Tips for Creating Trade Show Booth Video
The main challenge with trade shows is figuring out how to get the attention of the audience in a sea of other trade show booths. There are many different ways. One way that has gained popularity over the last few years is to use video screens in your booth. Many companies spend a lot of money on the booth but, unfortunately, don’t leave any budget for creating a video.
Get their attention
When people attend trade shows they are trying to avoid making eye contact so they are scanning for headlines. The secret to using a video at a trade show is to create a video that purposely doesn’t tell the audience everything about your company or product. It should give them just enough information to want to engage more with the company representatives in your booth. Your booth video’s job is to attract people, not take orders.
Know your audience
When creating your video, you need to think about who will be attending the trade show. Are they engineers, CEO’s, tech journalist, doctors, or lawyers? Different types of videos will connect with each of these types of people in different ways. The style of video will depend on your product. An animated motion graphics explainer video might be good for a cloud-based software product, but a product such as a car exhaust would benefit from real footage of the product in action and maybe a 3D product animation showing all of the parts. I would suggest avoiding using power point-like images. Everyone has suffered enough at the hands of a bad powerpoint presentation. Also, avoid a lot of stock video footage. Too much of it could cause your video to look like other videos at the trade show and if the footage fails to connect with the viewer on an emotional level, they will lose interest quickly. If you are the boss, and I say this with your best interests in mind, don’t let this become a vanity video because you will be the only one who is happy to watch it.
Sound
Another question to consider is will the trade show allow sound in the booth? If you do have sound, how will you compete with fluctuating sound levels? Chances are, they will not allow sound, at least not loud enough so that you can count on people being able to hear your video. There is also a good chance that trade show workers will get sick of the narration and lower the volume. If you have a larger booth you will need to have the speakers delayed so they are easier to hear. The trade show attendee must be able to get the story you are trying to tell visually, without words.
Video Length
I’m sure you’re wondering how long your video should be. It should be as long as it takes to tell the story and get people to take action. The length will also depend on what screen the video is shown on. The screens on the outside of your booth should have videos that are more like TV commercials. These should be 15, 20, or 30 seconds long at most. These videos will be playing on a loop. It is very unlikely that the person walking by your booth will see the beginning of the video the first time they see it. We recommend the video have no beginning or end. They should be able to get a key message every 20 seconds or so. It will need to grab their attention and make them interested without seeing all the information. It should grab their attention in such a way that they stick around to watch the part they missed. This means you need to get to the point quickly.
Inside the booth
Videos on the inside of the booth can be longer, but still, need to be short and concise. The goal is to get the viewer to interact with the people in your booth. Inside your booth, a video can be used to keep someone’s attention if the booth workers are busy with other visitors. It would also be nice to have some comfy chairs in this area so that people can sit and watch longer. If you are using the same video on all of the screens, don’t have them all playing the same part of the video.
Make sure that the video matches and complements the booth and also matches your other marketing material in the booth. Remember, the hero in your video needs to be the viewer and should focus on their needs.
Reuse your video
Don’t think of this as just an investment in your trade show booth. Give your video life outside of the show. Here are some ideas:
• Lobby Display
With a few small changes, the video can be used in other ways. Use the video pre-show to get people excited to visit your booth.
• Send out the video after the event in a follow-up email to everyone who expressed interest
• Add the video in your sales process
• On your company website
• On Social media
Do you need help with your next trade show video? We help companies nationwide maximize their trade show video investment.
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