You’re looking to pay between $15,000 and $40,000 for a 10 x 10-foot booth (100 sq. ft.) at regional US business exhibitions (Highway 85 Productions). Imagine you pay all that money and spend most of the day standing there with maybe a few people popping by.
According to our own data at Kande, the average return on a trade show booth could be up to $20.98 for every $1 spent, if you spend that $1 correctly. To do that, you need a good setup with interactive features and a design that actually stands out.
Do you know what you want to do for your brand? If you’re looking for inspiration, we’ve created a top-10 list of the best trade show booth ideas to help you design a setup that actually engages people, rather than having them just pass by for the freebies.
360 Photo Booth
A 360 photo booth is one of the most popular event photo booths. It’s 100% engaging and fun, and for a crowded exhibition floor where you only really have a few seconds to catch people’s eye, it’s the perfect idea.
You’ve probably seen a 360 photo booth before. Essentially, people stand on a slightly raised platform that has a camera attached to a moving arm. The arm spins around to do a loop around the people on the stand, who are usually wearing or holding a prop of some sort and dancing to the music they’ve selected to be played. The more conservative of people might simply be holding their prop and smiling.
A 360 booth creates movement and spectacle, and it will catch people’s eye. The finished video gives attendees something more memorable than conventional trade-show swag. It can be instantly shared digitally, extending the activation beyond people physically attending the show.
The platform, enclosure, backdrop, animations, and final video can all reinforce the exhibitor’s visual identity.
At Kande, we facilitated a Dreamforce 360 activation at Moscone Center that produced 1,300+ videos and 2,600+ social shares over three days, proving how interactive a 360 photo booth can be.
Gamification and Prizes
Gamification and prizes will always make the top 10 trade show booth ideas list. Like a photo booth, gamification and competitions that lead to prizes are a great way to actually make attendees actively participate rather than listening to a sales or product pitch.
Competition, instant rewards, and leaderboards can also attract spectators and players. One idea that we love is to rent a racing car simulator and create a leaderboard of the fastest laps. Another idea is to create trivia questions, and if people get ‘X’ number of questions right, they win a prize. Spin-to-win wheels are another low-cost idea.
Games naturally increase dwell time, creating more opportunities for booth staff to start conversations with prospective customers, but you should always connect the game to your brand as much as possible. If you don’t, you have to add an awkward caveat to talk about your brand, services, or product.
AI Photo Booth
An AI photo booth is the new generation of technology that’s transforming how people interact with photo booths.
At Kande, we use the latest cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to revolutionize how you and trade show attendees capture memories throughout the day. An AI photo booth is completely customizable, allowing for innovation and creativity to take center stage.
The AI technology uses advanced facial recognition to transport guests into immersive, custom-generated AI environments and models that they’ve either designed or selected from a list of pre-generated designs.
The personalized experiences AI photo booths can create are perfect for brand engagement at a trade show event.
Roaming Photo Booth
A roaming photo booth is a great way to take your brand around the trade show exhibition and have people interact with you on the go. If you’re worried about people coming to you, this is the perfect idea. And if floor space is limited and you don’t have room for something like a 360 photo booth, this is the idea for you.
It’s a simple idea that works so well, allowing you to interact with people outside of your stand and bring your brand directly to them. You can still make the entire experience branded. We recommend using the following:
- Custom overlays
- Logos
- Event graphics
- GIFs
- Boomerangs
The best way to do it is to target groups of people who are already together and look like they’re laughing or having fun, as they’re more likely to engage and have their photo taken.
When they’re done, attendees can receive their photos instantly by text or email.
Live Product Demonstrations
Live product demonstrations are perfect if you want people to actually see how something works rather than just showing them a video.
Live demonstrations are especially good for:
- Technology
- Machinery
- Software
- Beauty products
- Food and drink
- Equipment
To organize yourself efficiently, you should keep demonstrations short and repeat them throughout the day. You don’t want people standing around for 20 minutes listening to someone explain every feature.
Pick one or two of the best features and show people how they work. You can then use the demonstration to start a conversation about the rest of the product afterwards.
If possible, let attendees try the product themselves.
AR Photo Booth
An AR photo booth is another photo booth idea that works so well if you can’t take up too much floor space but want something interactive.
