Trade show Displays: I’m not Stupid, Just Right Brained!
In a small town, a trade show can be a relatively significant point of interest for those visiting, beyond looking for customer-worthy businesses. Having been to several in my hometown held at the local high school in my teens, mostly for my father’s business, they’ve even provided a certain amount of entertainment.
When the colorful and lively trade show displays are lined up side by side in every booth, with the baskets of free goods (some kind of cool, most of them trivial), it was fun simply walking down every aisle. Some of the businesses even lured me into what they were selling because of the displays alone. The townspeople there were actually interested in what products were being sold and the raffle there had some stuff that I had actually wanted.
At a trade show, banner ads provide some of that subconscious zest a place needs to attract even youthful attendees. Some of the seemingly most mundane places (like the gym at a high school) can be colorful and interesting when the exhibition stands collaborate in a mosaic of color and sound. I went to the same expo for several consecutive years with my father for his business and while it may not have been the most exciting and I may not have been the most prospective customer, there was still the sense of a charming environment, with all of the enthusiastic salespeople and business owners accompanying their lively booths. That’s a sign of a successful trade show.
Even in cities where cavernous auditoriums are specifically designed for expos, the experience can be made warmer and more inviting when the booths are colorful, expansive, and use warm colors to play off each other, making the place feel more like a leisurely venture rather than a painstaking walk through aisles of blandness.
What trade show displays and banners can do for a business is invaluable; they help the exhibitor reach out to their audiences with sensory cues that can help target the right side of their brains, not just presenting dry text, cold, calculated facts, and dry information to be read and processed by the left side of their brain.
The creative, right side is the impulsive side; appealing to creative stimuli and warmth. It’s about attitude with the customer first, not what’s being sold. If a boring, high school gym can double as a place of serious business and draw people in, this says volumes about what it means to have a trade show that’s both engaging and useful. A lot goes into how something is marketed as opposed to what is being marketed – for example, touch screens pull people in to try a product, rather than just a brochure to read about it. 
If ads for businesses simply state plainly what the company is selling, without any attempts at making an art of the process of advertising, there isn’t much persuasion going on to connect with the consumer with the product. And if your business leaves the decision to stop and evaluate solely to the left side of your prospective clients, you will see much fewer visitors!
A boring ad means a boring company. An overly ridiculous and vibrant ad can also deter business – you need to plan your messages carefully. How a company presents itself plays a huge role–maybe even the biggest–in getting people to choose whether to do a contemplative double-take when witnessing your trade show displays or simply walking on dismissively.
American Image Displays has been helping clients design and build trade show displays and graphics for over 25 years; if you’re looking for help in developing your messages, check out the thousands of trade show display designs we offer, and then give us a call if you need some expert support.