Best Trade Show Exhibit or B-to-B Environment

Program Name: Frankfurt Auto Show
Client: Audi
Agency: Schmidhuber+Partners, Metron

If the sight of the year’s newest concept cars and latest hot rods doesn’t get the average car aficionado’s heart racing, they’re probably dead. But it’s not all about the sizzle at major auto shows—it’s also about forming business relationships and planting the seeds for future sales that will sustain the company in the years ahead. For its presence at last year’s International Automotive Fair (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany, Audi accomplished both objectives, with heart and style.

A key objective of the automaker’s 2009 show experience, dubbed “The Heart of Audi,” aimed to reinforce its three main brand attributes: sportiness, sophistication and progressiveness. This was accomplished through a visually stunning central booth structure that tied the messages together. The mostly white two-story triangular exhibit—a sweeping, amorphous body that split and reconnected in beautiful curves and dynamic angles—revealed bright pops of red underneath its cantilevered upper story. Wood flooring swept up to meet the glossy white walls, connecting the walkways to the central feature and leading attendees through the space in one intuitive move. A white center “lane” offered a visual guideline and led visitors through the exhibit. It also provided a neutral backdrop that helped the vehicles on display further stand out against the contrasting black and white floor coverings and walls.

The Heart of Audi display, designed as a gateway to the booth experience, presented the brand’s technological market leadership and drew visitors’ attention to the highlight stage—a huge, integrated LED screen and enclosed black glass wall. The visitor entered the exhibit through this gateway, via the center lane, which curved to the corners of the footprint and pulled the visitor into the brand space. The color red marked the highlights, like the red relief displays communicating the 100-year history of Audi.

At the Visitor Center located on an elevated level, interactive exhibits offered insights into Audi’s technical innovations. At the Technology Center, dominated by organic forms and atmospheric hues of blue, interactive exhibits provided insights into technological innovations from the field. The Audi Exclusive Lounge featured 625 handmade, padded leather tiles mounted onto a wall tilted on both axes. The design was supported by a wooden band floating through the room that began as a hand rail, transformed into a board, a sitting niche and finally into a serving counter.

And lest we forget the sizzling new car reveals, the brand used the exhibit to introduce the sleek and sporty Audi R8 Spyder, coming to North America this summer… and a mid-life crisis near you.

Program Name: Auto Show Exhibit
Client: Honda
Agency: 2LK Design, The Taylor Group

For its February 2009 Toronto Auto Show exhibit, Honda built a booth that was a study in fluidity. The booth was anchored by the sweeping curves of its C-shaped featured vehicle displays and continued into a rounded overhead canopy, enclosing the footprint. That curving line flowed across the top of the exhibit, descended to the floor and traveled back toward the front of the exhibit, surrounding attendees in a continuous envelope of motion, designed to mimic an animator’s speed-indicating swirls.

The focal point and highlight of the exhibit was the eight-foot high and 50-foot long, curved LED back wall, never before seen in Canada or the U.S. Featured vehicles were highlighted with displays designed to imply motion with museum-like Plexiglas casings and dynamic lighting. The exhibit wasn’t only about the cars, though. Honda’s lawnmowers, generators and other products were also out on the floor. In the center of the exhibit, attendees got a chance to grab a seat and relax in some comfy, red chairs, courtesy of Honda. Finally, three distinct booths presented Honda’s “green,” “safe” and “fun” messaging via short video presentations.
 

Program Name: Heli-Expo
Client: Sikorsky
Agency: McMillan Group, The Taylor Group

To embody a brand architecture that communicated the changes in the organization, reinforcing customer service and unifying the entire company, Sikorsky Aircraft knew it had to redesign. The goal was to create an environment that was conducive to business, client-focused and exemplified Sikorsky as a global industry leader. The resulting new exhibit included a high-end product “showroom” to showcase helicopters, services and technological advancements and a separate, enclosed executive-level facility that included conference rooms for customers.

As the stars of the show, four helicopters were featured on slightly angled platforms made of cherry wood. Functionally, the exhibit was developed into two distinct sections: an open, public aircraft showcase and movable stage area for live presentations, and a private executive boardroom-level meeting room structure. As a result of the redesign, of the 885 booth attendees surveyed, 79 percent asked to be contacted by Sikorsky sales staff.