Exhibition Stand FAQ:

 
 

1. Why go to Exhibitions?

Promoting your product or service through exhibitions, trade shows, open or counter days, offers excellent opportunities to increase exposure and sales. Exhibitions remain the most powerful and cost effective method of reaching key decision makers directly.

Ensure you maximise the return from your investment.

Edmonds can provide highly creative visual, yet cost effective solutions for all, regardless of stand size, using:

• Display Banners
• Popups
• Large Format Prints
• Panel and pole Systems
• Modular Display Sysytems
• Vinyl cuts - lettering/images for branding or graphics
• Large Scale Design and Build

2. Know your objectives beforehand

What is your target:

• Launching a new product or service?
• Raising company profile?
• Generating Sales leads or direct sales?
• Reaching a new target market or audience, or contacting a new market
• Assessing the competition?
• What is the hook to attract visitors/customers to the stand?

3. Which Exhibitions to attend?

Exhibitions provide an excellent platform for potential clients to experience, at first hand, your product or service. You need to identify and find out as much information as is available.

• How well established is the event and what promotional plans are the organisers undertaking?
• What is the breakdown profile of visitors, is it ABC audited? And how many market leaders or competitors attend?
• Is it supported by Trade Associations, Professional organisations or Publications?
• What was the previous year's attendance?
• Which press and media attend?
• What is included in the cost?

Exhibitions provide the following additional benefits:

• Highly targeted audience, over 90% of visitors are directly responsible for purchasing decisions
• Clients come to you through face-to-face contact - build customer relationships
• Greater potential market penetration

4. What are the true Costs of participation?

These can include:

• Space costs
• Stand costs - design and construction, graphics etc.
• Services (power, electricity, communication)
• Show linked marketing - promotion, advertising, literature, giveaways etc.
• Training
• Accommodation and subsistence
• Catering and hospitality
• Storage and Transportation
• Insurance/Security

Of all the above costs, the only items offering long-term re-use at other venues are Stand Costs and Graphics. Consequently, consider allocating the budget appropriately .

5. What type of stand should I choose? - Stand Size & Layout?

An effective stand:

• Creates the right environment and atmosphere for both visitors and staff
• Considers its position relative to competitors and aisle traffic
• Creates focus points and a welcoming atmosphere
• Draws visitors in

Professionally designed and produced graphics can Create a Lasting Impression for any exhibition stand.

The size of your stand choice should be determined by your objectives, not by guesswork or what your competitors have taken. Book as much space as you need - no more, no less. This can vary according to different exhibitions and consequently, always consider exhibition systems which offer greater flexibility for creating different configurations. Speak to estimate@edmonds.co.uk for independent advice, totally free of charge.

There are often only two options of display area. The shell scheme or open space. The shell scheme - from 6m² to 20m² - you should consider Banner Displays, Popup Displays, Large Format Print or Modular sytems for your stand. The shell scheme stands are generally constructed for you by the organiser, usually complete with floorcovering, lighting, walls and nameboard, but always remeber that shell scheme walls are rarely flat or regularly sized and may require an interior "skin" of nyloop boards. For greater visibility choose a site offering greater throughput of traffic or strategically with frontage onto an aisle. The more open sides you have, the greater the opportunity for visitors to come on your stand.

Find out how easy Banners or a Pop-up system is to use or discover how economical a panel and pole system is, contact estimate@edmonds.co.uk. We can advise on the best ways to achieve success from your exhibition.

Space-only stands present greater design options, albeit at a higher price. Participating exhibitors are responsible for their own design and construction. Modular systems are extremely flexible and adaptable for this purpose, enabling the stand to be re-assembled in different configurations at future events. For larger scale stands you may wish a custom design and build.

Utilise the services of www.edmonds.co.uk for totally independent and professional advice in the design and manufacturing of your graphic requirements. We'll help you take care of those display problems and show you how easy it is to achieve eye-catching displays that will make your show a success. We are supremely confident of our Quality Performance Standards and Inherent Customer Orientation, we can provide higher quality results for Łess cost on like-for-like comparisons on any of the following

• Bannerstand Displays
• Pop up Displays
• Modular Display systems
• Panel & Pole systems
• Custom Design & Build
• Lenticular Displays
• Literature Stands
• Floor Graphics and Lightboxes
• Rotating Signs and Display Cabinets
• Video screens/Plasma screens
• Lighting effects
• Water displays

Contact estimate@edmonds.co.uk with your requirements
or telephone: 0131 467 8333.

6. Effective Planning and Preparation?

Consider the following:

• Plan ahead - allow for up to 9 - 12 months for new or large events or 3 - 6 months for regular or smaller exhibitions.
• Appoint an Exhibition Co-ordinator to have overall responsibility for organising the stand and show staff.
• Set Measurable Objectives - from your corporate objectives, set targets in the forms of enquiries, sales, exposure in media etc. to measure the exhibitions success.
• Prepare a written Plan/Brief - space requirements, design, products, on site services (power, water etc.), staffing levels, show linked marketing, data capture, and evaluation criteria, action plan - timetable, key tasks, persons responsible for them, deadline for completion.
• Brief all your stand staff.
• Encourage Appointments.
• Attract visitors - with prize draws, product demonstrations and competitions.

