The Video Marketing Blog

Don't Make This Mistake with Your Trade Show Video

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More and more, companies are using video at trade shows. And that's a good thing - video allows you to connect by showing your product or service in addition to talking about it. But sometimes companies make a mistake - they take a video they've created for another purpose (usually their website) and loop it on their booth TV screen.

Now, using a pre-existing video may seem like a good idea. After all, your company has invested in this video and everybody really likes it, so why not use it in the trade show booth?

• First, your website video has sound. But the purpose of a trade show is engagement. If people are listening to, or trying to listen to your video (trade shows tend to be very noisy), they're not engaging with you.
• Second, if your video was created with narration or talking head-style interviews, that sound is critical to your video. You might think that you can use your existing video and just turn down the sound, but that will leave you with moving images that are difficult to understand.
• Third, video that's created for the web is specifically designed to be played in a small format. While some people do choose the full-screen option, most still watch website video in its original player, as it first appears on a web page. So, everything in web video has to be relatively large. But if you take that web video and play it at a trade show, elements that look great at 480 or 640 pixels wide on your website will look giant. And you may be wasting real estate. All those large images may not be the best use of your video space.

Well, you say, we spent a lot of money on our website video and we can't afford to produce another one specifically for our trade shows.  But creating a trade show video shouldn't be expensive, because you already have all the video you'll need. Just eliminate the audio track, rearrange the video so that it tells your story visually, and add the on-screen text that will help to orient the viewer.

And here's another tip, courtesy of Robert Hackenson, VP of Marketing & Sales for TMG Exhibits, a company that specializes in trade show booth design. "At a trade show, you can target your video toward the specific potential prospects attending the show," Hackenson said. "The video should attract them with information about the product or service they're interested in." If the trade shows you exhibit at attract more than one type of attendee - be It end users, high-level management types, homeowners, etc. - create versions of your booth video that speak specifically to them. And again - creating different versions of your video should not be expensive if you perform a relatively minor re-edit of the video you already have.

So - if you absolutely have no budget and must use your website video(s) in your trade show booths, turn the sound down and go ahead. It's better than no video at all. But if at all possible, re-edit your video specifically for your trade shows. You'll give your viewers the best possible chance to connect with the story of your product or service.