Exhibition Stands / Booths: Cost or Investment?
To exhibit or not to exhibit?
There’s been plenty written on the reasons for exhibiting, including meeting customers, brand awareness, launching a new product/service, generating leads etc, and all of them are valid.
One of the most important reasons for exhibiting at a live event is companies and brands can connect with their audience in a way that all other marketing activities cannot. What used to be considered the only live place to interact has now been categorised as In Real Life (IRL) experiences since the creation of online worlds.
Event planners assemble!
Once the decision has been made to exhibit, where do you start? This depends on who approved this decision and the reasons put forward.
Generally things go like this:
- Approval given to book the space at a show
- Space is booked at cost of X paid to the organiser
- Stand/booth design brief written with budget (included/excluded)
- Stand/booth design & build supplier searched for/engaged with/appointed
- Exhibiting team confirmed, hotels and travel booked
- Content and/or products for display at the show scheduled
- Pre-show marketing activity and advanced meeting bookings started
What will the ‘bean counters’ say?
Depending on the organisation, the person charged with managing the event will have multiple stakeholders to accommodate. These people will all have their own opinions and objectives but are usually too busy to engage at the start of the project where input is most valuable (and manageable).
When you start pulling things together and you report the budget has been met or exceeded, do your finance team see the project as a cost or an investment? The answer to this can be critical to the success of the show for the company or brand.
If it’s viewed as a cost, then every aspect of the project will be seen as a potential to cut back on the budget which in turn can reduce the quality of visitor experience. In extreme cases, this can result in something like Willy’s Chocolate Experience.
If viewed as an investment, it’s more likely to be a success based on the outcomes identified and agreed at the decision-to-exhibit stage. This doesn’t mean exceeding the budget, instead it provides a positive focus on how to achieve success for the company or brand.
Showtime!
You will have your own reasons to exhibit but remember this a live performance and when the curtain goes up (show opens), visitors are expecting to be wowed, intrigued, engaged and experience the best.
With high expectations and fierce competition, you should be partnering with a design & build company that supports you from the very beginning of the project through to the final act of dismantle.
Brief2Build is run by a highly experienced team of industry professionals with decades of experience making things happen for clients around the world.
If you’re planning your next exhibition, get in touch with us for a friendly, professional chat about what you’re looking to achieve: [email protected]