Exhibition Trailer Design
The purpose of a mobile exhibition trailer or vehicle is help your organisation successfully interact with your chosen audience outside your organisations normal perimeter of consumer company activity, and the success of your campaign will be dependent on the design and style of the exhibition trailer or vehicle you choose to promote your company.
The chosen design should be considered as it for purpose and include clear exterior branded communication, the creation of an eye catching ground level product or information display area that will eliminate any barriers between the product and service your promoting, and thus enabling your event team to successfully interact with the passing consumer.
Exhibition trailers can be used for Variety of reasons including Product Marketing, Product sales, Hospitality, Mobile support, Charity Marketing and Community support areas.
The Large Rigs
There are a vast amount of designs from a small amount of manufacturers with in the UK. For those with a big ego and a budget to match, at the larger end of the scale you’ll get the Big Rigs, The HGV class style Exhibition trailers, which although at first look very impressive from the outside, are actually very impractical, they have a high ground clearance which then has to be overcome by the use of steps, disability lifts, bannisters and platforms, the design can sometimes include opening side and rear pods, hydronic rams and complicated setup procedures. they are also extremely heavy vehicles and not really designed to setup on a grass field or small show ground, and actually quite limited to the style and size of venues they can attend.
Parking a HGV rig at a race track or large hard standing outdoor area is one thing, however try parking on the high street, Car dealership or a Retail shopping outlet and you’ll soon run in to major logistical and management problems.
Hospitality style designs
The most common style of Exhibition trailer you see at events is the Hospitality style design with opening side doors and steps leading up in to internal seating areas, these can range from about 20 to 40 ft frontage when setup with advertising doors opened out at an event. The key word here is Hospitality, and many companies can make the mistake of choosing this kind of design when there using an exhibition trailer to promote or sell a product, the Hospitality trailer design it is extremely limiting for product marketing or sales, the design creates barriers such as steps and doors between the product your promoting and the passing consumer, think about things logically, your marketing team wouldn’t spend thousands of pounds promoting a product or a service in any retail environment and park the displays at the back of the store, so why would you do this an out event or exhibition environment.
Even when promoting vehicle sales and agricultural farm machinery, how many times do you see event staff sat behind closed doors in a Hospitality style trailer at an outdoor event with no or little product literature on display, and no real interaction with browsing consumers.
Community support or Charitable designs
You see many Charities and Government organisations using exhibition trailers, Again most of these companies use a hospitality still trailer and unfortunately this limits the effectiveness of there campaign, most designs look like office environment and make consumers feel uncomfortable about entering the trailer, If your promoting community information such as Healthcare or Local government information, then your focus should be on dynamic exterior branding which entices people to look further, minimal barriers between the information your promoting and the passing consumer, interiors should be very informal and welcoming to an individual or family with children.
Charitable organisations should focus on a designs that enable the event team to interact with the passing consumer with both ground level fun interactive areas with information literature and TV monitors, and also internal seating and hospitality areas .
Product and Service Marketing designs
Big is not always better, the smaller sized exhibition trailer has a lot of advantages including lower purchase and running costs, they are extremely adaptable and can fit in to most Venues or Retail outlets where car park space can be a premium, there’s no point having a retail promotion day if your exhibition vehicle has to parked way off the front entrance to shop or outlet your attending. If the design has the correct ground level product information display areas with TV monitors and lighting, a creative exterior body colour and dynamic exterior branding, the design can make a smaller unit highly desirable to most organisations.
When setup at any form of venue you choose to attend, the end design has to compete for with the surrounding environment, you’ll have about 5 seconds to impress, remember the importance of the Product or Service information displays and how the design helps your event staff successfully interact with the passing Consumer, it should be the no one priority in any design.
The most effective designed exhibition trailers are the ones that are adaptable to your long term needs and budget, enabling your organisation to promote your products and services at different venues such as The high street and Outdoor event in wet or dry conditions and then have the design ability to be setup at an indoor exhibition venue and have the presence of a purpose built exhibition stand.
