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FEATURE ARTICLE

DuraVinyl Trade Show Graphics are flexible, durable, inexpensive

When looking for trade show graphics, there is an alternative which, in many ways, is much better than laminated paper, and quite a bit cheaper than Duralex. This is what we call our DuraVinyl product. A DuraVinyl Graphic is made by printing your image directly onto high quality flexible vinyl.

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FEATURE ARTICLE

Common Exhibit Marketing Mistakes: Ten Tips on How to Avoid Them

by Susan A. Friedmann, CSP, The Tradeshow Coach

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Written by Susan A. Friedmann, CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, author: “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies,” working with companies to improve their meeting and event success through coaching, consulting and training. Go to
www.thetradeshowcoach.com to sign up for a free copy of ExhibitSmart Tips of the Week.

by Rick Hendershot, Trade Show Tips

By its very nature, a display banner is meant to be like a big
flexible poster or billboard. That makes it a piece of ADVERTISING,
so all the rules and techniques that apply to advertising design
should apply to vinyl banners as well.


Rookie Design Mistakes
In the advertising business you see rookie advertisers making the
same design "mistakes" over and over again. They think people are
going to walk up to their poster, billboard or banner and examine
every detail. So they cram it with lots of product information, a
detailed map of how to get to their store, and the phone numbers of
all their sales reps.

It comes as a bit of a shock to learn this is not how things work.
In fact what happens is this: since we are bombarded with
advertising images all day, every day, we do our best to ignore
them. Especially the ones with lots of boring details.

It gradually dawns on the budding advertiser that what people DO
notice is something striking, different, loud, funny, or shocking.
That is why most professional advertising tries to create a
distinctively memorable selling feature, and then focus on it with
striking images, snappy, memorable slogans, or catchy, sing-able
(often loud!) music.

1. Keep it simple
The first and most important rule of thumb when creating a banner
design is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. Stick to two or three main elements
that communicate your most important selling points. Identify your
product with a striking photo (if you have one), and then define
the most important selling features with the other elements: usually
a striking headline, and some other "feature" like the price, the
amount of discount, or the "free" thing you are giving away.

2. Use Striking, Colorful Elements
Of course these days we are talking about vinyl banners made with
FULL COLOR digital printing. So when creating your banner design,
it is usually safe to use what I call the "Photo ID Model" for
digitally printed state-of-the-art display printing.

The "Photo ID model" uses four basic elements:

1. Product photo or photo collage
2. Main Headline
3. Product Description
4. Company Identifier

The Photo ID Model is not the only design style you can use for
your banner or display, but it gives you a professional looking,
highly effective place to start. For a more complete description of
this design approach, see my article titled "The Photo ID
Advertising Design Model" at
http://www.banners-canada.com/articles/design.

3. Use Color Effectively
Use COLORS to your advantage. Use FULL COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS that
contain interesting bright colors. And make your headlines, special
offers, and company identifiers jump out by using red, white or
yellow on a black background.

This is called the "reverse text" or "knock out" technique. Look at
the hundreds of signs you see everyday, and notice how often
reverse text is used. The contrast between the light colored text
and black (or dark) background gives your text much more graphic
impact.

4. Use Your Imagination. Be Creative!!!
Unfortunately the "Photo ID Model" is so effective -- so obvious --
it is very tempting to use it without thinking much about the
IMPACT or CREATIVITY of the various elements. So for instance,
consider a typical vinyl banner or other type of display piece for
a fictitious company called "Perk-it-Up Coffee". It will often
start out like this:

"Perk-it-Up Coffee" (headline)
Photo of can of coffee (photograph)
"Made from the finest coffee beans, blah, blah, blah." (description)
Order yours today from Perky People Coffee, 123 Java Hwy
(identifier)

Notice how this is little more than a list of relatively
unimaginative "facts" about the product: the product name, what it
looks like, how it is made, where you get it.

Not terribly inspiring. No clear statement of its most important
features. No attempt to "sell" the product.

You can do much better than that! With a little bit of imagination
your "Perk-It-Up" banner could have MUCH MORE IMPACT. For instance,
even a fairly uninspired headline like the one above will come to
life if you associate it with an interesting photograph.

And I'm not just talking about a picture of the product. Use good
looking people if you can. For example, a photo of a happy,
wide-eyed person holding a "Perk-It-Up" mug looking as though she
just had a major java hit.

Now even a boring headline like "Perk-It-Up Coffee" means something.
And now you can go the next step and be more creative with your
headline too!

Keep it simple, make it striking, use color effectively, and be
creative. Then your banner displays will have the impact you are
looking for.

If you would like to contribute articles, please email your article to rh@small-business-online.com, or

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