The VBurst 10ft Media Wall is the perfect system for press events, red carpet events, and marketing seminars. Using only a vector form of your company’s logo, MODdisplays can offer a simple media wall backdrop that looks professional and eye-catching. Professional business marketing firms have found that logo repetition and brand reinforcement are a great way to leave a lasting impression on viewers.

The structure of the VBurst 10ft Media Wall is made from sturdy aluminum tubing, and the graphic is printed on a washable, wrinkle-free fabric that remains on the frame even in storage and transportation. The entire media wall can be set up in less than a minute thanks to the simple frame structure. The exhibit carries a lifetime warranty against manufacturer’s defects, so there is no need to worry about a damaged frame.

To order your Media Wall today, call 877.663.3976 or email sales@moddisplays.com.

MODdisplays is proud to announce the release of Xpressions Salesmate Tabletop Displays. These lightweight, portable tabletop displays are perfect for sales reps, insurance and pharmaceutical reps, college recruiters, and small companies looking to break into the world of exhibiting. The system is compact enough to be stored in carry-on luggage or packed away in your sample case, but provides a huge branding presence at your sales meeting or conference.

The frame is similar to that of a popup display, but the graphics are made from a dye sublimated fabric material. The entire exhibit weighs less than 3lbs., making it one of the lightest and most portable tabletop trade show displays on the market today.

The Xpressions Salesmate offers a number of benefits and features, including:

• Extremely compact
• Fast and easy set up – 5 seconds
• Easy change of images for different presentations
• Fits in sample case or carry on luggage
• Creates fantastic subliminal message in the sale presentation
• Low, low cost especially for large volume orders
• Sets up just about anywhere
• Nothing on the market like it

To get your Xpressions Salesmate Tabletop Display, call 877.663.3976 or email sales@moddisplays.com today.

No two companies are exactly alike, and every company requires a unique marketing strategy. Balancing professionalism and personality is a challenging task for a new company, but finding that balance could yield big returns on your marketing efforts.

Sometimes the industry itself demands a specific approach. A company that sells life insurance will probably maintain an air of professionalism, while a company that sells toys for young children would do well to create a more approachable feeling. As a result, companies are often forced into a particular mold that they cannot escape without doing irreparable harm to their image.

Some industries allow for a good deal of flexibility and creativity. As you shop for trade show displays, you’ll probably notice that exhibit retailers employ a wide variety of marketing styles. On some websites you’ll find pictures of staff members and their families and other personal touches, and on other websites you’ll find a rigid, corporate, and impersonal style. As a general rule, when there is less market research data available in a specific industry, marketing strategies tend to vary wildly. Companies tend to cling to something that works instead of asking themselves what works the best.

Striking a balance between professionalism and personality should leave your clients with the feeling that you are dependable, honest, and capable. Every industry is different, and you may need to be more professional or more personal to get the best results, but the only way to find out for sure is through trial and error.

Recent studies show that exhibitors have less than 7 seconds to grab the attention of attendees at a trade show. In order to catch their eye, your marketing copy must be clear and concise. Using the active voice instead of the passive voice in your marketing copy is a great way to avoid some common mistakes in promotional language. The following sentences illustrate the difference between the active voice and the passive voice:

• Active Voice: The dog bit my hand.
• Passive Voice: My hand was bitten by the dog.

As you can see, using the active voice will keep your sentences short and to the point, while the passive voice will take your readers in a long circle before finally bringing them around to your meaning. With only seconds to grab the attention of attendees, the active voice is the obvious choice.

If your booth staffers are not driven to succeed, even the best trade show marketing strategy in the world cannot save your company from a disastrous exhibiting experience. At business to business trade shows, the people who man your booth will be the single most important factor in determining the overall success of your marketing program. Booth staffers should be outgoing, friendly, and professional, but never pushy or long-winded. They should recognize that everything about their appearance, demeanor, speech, and body language will reflect directly on your company’s image, and that creating a great image is what trade shows are all about. So what can you do to motivate your booth staffers to be top-notch exhibitors?

1-  Take care of their most basic needs. Nothing breeds frustration among employees more quickly than being undercompensated on their trip. If you put your employees in a cheap hotel room and give them a meager stipend for food, they will be less likely to perform at their highest capacity on the trade show floor.

