You’ve been given a goal, it’s clear what your next event must achieve. You have an outline of objectives that will help guide the project but as you know “the devil is in the details.” To find those devilish details, you have to dig-in and answer the many questions now on the table.
At Exhibitus, we love questions. Between concept and an event’s business success we answer the many questions that finalize every step of the way to an awesome event.
In our current webinar series, we answer five of your pressing questions in 25 minutes to take your experiential events from ordinary to awesome. Below are nuggets of expertise and insights from Exhibitus’ Rob Majerowski, Director – Strategic Projects, and Lynn Reves, VP – Marketing & Results Strategy. To hear each response in its entirety, view the replay of the July 22, 2025 5-in-25 webinar here.
We look forward to continuing to provide answers at our next webinar on September 17th at 11:00 am EDT. Register and submit your questions for this and future webinars here!
Q1: How does experiential branding differ from traditional marketing?
- Traditional marketing communication is mostly a one-way channel, we might respond to something, but it’s not a two-way conversation.
- Experiential branding and experiential marketing are all about the two-way interaction between the brand and the customer which is primarily created through some kind of immersive experience, which could be physical or virtual.
- The intent is to directly engage customers through interactions that create more of an emotional connection between brand and customer.
Q2: What makes an engagement, engaging?
- One way is to apply a great ‘edu-tainment’ factor. Brands want to connect with customers and that can be done through education, teaching customers why a product or service could help address business challenges they might have.
- Another means of connection is through entertainment by making customers feel special and providing them a bit of fun along the way.
- In creating an engaging engagement, it’s always best practice to tie your company’s brand, story, and product into the activity you’re creating.
- A visually appealing space attracts people to the event space and then an interactive experience transforms passive observers into active participants.
- Gamification…competition…elements of surprise. Learn more about these trends from the replay.
Q3: Do I just forget about showing product and just build a relationship?
- Why does it need to be one or the other? I don’t think product display and relationship building are mutually exclusive. Part of building a business relationship is building trust and confidence, and in a B2B environment, sometimes building that trust is through the credibility of your product or service.
- A hands-on product experience can translate into immediate credibility that fortifies business relationships.
- What to do about products that might be too big or complex, or more intangible, less physical? Rob provides insight on the replay.
Q4: Trade shows are great but what are my other options for experiential events?
- In the B2B world, trade shows might dominate, but we’ve been seeing our customers produce more of their own proprietary events like user group conferences or VIP business meetings or customer hospitality events.
- The “restaurant buy-out” is a recent trend where companies are renting a super popular restaurant strictly for hosting their customers as “guests” for an exclusive evening of high-end food & drink and a little bit of business talk. This might occur off-site in conjunction with a trade show or could be an independent stand-alone event.
- Another venue for hosting customers might be at a company’s office or HQ facility. These are awesome for being able to engage with a captive audience. There’s also a secondary benefit and that is for the facility’s employees. They get a kick out of seeing an in-house experience that showcases the work they do for their customers. What a great way to build brand value, both internally and externally.
Q5: How can smaller exhibit footprints (10×10, 10×20) be elevated?
- First, we need to acknowledge the main challenge that small exhibit spaces need to overcome, which is visibility due to three factors:
- Lack of height as a differentiator in presence
- Being stuck in a long line of neighboring exhibits where you might feel crowded
- Being relegated to a less than favorable location in the convention center or show hall altogether
- Define the story that needs to be communicated. Take this message and use it to drive some ‘beyond the booth’ initiatives like a pre-show marketing program. You need to tell your customers where you are and why they should come find you at the show.
- The small exhibit space necessitates engagements being scaled down to fit comfortably. Large format video wall engagements become touch screen kiosks. KOL presentation theatre turns into simply an in-booth brand ambassador. Immersive rooms become vignettes. Scaling things becomes an exercise in prioritization. But the deciding factor needs to be on ensuring you can get passers-by to become active in-booth participants.
- Strictly from a design perspective, one of the ways to stand out in a long row of inline exhibits is through the use of lighting.
Thank you, Carol, Abigail, Don, Kenny, and Amy, for sharing your “top-of-mind” questions with us. We look forward to responding to the next set of issues and challenges on our 5-in-25 webinar session on September 17th.