Enlighted uses enticing displays and inviting spaces designed by ProExhibits to hook trade show audiences. After tagging with contact info, attendees are released safely back into the wild.

So many of us are conducting business remotely these days that it can be easy to forget that connecting with customers one-on-one and in person still matters. 71% of B2B consumer decisions are based on customer experience, according to SG Analytics. That trend applies to your trade show audience as well. Engage them and you will have a foot in the door for a sale.

Customer engagement is key to strategizing brand awareness opportunities and market growth. Wisely, decision-makers are increasingly focusing on the consumer experience. Half of the companies surveyed by Walker say it will be the most important element of their overall business strategy by 2020, greater than even products and services—or price! Elevating your clients’ trade show experience, then, is guaranteed to influence B2B decision-makers and represents an opportunity to garner increased positive brand awareness as well.

At big and busy trade shows, so much depends on getting your brand’s presence right. Your booth must encapsulate the unique story of your brand, be attractive to attendees, and be functional for your team manning the exhibit. However, fabricating a completely custom trade show booth design may be out of reach given your marketing budget for the event or time constraints. Either way, it’s time to consider a custom-designed booth rental. And you’re not alone. The number of marketing professionals who have considered renting custom exhibition booths has increased nearly 43% from 2011 to 2016, according to EXHIBITOR Magazine’s 2016 Rental/Refurb Survey.

Moreover, potential clients won’t know—or care—if you own or rent your exhibit, they just want you to give them a great event experience. Whether the rental booth is fully customized or uses a standard design with branded flourishes designed just for you, custom rentals offer the high impact of an exhibit that truly showcases your brand without the responsibilities or full costs of outright ownership. Although many of the keys to grabbing audience attention are the same whether you own an exhibit or rent it, a custom trade show booth rental gives you more strategic opportunities to nab passers-by.

Let’s explore some of those options, and how they can contribute to a memorable audience experience, creating new fans of your brand and generating sales leads.

The Three Ways Custom Trade Show Booth Design Rentals Help Hook Your Audience

Hook #1: Visibility

If you’re an experienced exhibitor, you know what a scrum trade shows can be. Even if attendees aren’t elbow-to-elbow as they roam the aisles, your booth can still be easily overlooked if it can’t be seen from a row or two over. And, even if it can be seen, the visual must entice attendees. If they’re already familiar with your brand, they may need a reason to stop by and catch up on your latest offerings. If you’re hoping to grow your market share, i.e. if your brand is being introduced to a new audience, your exhibit must pique their curiosity enough to drive them to navigate the crowds to get to your booth.

Custom-designed trade show booth rentals offer your brand a larger visual palette with which to tell your story, allowing your booth to stand out in the crowd and be seen from several directions. Here are a few of the visual options for custom booths:

• Uniquely-shaped decks: When you customize your trade show exhibit booth, you have the opportunity to choose multi-story or double-decked displays, allowing you to quite literally rise above your competitors.
• Highly branded displays, graphics, and signage: Even if—due to time constraints—your booth is standard, custom artwork and signage can transform any rented booth into a top-tier branding machine.
• Alluring lighting options: As artist Robert Delaunay noted, “Light in nature creates the movement of color.” The right lighting at exhibition booths, however, creates the movement of people.

Hook #2: Technology

You are likely within arm’s reach of your smartphone right now. Technology is a pervasive influence in our lives, and that’s likely to continue to increase over time. A study of millennials by Adroit Digital, for instance, found that 39% of respondents thought that brands without a digital presence were out of touch; there is, therefore, at least a perceived need for digital elements in every campaign.

There’s no end to how your brand can utilize technology to draw attendees to your exhibit; the right rental booth designer will be up on the latest tech trends in custom trade show booth exhibits guaranteed to boost engagement with your audience. Interactive elements will almost certainly be successful for drumming up foot traffic. If attendees spot others enjoying virtual reality, for instance, it is likely to attract them. It’s great selfie fodder, after all.

Other possible tech elements for your custom booth rental include:

• Screen kiosks: These can be either standalone interactive presentations or part of a coordinated experience with multiple connected kiosks and users.
• QR code-launched info: By introducing Quick Response codes to your custom booth, attendees can grab and store your product info on their smartphones—even if your booth is jam-packed.
• Second screen experiences: Earning a mobile user’s undivided attention is incredibly difficult. Not so with purpose-driven trade show attendees who can engage with your brand, phone in hand, with a second screen setup.

Hook #3: Simplicity

A laser focus on messaging and visual impact can be hyper-effective for reaching your target audience. As such, custom displays focused on streamlining your brand’s message can make even high-tech booths feel accessible and welcoming, like a refuge from the screen and speaker bombast notorious at most trade shows.

This was the approach with the award-winning in-line booth for Spirion (formerly identityfinder). The design team at ProExhibits crafted the company’s dog logo into a multidimensional, truly striking shadowbox display. The messaging was also highly focused, transmitting the product name and three benefits in only thirteen carefully-chosen words.

The top advantages to incorporating simplicity into your design include:

• Increased approachability: Even booths designed for highly-technical products and services will feel accessible if they offer the element of simplicity.
• Decreased attendees’ sense of being overwhelmed: Calm but effective graphics act as visual counter-programming in otherwise frenetic environments.
• Maximized appeal: Exhibition space is limited—as is your opportunity to engage a potential client.

Why Custom-Designed Trade Show Booth Rentals Are Growing in Popularity

Visibility, technology, and simplicity are just three of the ways a custom rental booth design can help your brand create a trade show booth that gets people talking. Custom rentals ensure your exhibit is strategically tailored to your brand, giving you the best shot at creating a truly unique-to-you experience for your audience.

That said, there are several practical reasons to choose custom rentals as well, including:

• The ability to exhibit at two or more shows at the same time or on overlapping dates
• The opportunity to test and refine marketing strategies before investing in fabricating a purchased booth
• Financial savings on insurance, repair, disposal, and other ownership requirements
• Decreased logistics for your company, such as storing a trade show booth or transporting it to and from venues

Custom exhibit booth rentals, when crafted with the help of an event marketing industry expert, are every bit as unique and tailored to your brand as exhibits you own outright. (Doubtful? Take this quiz). Have a trade show on the books? Keep in mind that time is of the essence. Contact a custom trade show booth rental designer as early as possible. And, remember, you don’t have to own an exhibit to put your brand’s story on full display.

ProExhibits has been developing engaging, attractive exhibits for our clients for more than 30 years. We are a one-stop shop for exhibition design, fabrication, and logistics management for companies worldwide. Whether you’re thinking of a custom or a standard design to rent or purchase, our design team would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Contact us today. We look forward to putting our talent to work for you.