7. At the Event - creating the Lasting Impression and The Art of Attraction?

Your display, your floor show and your special offers can only do so much to attract potential custom, the rest is up to your people.

Ask open ended questions, don't allow visitors to answer just "yes" or "no". The phrase "can I help you?" has very rarely worked. Your body language is as important as what you say. Try to develop a way of making eye contact with potential clients, while still talking to an existing visitor. Practice passing on a visitor to other staff thus freeing up your front line troops to bag another potential customer.

Build in time for you and your staff to walk around the show, you may find potential new business in and on other stands, or even new suppliers. Always be prepared: the next enquiry could be the big one.

The individuals you choose to staff your stand make or break the event. Nothing is more off-putting to a visitor than a gaggle of bored, hungover staff sitting around chatting on your stand.

A briefing session is a must to define your targets. Give each person an area of responsibility, front of stand, walkabout duty. An organised stand is actually fun to work on...Honest!

Staffing hints:

• Dress smartly
• Wear comfortable shoes
• Nominate a stand manager
• Wear name tags (sorry - people need to know your name)
• Gret people at the edge of the stand
• Be polite and professional
• Never smoke or eat at the stand
• Don't sit down!

Be on the lookout for potential time wasters who come in various guises:

• Competitors looking for information
• Salespeople
• Complainers
• Literature magpies

Your purpose is to sell or promote, so at the end of each day hold a debrief session with your staff, it'll help discover what works and what doesn't.

8. Post Exhibition Follow up?

Have an after-exhibition post-mortem as soon as you can, preferably within a week.

The whole event will have been a waste of time unless you are prepared to devote as much time and effort to following up your leads as you did for the show.

Generally the first contact should be in writing within the first week. You won't lose any business by being too quick to follow up. Your letter should be an acknowledgement of your meeting and the subjects discussed, this will show the potential client that they are important to you.

Follow up all sales leads proactively immediately in a concerted prioritised plan.

9. Measuring the Success?

Consider:

• Generate quantified results from your participation
• How many leads did you take? - track all generated enquiries.
• What was the cost per enquiry?
• What exposure did you achieve - trade publications etc?
• How many were new prospects?
• Were objectives achieved?
• How as the stand received - visitors, stand personnel, management etc?
• What were your conclusions of the show?
• How can you improve future performance?

10. Is Edmonds a manufacturer, distributor or re-seller of other manufacturers products, and does it only supply one type of system?

Edmonds is a truly INDEPENDENT supplier and can supply display hardware or graphics to fit any of the following manaufacturer's systems:

• Nomadic
• Nimlok
• AXIS
• Display Europe
• Plex
• Marler Hayley
• Ultima
• Expand
• Photobition
• Expo Display
• Modul
• Others

All these systems are unique in respect to:

• Range of products and suitable accessories
• Choice of frames
• Height of frames
• Footprint floorspace area taken up by hardware
• Graphic dimensions - visual area differs between frames
• Construction of hardware - aluminium, carbon rod, plastic
• Warranty guarantees

Edmonds would advise that if you are investing in marketing material you ensure that you compare all these factors - an apples with apples comparison otherwise, ultimately, you may pay the penalty, not the cost!!

11. What would you consider to be the acceptable life of hardware?

Irrespective of the manufacturer's frame hardware guarantee, we would envisage a product life cycle for the hardware frame to be a minimum of 5 years , primarily because design and production of frames remains technologically driven. Some manufacturers do however offer lifetime guarantees, subject to certain conditions - general wear and tear, abuse.

12. Do Edmonds produce the graphics for my display if I provide the images?

Edmonds offer a comprehensive in-house graphics facility that provides all graphic production as well as creative graphic design. Artwork manipulation services are also available.
See Supplying Artwork Instructions.

13. How are the graphics produced?

Edmonds's standard printing philosophy is to ensure that the maximum visual and product quality is consistently achieved for all different applications. This has involved investment in the very latest inkjet technology - 4 and 8 headed printers ability to utilise the combined individual skills and experience of trained designers, photographers and chemists to secure the most appropriate printed media choice - through the tried, tested and trusted method of extensive research, trial and evaluation.

Back-printing on paperless media makes the delamination of traditional methods a thing of the past for specialist or other applications we can also supply Lambda - RGB (museums), Piezo or Electrostatic.

We are extremely confident our production methods, standard and optional media, together with our inherent quality standards of performance will ensure that our printed graphics will surpass other comparative suppliers.

14. What are the turnaround times for the production of a Popup display or banner?

A Edmonds exhibition system, including graphics can be manufactured and shipped within 5 working days of receiving confirmed order and graphic artwork.

15. I have just changed the specification of one of my products. How difficult will it be to update and replace the graphic images and information currently held on my Popup stand?

Edmonds provide in-house graphics so updating your graphics and re-skinning your exhibition stand (whatever manufacture it is) is easy and extremely comparitively inexpensive. Send us your new artwork and let Edmonds do the rest.

16. Can I become an Authorised Overseas Edmonds Distributor?

We are currently sourcing exclusive distibutors for many export territories - hardware and graphics - throughout the world. Contact estimate@edmonds.co.uk for further information.