Immersive Exhibition Stand Design: Planning Guide

Using experiential media, such as digital engagement solutions and interactive experiences, can help your brand stand out and create a lasting impression on your visitors at events. However, navigating this landscape can be complex, as various factors such as technology, budgeting, messaging, and user experience all influence the final result.

In this article, we will explore key areas to consider when incorporating experiential media into exhibitions and trade shows.

Why?

The most important aspect of planning is to consider your objectives and what is the point. When reflecting on the event afterwards, what essential outcomes do you want to achieve? For example, you might want attendees to become interested in a new product, create a memorable immersive experience that leaves a lasting impression of your brand, or purely be entertained.

We break this down into the following areas:

MEMORABLE - Sparking curiosity and making your brand experience unforgettable.

COMMUNICATE - Highlighting specific brand messaging, product offerings or company developments.

COLLECT - Collecting marketing data and gaining insights into brand opinions.

REACH - Is this for a small specific target audience or are you looking to maximise reach.

Taking your Audience on a Journey

Interactive and experiential content is designed to take your audience on a journey. As previously described, to create a memorable moment, you want your users to feel involved, whether you're looking to communicate key messages, collect data or maximise reach.

Immersive, engaging, and interactive are often just buzzwords; it's easy to use them in conversation. However, to make your brand stand out, you must also be relevant, authentic, and personal.

How can you create that captivating narrative that hooks your audience and brings them along for the ride with you?

Active vs Passive Attendees

Customer engagement at events or online typically falls into two categories: passive and active.

Passive engagement focuses on flexibility and broad reach because attendees are not pressured to interact or participate. This approach often results in higher participation rates, however, the downside is that this method can risk being dull or uninteresting, which may cause potential customers to overlook it. Additionally, because passive methods rely mainly on observation, they may not provide enough in-depth information or satisfying experiences for auditory or kinesthetic learners who prefer to ask questions or engage physically. Success in passive engagement relies on having eye-catching, appealing, and informative advertising and displays.

In contrast, active engagement emphasises depth, interaction, and experiential marketing. This approach encourages attendees to take action, such as using a product, participating in a demo, or joining a workshop. This hands-on strategy typically generates significantly more interest and engagement. However, the main trade-off for this personalised experience is often the cost and a reduced reach. Moreover, while effective for some, this approach can alienate attendees who prefer to observe rather than be approached or encouraged to join in.

Freeman’s survey found that even more people view in-person events as the most trustworthy source of information in 2024 (80%), compared to 2023 (75%). Source

In conclusion, to run a successful event that appeals to a diverse audience, it’s essential to offer a mix of both passive and active interactive content. It can be very effective if you can merge the two approaches, using passive engagement to attract people and then switching to active engagement for those much more targeted and involved experiences.

Aligning Technology

Choosing the right technology is essential for enhancing the audience experience. With the extensive and ever-growing list of event technologies available, it’s crucial to make a strategic selection that aligns with your primary engagement goal: whether you aim for broad reach (passive engagement) or deep interaction (active engagement).

For passive engagement, ideal technologies are those that provide maximum visual impact without requiring user action. This includes large LED video walls, dynamic projection mapping, transparent screens, and kinetic displays. These tools use movement, scale, and light to capture attention and present high-level information to a large, flowing audience. 

If your goal is active engagement, you need to choose technologies that require direct interaction from users. In this case, tools such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Lidar/Motion-based input, and hands-on physical constructs are effective, as they compel the user to participate actively. Additionally, AI and advanced displays like holograms occupy a hybrid space. They can either enhance personalised passive experiences or generate dynamic active responses. However, the core principle remains: ensure that the technology’s inherent function aligns with your desired customer outcome.

Being memorable

The unique and unexpected is what truly stands out and leaves a lasting impact. To ensure your exhibition engagement is the most memorable thing people see, you must dare to break free from conventions and offer an immersive experience that genuinely adds value to your audience’s lives. Connecting all individual components of your chosen technology to interactions and weaving them into a narrative that sparks curiosity and resonates emotionally. 

A study by McKinsey & Company found that brands willing to take risks in experiential marketing see a 30% increase in brand awareness.

Create mystery and surprise, but also make the story personal. When you allow your audience to see themselves in the narrative, you transport them from being a mere spectator to being the main star, creating an enduring connection that they will carry with them long after the event ends.

Author

Sam Allen

Founder

Sam has 19 years of experience in marketing and agency leadership, having founded two agencies and sold one to a Berkshire Hathaway company. He has worked across events and digital marketing, publishing numerous thought leadership articles on platforms such as www.exhibitionnews.uk and www.eventindustrynews.com.