2- Offer incentives for gathering leads and making sales on the trade show floor. It is always much easier for people to work hard for their own benefit than for the benefit of their company, so offering incentives is an easy way to improve the performance of your booth staffers.

3- Take care to pick the right booth staffers in the first place. Although senior members of your sales staff may love to travel and exhibit at trade shows, they may be less motivated to do well than a young, ambitious sales person who works hard to impress. In addition to the fact that younger, more ambitious sales staff usually do better at trade shows, it will cost your company less money to send employees who earn less per hour.

4- Allow your booth staffers to be a part of the exhibiting process from the beginning. They will be much more comfortable working within the confines of your trade show exhibit if they played a role in the planning and development process. Who would want to be a part of a marketing campaign that they don’t believe in?

Attendees will be drawn to your trade show booth if you consistently invest in improving your trade show marketing program year after year. Too often we find that companies are content with “just showing up”, and have all but given up on their exhibiting efforts. As a result, their exhibiting program performs more poorly each year until it is eventually removed from the company’s marketing budget. The lesson here is simple: showing up is not enough. It will be obvious to your attendees that you did not put in the effort needed to gain their interest, and your investment in trade show marketing will be worthless.

Successful exhibiting programs are usually operated by experts who understand the importance of consistency. Year after year, these companies find exciting ways to engage attendees, which keeps them coming back for more. Gimmicks and swag are not enough, you need to release new, substantive information each time you return to a show. Showing up year after year with the same product line, the same brochures, and the same ideas is a quick way to lose the interest of visitors. Each new year should maintain the overall branding message your company wants to send, but your exhibit graphics, trade show literature, and your general industry ideas should be new and fresh.

If you’re short on exhibiting ideas, one of the best ways to get your wheels turning is to attend events that are similar to the trade show where you will be exhibiting. Take special note of trade show displays that catch your eye, and try to isolate what specific features of the exhibits caught your attention. Look for ways to improve your existing booth without spending an arm and a leg. If you see graphics that catch your eye, would it be possible to re-skin your exhibit with new graphics? If a particularly well lit environment drew your attention, you could purchase additional trade show lights to spruce up your booth. Remember that the best improvements to your marketing program will be substantive improvements, not cosmetic improvements, so take particular note of exhibiting strategies or marketing programs that catch your eye, and try to glean what you can from them.

Shopping for trade show displays and exhibit graphics has never been more affordable than it is right now. In addition to drastically reduced prices for 2009, MODdisplays is offering additional savings in the form of promotions that are valid through March 31, 2009. Taking advantage of these coupon codes and special savings can help you make the most of your exhibiting budget.

• Free shipping on hanging signs. When you purchase a hanging sign through our online store, use the coupon code “HS-SHIP” to receive ground shipping on your hanging sign at no cost to you.
• Free carry bag with any Xpressions tabletop display. When you purchase an Xpressions tabletop display, receive a free padded carrying bag for a limited time. Call 877.663.3976 to redeem this limited time offer.
• Free shipping on Entasi displays. Receive free shipping on any Entasi display by using the coupon code “ENTSHIP” at checkout.
• Free banner stand light with the purchase of any Expand banner stand. For a limited time only, receive a free banner stand light with the purchase of any Expand banner stand. Please call 877.663.3976 to take advantage of this special offer.

If you have questions about any of our promotional offers, feel free to call 877.663.3976 or email sales@moddisplays.com.

Barack Obama was sworn in yesterday as the 44th President of the United States, and his economic stimulus plan is structured to give green initiatives a major boost. In an effort to create jobs and clean up the environment, Obama will route a large portion of his proposed $800 billion stimulus plan toward green energy initiatives. Whether you agree or disagree with President Obama’s strategies, there is no doubt that green initiatives will get a boost thanks to his economic stimulus package.

Environmentally friendly trade show exhibits have become increasingly popular with exhibitors over the past five years, and industry experts predict that green trade show displays are here to stay. Under the Obama administration, companies that use environmentally responsible practices may receive tax breaks that will allow them to further reduce the retail price of their products. This trend could drop the price of eco-friendly booths drastically, which would allow retailers to sell these systems at prices that were once impossible.

