Center of Attention

Creating an Environment

Once you’ve grabbed some attention with your big graphics, make your booth a place visitors will want to stay a while. Mealey suggests constructing booths with a floor and ceiling, using materials that are designed to dampen noise. “Noise is very  distracting at a trade show,” he says. “Create an atmosphere that’s calm and conducive to business, and people step into your zone and get away from the sea of madness.”

A zone that smells good attracts visitors, too. “We have clients who are asking us for ambient scents,” says John Driscoll, president of Burnsville-based Showcraft, an exhibit design and construction company. “We’re working with a client right now who’s going to Atlanta for a trade show and would like to use the scent of peaches.”

Scent “cuts through all the clutter,” Driscoll says, and can positively affect the mood, emotions, and memory visitors associate with a booth. A scent can be dispersed by fans or by a system similar to air conditioning, and should be appropriate to the company, the show, or both. Avoid common allergens. “Some people can be allergic to a particular fragrance,” Driscoll says.

Give visitors interesting surfaces to touch. “I think the leading edge of marketers are trying to create tactile experiences,” Driscoll says. Intriguing textures, he adds, help stimulate mood and memory. Driscoll cites engineered polycarbonates, which look like acrylic, as one possible example. A skin care company that uses plants and flowers in their products, for instance, might embed some of those plants and flowers in the polycarbonate, and then give the outer surface of the polycarbonate block an interesting texture—wavy, bumpy, very smooth, waxy, or whatever. Visitors are likely to spend more time looking at, touching, and generally considering those blocks and their contents when the texture is an intriguing one, and are therefore more likely to remember the company and their botanicals in a positive light.

Creative lighting can direct attention to your product or presentation, Driscoll says. Computer-driven lighting systems create varied environments, scrolling through a range of color and patterns. Theater-style spotlights can also direct viewer attention toward a booth’s key attractions.

You probably won’t be able to play popular music at a trade show booth. Doing so would be considered a public performance of the music, and would be subject to expensive royalty fees, Driscoll says. But pleasant ambient noise, such as from a waterfall or wind chimes, can add to a booth’s atmosphere.