Let’s ask the right questions
To create a successful design that works for your campaign, you should first ask the following questions !
What is the build budget
Exhibition trailer prices can range form around £7000 to over £100.000 plus, at the very extreme and this is dependent on the chosen style, size and design requirements.
What are your design requirements
What s your campaign about, Hospitality, Product sales, Product marketing, Consumer and Public information, Mobile shop, Show support or Community support.
To create a successful campaign, the design must fit your ongoing requirements, examples include.
If your promoting or selling a product then you need to consider designs that will eliminate any barriers such as steps or doors between your product displays and the passing consumer, Product Sales trailers or Product Marketing trailer designs are perfect for this kind of promotion, ground level open plan display areas with internal staff kitchen and full shelving for carrying extra stocks.
If your wanting to promote a service or products such as Vehicle sales , Farm or Industrial machinery, then consider a Consumer information trailer design which enables you to display product information and literature including Tv monitors etc at ground level, eliminating any initial barriers to an interested passing consumer and still have an the added bonus of internal seating and hospitality areas.
For Community support, Service Information and Charities trailers should focus on a consumer friendly, design with a relaxed internal atmosphere, comfortable seating, internal wall graphics and interactive media, the exterior colour and graphics designs should be colourful and interesting to entice a passing consumers interest.
How to keep within the law
VOSA regulations on towing vehicles, who will be delivering to venues, health and safety setup procedures, product delivery, vehicle insurance and breakdown cover, vehicle storage and pre event preparation all points you will need to consider.
Venue costs
What are the estimated stand space costs per event.
The bigger the unit means the higher running cost and booking space costs associated with attending events, stand space costs are usually on a Mtr frontage basis at out door events. If you intend to use the unit as an indoor exhibition stand, most venues cost the stand per square Mtr.
Think about the bigger picture
So many companies set out to impress with a large exhibition trailer or a van based exhibition vehicle, only later to realise the cost and logistical implications to the company, with vehicle based exhibition vehicles, you have to consider who will be driving and setting up this unit within the company, there are staff insurance implications, how do they attended events and organise there accommodation needs, where will you park the vehicle when the event is over and your staff want to get home. You have to practical and understand both your immediate and future requirements, the design and size are the key to success, attending outdoor events is one thing but what your future needs attending Indoor Exhibitions and High street promotions or supporting your network of dealerships or Retail outlets.
Remember your ongoing budget
The no 1 mistake most companies forget when purchasing a new exhibition trailer or vehicle is the ongoing budget. The cost of ownership, Logistical costs and Venue costs should always be taken in to consideration prior to purchase.
On the road presence
Nothings more boring than a white unbranded exhibition vehicle or trailer, remember a fully sprayed external body with dynamic graphics can create impact for your brand even before they get to the event.
The Perfect Design
The end result should be a design that fits your requirements, is adaptable to all venues and has an acceptable ongoing ownership cost that are Acceptable to your ongoing yearly marketing budget.
Last but not least, the Environment
As a Company, you have to respect the environment, how will your end design reflect to the future consumer
And a green alternative to a purpose built stand.
The days of the vey expense purpose build exhibition stand maybe over.
If your in the marketing teams of any company you’ll understand the following statement
After months of hard work and the Exhibition has arrived, egos are running high and your team has created a super consumer experience and have obviously achieved your other main goal which was to impress your industry competitors.
Remember this .....When the is Exhibition is over, and your very expensive purpose built exhibition stand is dismantled, the branding elements discarded leaving large amount of environmental waste. All you have to show is a few photographs and your yearly marketing budgets have taken a heavy bashing, leaving you scratching your head and wondering how your going to manage for the rest of the year
Exhibition trailers can be the best alternative, cost effective and environmentally friendly. They are quick and easy to set up, if you choose the correct design, they are adaptable to both indoor and out events and can be used time and time again to advertise your brand on the road, before you even get to the event.......