The Business of Green Media Conference, which takes place on January 22, 2009 at Cal Poly State University, will highlight eco-friendly practices in the printing industry. Through the use of sustainable, recyclable materials, printers and graphic houses have pioneered green displays, and we at MODdisplays are proud to share their innovations with our clients.

In light of the current economic crisis, companies are using cost-saving trade show marketing strategies to reduce their expenses. When marketing departments have less money to work with, creativity soars. Exhibitors are constantly looking for new and exciting ways to make the most of their shrinking budgets, which has led to a number of innovative marketing trends.

Social media marketing for trade shows has skyrocketed in 2008, and the future looks more promising than the past. Websites like Facebook and Twitter allow exhibitors to quickly and easily communicate with thousands of attendees in a matter of seconds, which means the flow of information at conferences is faster now than ever before. Social media will continue to flourish in the trade show landscape in 2009. Learning to use these valuable tools can drastically improve the return on your investment at your next event.

The sale of modular exhibits is on the rise. Companies are finding that they can save a lot of money by purchasing a single trade show booth that can work in a 10′ x 10′, 10′ x 20′, and 20′ x 20′ space. Although these exhibits limit your company’s ability to exhibit at multiple shows on the same day, it drastically reduces cost for exhibitors who register for fewer than 10 shows per year. Small businesses love modular display systems, because with these systems they have the flexibility to add components to their display system as needed.

Multimedia exhibiting is becoming increasingly popular at trade shows. A trade show booth without a monitor or some audio-visual components is an anomoly in today’s trade show climate. Even in 10′ x 10′ spaces, exhibitors are looking to support large monitors on the back wall of their trade show display booths. Supporting large monitors requires a durable, well-engineered structure. There are many display systems that meet this criteria, but not many can be shipped in a single shipping case that can be transported by UPS or FedEx.

Stay on top of current trade show marketing trends by reading our trade show blog daily. We regularly update our content, so stop by often.

Positioning is the way you set your product or service aside from your competition in the marketplace. As you can tell, the positioning of a product, service, or even store location will stick in the customers mind and always be associated with the company. If you just take a few moments to think about the type of restaurants along interstate, you will realize that they are mostly fast food. These companies have positioned themselves in a place where they know customers have a need for quick, easy food.

Location is only one factor in positioning a company. Think of communication and the messages that are portrayed through commercials and other types of advertisements. For example, what comes to your mind when you hear the name Mercedes, Gatorade, or Subaru? What about department stores such as Neiman Marcus, JCPenny, and Bloomingdales? If you think of the ads for each of these products and companies, you will notice that each place has a different approach. The approach that each company takes depends on the market they are trying to reach and that reflects how they will position themselves.

Positioning strategies are really important when it comes to choosing your trade show booth and graphic design. You want to make sure that the booth you choose reflects the image of your brand and coincides with any other marketing material you have. Determining what graphics you choose for your display depends on what your positioning strategy will be at the trade show. If you chose the correct show to exhibit at, most likely you will have competition there, so you want to make sure your products benefits and services stand out from the rest.

Positioning strategies generally focus on the consumer or the competition. Both ways associate product benefits with consumer needs, but to focus more on the consumer you have link the product with the benefits the consumer will derive by creating a favorable brand image. The competitive approach positions the product by comparing it, and the benefit it offers, with the competition. For example, Scope mouthwash positions itself as better tasting than Listerine. Apple positions itself as having fewer viruses than a PC. Positioning can be the most important part in marketing to establishing a brand.

Before you attend a trade show, pick your booth, and design graphics ask yourself these questions:

1. What position do we already hold in the target consumer’s mind? (This answer must come from the marketplace, not your manager).
2. What position does our company want to own?
3. What competition do we have to beat to get this?
4. Do we have a strong marketing budget to hold this position?
5. Will we stick with a consistent positioning strategy?
6. Do our creative’s match our positioning strategy?

MODdisplays has a lot of experience in picking a booth that best fits your company’s needs and strategy. If you have any questions or need advice on picking a trade show booth, please call MODdisplays at 877.663.3976 or email sales@moddisplays.com.