Stand design
Image: The exhibition is about how
What kind of trends should
we be looking for this year in
Exhibition Stand Design?
Sustainability in supply chains is
becoming the baseline standard.
It has to be at the absolute core
of how we’re approaching
things and I’m talking about the
simplest level using carpet tiles
as you see in an office every day
instead of sheet carpet, using
recycled walls, using trussing
and systems that we can design
in a slightly different way and
still have a great effect, but
actually everything then goes
back into the supply chain.
How much of a two-way street
is this education piece? Do
you learn from clients as well?
Massively. Our job is to respond
to helping them tell their story
to their target, customer or
community. That’s our job. And
that audience is evolving and
changing. It’s absolutely about
innovative brands, immersion
and experience. If we don’t
have to ship it, we can get it
built locally; if we can manage
graphic production in country
and also we can take some
innovation, technology or fresh
ideas into that community, then
that’s fantastic.
A lot of our high innovation
clients are moving into new
markets and often those don’t
Image: It’s all about immersion and
experience, says M’s John Young
28
Issue 2 2020
the customer or visitor is ‘invited’
have the exhibition facilities
that we’d expect. So, we’re
looking at local capabilities to
support the welfare of teams
that are going there and then
also how we can approach it
in a sustainable way. It would
be crazy to go into a market
or a temporary structure,
often just with carpets on a
piece of ground, and build
something that looks like it’s
come from outer space. We
want to make sure that design is
appropriate for the market and
is deliverable in market.
How much of your work
abroad is plug and play
and where do you need
representation?
A lot is plug and play. It is about
working as a community. We
have set up an infrastructure
with good suppliers and
partners who can really support
us with local knowledge, be that
in Saudi Arabia or in Central
or South America. We were in
Belarus recently working with
a local partner agency that
understands the local culture
so that we could design and
deliver something that really
represented the UK and The
Department of International
Trade. That project delivered for
the local town, too.
Can you pick out some great
innovation you’re seeing now?
I’m seeing a lot within the
fashion industry. It’s the whole
process - changing from a
sustainability perspective,
but also how it promotes its
live shows. Its catwalks are
becoming environments and
experiences and there is much
looking at how we can make
the emotion of the experience
reach the audience. We want
them to touch and feel it so
that they get a connection with
a brand or with a product or
stories. We’re not treating it as
architecture. We’re treating it as
a true emotional and immersive
journey.
We also now see e-sports
coming into the market and
that is moving now into
experiences within live events
and exhibitions. That whole
edu-tainment, info-tainment
approach is gathering pace.
What about trends in the
relationship between an
agency and a client?
We work within very stringent
brand guidelines. People often
forget the whole exhibition is
actually how the customer or
visitor is invited, what they
experience on the journey,
never mind how we capture that
experience and follow it up. We
need to remember that when we
talk to a client who’s quite rigid
and maybe has ideas for the
space. We can think outside of
that and talk about the complete
journey around the exhibition
itself. It’s not just about the
arrival at the door of the stand.
Do exhibitions get the status
they deserve versus other
marketing channels?
Suddenly we’re hearing clients
realising that one-on-one
conversation is absolutely
fundamental. Look at brands
like Salesforce that run their
huge live, interactive events
with their customers and other
brands that are really thinking
about how exhibitions play a key
role in their strategic marketing.
It needs to continue to be
pushed. The clients are asking
where the exhibitions are. Our
job is to make that part of the
overall marketing.
What we don’t have, however,
are really good measurement
metrics. We have footfall and we
have user experiences. This is
why digital plays into the role of
putting some real measurement
into what tradeshows and
exhibitions can deliver because
the outcome is phenomenal.
While we might be seeing
20,000-80,000 people in a show,
the absolute impact and the
return on investment for Xerox,
at such a show is actually in
sales of multi-millions.
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk