12 Trade Show Tabletop Tricks

Posted by Bill Barrett in Planning, Tips, Trends

Comparing tabletop exhibits to feisty little Yorkies in a sea of big-dog displays, Linda Armstrong of EXHIBITOR Magazine asked five marketing experts for tips on how to make and maintain an effective tabletop display. She shares 12 tricks of the trade on everything from graphics to staff training in her article, Twelve Tricks for Tabletops.

Tabletop displays, comprised of graphic panels, are much smaller than a 10-by-10-foot exhibit space. Because of their size, Terry Moore, marketing team leader at Expogo Displays & Graphics, Inc. suggests that you choose one large image to communicate the heart of what you do. Another expert, Josh Axelberd of Displayit, Inc., an exhibit provider in Suwanee, Georgia, says “Think billboard, not brochure.”

On the subject of how much text to include in your tabletop display, less is more, according to Moore. Use the Post-it Note version of your message. Tell people what your product or service will do for them in as few words as possible, instead of describing features.

• Use the latest technology to tell your story. Randall Harju, principal of 3DL Design, a marketing firm in Kenosha, Wisconsin, thinks tablets should be standard for tabletop exhibits.  “A good app can blow away any PowerPoint presentation,” he says. Harju recommends getting rid of your literature rack altogether. “You can offer your entire product catalog on an iPad.”
• Several of the experts suggested that you try different positions for tabletop displays. Axelberd says to consider what you want attendees to do and place your table accordingly. Do you want to make it easy to pop in and out of the booth? Which direction does the traffic flow? Want people to easily grab a brochure as they walk by? The answers to these and other questions impact tabletop display placement.
• Staff training, often overlooked for tabletop exhibitors, is as important, if not more so, for tabletop staffers than for personnel at a 1,000-square-foot booth, according to Susanne Prax, president of Vispronet LLC, a provider of advertising-display and print products in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Travis Rigby, president and CEO of PosterGarden, a portable-display provider in Portland, Oregon, is convinced that even tiny tabletops can “pack as much promotional punch as exhibits 10 times their size.” He suggests marketing your booth through the media, conferences, hospitality events, and pre-show mailers, to create interest before anyone arrives on the trade show floor.

There are so many great tips and tricks in Armstrong’s article, all delivered in the fun context of comparing dog breeds and dog handling to trade show tabletop displays!

Read the full article.