in and make them think – and you can leave the rest to your brand representatives on the stand.

Serve your visitors

When looking around an exhibition, often the customers are looking for freebies and things they can try that look exciting. While they may ultimately be there to make connections, they will be attracted by and excited by the things that your stand offers.

Why not capitalise on this by offering them something for free? Make sure that people approach your stand in the interest of getting something for their time. They will expect you to make a sales pitch in exchange, and most will be only too happy to listen.

This creates a fantastic start to your working relationship. They see you as a company that will give them what they need, without being too pushy.

When we worked with TAL, the exhibition design concept was a service area with tables and chairs so that visitors could enjoy a drink and settle down. While they relaxed, they were likely to think positively of the brand – and of course, they were surrounded by literature and brand representatives ready to show them why this was the right company for them.

Whether you offer free drinks, entry to a prize draw, stationary, or something else that fits your brand, serving your customers is a great way to get their attention. They will start to think about how else you might be able to serve them in the future!

These are just a few great exhibition design concept ideas that you can apply to your display to make it stand out. There are many more where those came from! Remember that your stand must always achieve two things: first, it must draw the visitor in, and then it must have the power to turn them into a customer. You can’t achieve that with boring, uninspired design.