AR, or augmented reality, adds digital elements to the real world through a phone, tablet, or screen. For a trade show, attendees can interact with branded filters, animations, products, or characters without needing a huge physical setup.
The great thing about AR is how customizable it is. You could create:
- Branded face filters
- Animated products
- Virtual props
- Branded backgrounds
- Interactive characters
- Product-related effects
One of the best ways to use it is with a QR code. People can scan the code and open the AR experience directly on their phone. It’s then so easy for them to interact with your brand without downloading an app.
And like most photo booth ideas, the final result should be easy to share.
QR Code Scavenger Hunts
This idea can work well if you plan it well. A QR scavenger hunt, as you can imagine, is gamification. It challenges attendees to go around the trade show to find all the QR codes you’ve hidden.
Each QR code should be scannable and reveal something about your products or services. It can also reveal clues about where another QR code might be. The final aim is for someone to collect all of the QR codes and return to your stand for a prize.
It’s the perfect interactive idea that gets people thinking about your brand all day. And if you want to take it one step further, you can ask them to tell you one thing they’ve learned about your brand before you give them a prize.
Yes, we could have included this in the gamification and prize section, but it deserves a section of its own.
Live Social Media Wall
A live social media wall works wonders for getting people to post about your brand whilst they’re at the trade show. And it might be one of the simplest ideas on the list. You only need to hire a company that provides digital screen setups you can use to connect to your social media feed, photos, videos, and mentions. Attendees then have to interact with the wall in some way, whether it’s a photo, post, or video, using a specific hashtag or tagging your brand.
People love seeing themselves on a big screen, and if they see other attendees doing it, they’re more likely to get involved as well. What you get is a constant stream of fresh content on your stand that gives people another reason to stop and look. You can also combine it with something like a photo booth, competition, or giveaway to encourage more people to post.
Branded Photo Activation
A branded photo activation is more than simply putting a logo on the corner of a photo. The entire experience should feel like it belongs to your brand.
Everything can be customized:
- The booth
- The backdrop
- The props
- Digital overlays
- Animations
- Emails
- The final photo or video
Two ideas that we recommend and think work so well are green screen technology and augmented reality filters, with the final result being instant social media sharing with a tag to your brand.
It’s one of the best trade show booth ideas if brand awareness is one of your main goals because people actively interact with your stand and potentially share the finished content with their friends, colleagues, and social media followers.
The important thing is not to go overboard. You still want people to actually like the photo or video enough to keep or share it. Nobody wants a photo where half of the image is covered by a massive company logo.
At Kande, we can create a completely branded photo activation that ties the booth experience into your wider campaign.
High-Impact Visuals and an Open Layout
Not so much an idea, but an essential. One of the things you need to consider is keeping an open layout that invites people to fill the space and using high-impact visuals that actually make people look.
You don’t want to overdo it. If you only have the budget for a small amount of floor space, what you fill that floor space with has to make an impact, and one of the ways to do that before you even think about a photo booth or gamification is high-impact visuals.
That can be as simple as personalized branded neon lights with your brand name or a catchy brand-related slogan against a contrasting colored background. Overhead and hanging banners can also be really eye-catching.
Or, if you want something that feels like it’s filling the space more, interactive backdrop walls are a great idea. Some great backdrop ideas include:
- Fabric backdrops
- Pop-up backdrops
- LED and backlit displays
- 3D designs
- Branded backdrops
How to Pick The Right Idea For Your Goals
Think about the ideas that resonate most with your brand or that you can tailor to resonate with it. Yes, the premise is to make a trade show booth as eye-catching and interactive as possible, but the core focus must always tie back to your brand message and goals for the trade show.
For example, going back to the live social media wall, you need to customize the display and curate the incoming content to reinforce your core identity. If you don’t, you’ve just got a live social media wall full of random selfies and posts.
You can also consider the following:
- Budget and trade show stand size.
- Whether you’re launching a product or selling a service.
- Brand awareness goals.
- Lead generation goals.
We hope you feel inspired. Those are some of the best creative trade show booth ideas that attendees will actually engage with. They’re a great way to start casual conversations based on fun interactions that should, hopefully, lead to successful conversions.
If you’d love to make an interactive photo booth part of your trade show stand, visit our Trade Show Booth Rental page today for more information, and don’t hesitate to contact our friendly team for help.