How to Make a Great Trade Show Background Video

Tips for Your Trade Show Background Video

Engaging video is a great way to grab attendees’ focus and make connections. No matter what your video may be, these tips can help you create a better video:

Define the Video’s Purpose and Place in Your Booth

There are many different ways you can use a background video in your booth. It’s important to think about how your video will play into the overall design and flow. Will your video be at the booth’s entrance to draw in traffic? Will it be keeping attendees busy until your staff gets a chance to talk to them? Will it make up the entire back wall of your booth so attendees can see it at any point? Your video’s purpose and location will help you nail down its core focus. For instance, if you want it to attract attention, it should show off your latest innovation. If you want it to be the background for your entire booth, it should be a company overview.

Make it Visual, Not Audible

Unless this is your first trade show, you already know how loud these environments can be. If you try to use audio and voiceovers to convey your point in your video, you’ll lose viewers before you start. Background music can create a nice atmosphere, but you should only use visual elements to relay your message. Still, be careful so that it doesn’t look like a slide presentation. Textual video animations and other strategies can make it look professional.

Keep it Short

Blame it on technology or whatever you choose, but people today have short attention spans. This is even truer at a trade show where attendees have dozens or hundreds of booths they could visit. Make your video a short loop, perhaps two or three minutes at most. Chances are that your visitors won’t even watch that full loop. Keep in mind that you can still use longer videos in your booth, but for other purposes. Perhaps set up a station with headphones for visitors who want in-depth information about a product.

Create a Memorable Tag

There are certain jingles and taglines that get stuck in people’s heads. This type of infectious marketing has proven to be effective time and time again. You may not be able to do a jingle in a sound-free video, but you can still use a catchy tagline. You might be able to use your business’ tagline if the video is meant to be an introduction to the company. If your video introduces a new product, create a new tagline for that campaign. Regardless of the purpose, find a way to stay in your visitors’ memories.

Include Plenty of Branding Elements

Your background video is an important part of your booth’s branding. It contributes to an immersive experience that shows visitors who you are. Your video should epitomize your brand. The colors and fonts should be brand-specific, and the overall tone needs to fit your brand. Make sure your logo has a constant presence so the viewers associate it with your message.

Have One Focus

As we mentioned above, your background video should be a few minutes of content on a loop. If you have a 50-product catalog, there’s no way you can tell viewers about all of them in that amount of time. Set one clear goal for your background video. Whether it’s an introduction to your company or it showcases a new product line, stick with that one clear focus.

Avoid Generalizations

We’ve all felt the frustration of seeing a website that doesn’t explain what a company does. Vague terms like “business solutions” and feel-good messaging will lose your audience in an instant. Remember that the people at your industry’s trade show are already experts in the industry. They know the basics, and they’re there to find out what makes you unique. Trim the fat and tell them who you are.

Snag a Viewer’s Attention from the Start

Trade show floors are minefields of overstimulation. Attendees can look in any direction and see 20 booths competing for their attention. Why would they stop at your booth? If your video is near the entrance of your booth, it needs to draw in the visitors and capture their attention. Remember that visitors could see it at any point in the loop, so the whole video needs to be engaging.

Customize the Video for Each Show

You want your visitors to feel like you’re focused on the here and now. They don’t want a generalized sales pitch, and the same is true for your video. Customization could be as simple as adding a bar with the conference’s name at the bottom of the video. In some cases, though, you may want to adjust the content for the setting.

Don’t Skimp on the Production

A trade show is one of the few situations in which you’re literally side-by-side with your competitors. If they all have professional-looking videos while you threw the task to an intern with free software, it will be obvious. Professional video production is worth the investment.

Include a Call to Action

You could have a perfect flow to your booth: visitors come in, watch your video, then get into an engaged discussion with your team. In real life, that doesn’t always happen. Some visitors will watch the video but leave before they speak to your staff. In these cases, leave them with a call to action.

Maximizing Your Trade Show Impact

Your trade show background video goes a long way toward the overall experience visitors have in your booth. The tips above can help you make the most of it. If you’re ready to start producing that great video, reach out to our production team.