Should you Rent your Trade Show Exhibit Booth? Part 1/3
Is your company planning to purchase a new exhibit booth sometime in 2009 or 2010? The more and more I speak with trade show coordinators and marketing guru’s who have been charged with this responsibility, the more resolute I am as an ALL-OUT ADVOCATE for renting exhibit booths. Some companies go to 20 shows a year, some 12, some 5, and others 1 or 2. Heck, if you’re going to NPE this year, you might even go to a show once every 3 years! The rationale for each trade show exhibit program decision may be different, but here are a few “variations.”
There is a sort of “conventional wisdom” that I often hear:
-
We do the same thing at every show.
-
If you saw our booth, you would understand!(these exhibit are just TOO AWSOME for me to grasp, apparently)
-
Renting is just too expensive. (These conversations typically give me this eery feeling that I must be unknowingly scamming all of my faithful clients that would excitedly volunteer as references. Those “suckers.”)
I absolutely loathe conventional wisdom. So let me break this down very succinctly:
-
My brain hurts! Since when was marketing about being predictably boring at every opportunity, with tens or hundreds of thousands of marketing dollars invested to achieve mediocrity? Find a better excuse please!
-
Custom rental with some custom built components can achieve unbelievable results, just as a custom purchase exhibit can. The rental approach will likely be lighter and allow you to do another creative and original exhibit at your next show - attendees will wonder just what you will come up with next!
-
Cost is a factor of quality or extravagence, not rental or purchase. The market for trade show exhibits is very efficient and rental and purchase prices are not grossly disproportionate from one another.
As I mentioned earlier - I am not quick to back off of my convictions that renting is just flat-out smarter. Display booths are not meant to be stale marketing pieces that you begrudgingly pull off of the shelf for your next show. They should not embarass you with outdated styling or graphics, poor refurbishing work, or damaged exhibit pieces.
Part 1 of 3 means I have more to say on this topic… Still think it makes sense to buy your exhibit booth? Please let me know why!