Booth Design for Award-Winning Trade Show Exhibit

Client: Allworx Corporation, New York.

A trade show can be a voracious money pit, swallowing entire budgets in a single gulp. Or it can be a miraculous money machine, generating revenues long after the event is over, through leads, publicity, awards and market awareness. All it takes is an amazing booth design that draws traffic from every direction.

This was the situation facing Chris Talbot, Senior Marketing Manager of Allworx, a designer and manufacturer of innovative IP phones and phone systems. He was investing a major part of his annual budget in a high stakes tradeshow booth design. On one side: disaster. On the other side: bonanza.

All of the key industry players would be at the Spring Internet Telephony Conference & Expo: Nortel, Mitel, Fonality, Microsoft. But with such fierce competition, how could he tip the scales in his favor?

Chris and his team prepared well. They reserved a large booth in a high traffic area. Hired trade show guru Spoon Exhibit Services to build the booth. Worked with the expo organizers and public relations to maximize press activity. But they needed more — a great booth design.

Choosing the right creative vendor for the booth design

“Chris called me in to work on the show several months in advance,” said David Wright, president and founder of IDU Creative. “We had worked together before, and Chris knew he could count on us to provide ‘big picture’ creative concepts for his show and design knock-out graphics for the booth design.”

“IDU’s involvement goes far beyond simple design and graphic creation,” said Chris. “Coming in on the ground floor of a project allows IDU Creative to really show their strengths from the initial conceptualizing of a main theme to the supportive creative elements that help wrap and support that theme.”

Creating the best design solution

Using the Allworx products’ extensive remote capabilities as the unique selling point, the team created the theme ‘Be Everywhere with Allworx’. Then, working from Spoon’s great booth architecture, IDU Creative designed all-new booth graphics for the 20′ x 20′ booth. So, no matter which way traffic approached, there would be something irresistible to draw it in.

But the fun was only just beginning.

Chris asked David’s group to design more and more creative pieces to direct traffic towards the booth.

“We expanded the ‘Be Everywhere’ theme into many supporting elements,” said Wright. “To support the booth design, we designed a seven-foot-high standing banner for the exhibition hall entrance. Then, two more for the booth, attendee bag inserts in English and Spanish, animated Web banners, and directory ad spreads. Even email blasts, graphics for a video animation, ad slick handouts, newsletters, you name it! Chris used every media channel possible to reach the audience. They even hired a high-end luxury bus to be driven onto the show floor with a ‘Be Everywhere with Allworx’ banner!”

Booth design wins ‘Best of Show’

Did all the hard work pay off?

Yes, big time! Not only was Chris’s booth noticed, the booth design won ‘Best of Show’. Allworx also won ‘Best SMB VoIP Solution’, met thousands of prospective customers and resellers, and garnered much media attention.

“Allworx did a fantastic job in marketing itself at IT EXPO, with a top notch product launch, participation in our conference program, and a creative use of booth space,” said Rich Tehrani, TMC President and Editor-in-Chief of Internet Telephony Magazine … strong praise from the president of a technology media empire!

Chris was completely satisfied with IDU’s creative work and therefore gave an enthusiastic review: “David and the staff at IDU Creative are simply the most responsive team of marketing professionals that I’ve had the pleasure to work with. No matter what my needs have been, David and his team have delivered professional solutions to meet my budget, schedule and strategic requirements.”

Leveraging the successful design

Chris returned home tired, but very happy with the event. To leverage the success of IT EXPO and ‘Be Everywhere’ theme through the next six months, he asked IDU Creative to create a full suite of complementary advertising and marketing materials.

But that’s another story … read more of our case studies.