Creating a Trade Fair Film – How to Make Your Stand a Highlight

If you exhibit at trade fairs, you want to be seen! That is why a well-thought-out, professionally designed trade fair stand is so important – for some companies it is even the highlight of the year. But why rely on static architecture alone? Do what the professionals do and use the pulling power of trade fair films for your stand!

An attention-grabbing trade fair film doesn’t have to be expensive – and it can even pay off after the fair. In this article you can read what makes a good trade fair film and what you should look out for.

Important: trade fair film or event video?

To make sure you are reading the right article for your project, here is a short explanation first: in this article we cover films that are shown on the trade fair stand, i.e. films FOR the stand. This type of company film is made in advance and is primarily shown on the stand, with optional secondary use in all common media, e.g. your website, sales presentations or social media.

Films ABOUT your trade fair stand are also very popular – so-called event videos or aftermovies. These films are made at the fair itself and provided afterwards, for example to thank participants, reactivate customers and attract participants for next time.

If you are looking for the latter, we have a separate article for you:

After the fair is before the fair! How to extend the life of your event.

Trade fair alternatives: the free eBook (in German)

During the Covid pandemic, trade fairs could not take place for a long time. Trade fair alternatives helped companies keep generating sales despite the crisis: with various live formats or on-demand videos, trade fair appearances could be held in a modern and appealing form.

Our free “trade fair alternatives” handbook (in German) gives more information on formats, use cases and cost estimates.

What makes a good trade fair film

To understand what makes a good trade fair film for your stand, think back to your last trade fair: crowded, noisy, hectic. Visitors are flooded with stimuli from every direction. The motto is: stand out. And when you create a trade fair film, that is exactly what it should do.

A good trade fair film should grab attention from the very first second to draw visitors to your stand. Experts call this the AIDA principle: attention, interest, desire and, finally, action.

The AIDA principle:

1. Attention
2. Interest
3. Desire
4. Action

A good trade fair film is geared to this principle from start to finish. Important: it should harmonise with your stand design and your company so that your stand works as a complete package. So brief the film production company on your stand design in advance.

How does a trade fair film work?

Like all good advertising, a trade fair film works according to the AIDA principle:

Attention

At a trade fair, it is particularly important that the trade fair film you commission grabs attention from the first second – in other words, that it applies the “attention” step of the AIDA principle. How? Ideally with particularly strong footage that catches people’s eye from some distance away. Once that has happened, the next step comes into play.

Interest

Arousing interest – once again through the right choice of images. Because at a trade fair, the film has to work without sound or text. With so many people around, you wouldn’t hear the film anyway, and who can read subtitles from a distance? So it is important that the footage shown not only looks good but can be understood without any further aids. Otherwise it is impossible to arouse someone’s interest if they don’t understand the film.

Desire

But you don’t just want to arouse visitors’ interest: ideally, most viewers should develop the desire to take a closer look at your stand and get in touch with you. This is what the “desire” step of the AIDA principle is for. What the film presents must therefore be convincing and promise the consumer a clear advantage that sets it apart from competitors, for example.

Action

So that the viewer actually comes to see your stand and finds out about your products, the final step, “action”, is meant to convince them to act. As you can see, you can’t simply show a corporate film at a trade fair. The length, the voice-over, the usually calmer editing and the choice of images all speak against it. A trade fair film has to be short, punchy, precise and eye-catching. Even so, it may be possible to re-edit a finished corporate film into a trade fair film. I explain how this works in a later section.

• Attention = attract attention
• Interest = arouse interest
• Desire = create desire
• Action = prompt action 

Creating tailor-made trade fair films for your stand

If your trade fair stand has an unusual design, you need a tailor-made trade fair film. Some modern stands already use video monitors that wrap around corners or have formats other than the usual 16:9, such as wide banner screens or portrait-format screens. The reason: you stand out. Tailor-made here means that the film and its format are cut to fit the conditions of the stand. None of this is a problem for the film production company, as long as it has the exact specifications of your stand. Of course, this requires a special creative concept, because in most cases existing footage and animations cannot simply be reused.

So either new scenes have to be filmed or animated, or existing material has to be adapted to the stand’s specifications, if possible. Even if you haven’t designed your stand yet, a film production company can contribute creative ideas for a possible set-up with special integration of the trade fair film. This way you can also find out early on what is possible and what isn’t.

Creating a trade fair film from an existing corporate film

Running a corporate film one-to-one at a trade fair is best avoided. Instead, you can have a corporate film re-edited so that it meets the requirements of a trade fair. So if you have only recently bought a corporate film, it would make no sense to commission a completely new trade fair film. In most cases, the film production company that made your corporate film can cut a trade fair version from the raw footage it shot – which costs considerably less than commissioning a completely new trade fair film.

But beware: a simple short version of the corporate film won’t work at a trade fair either. As you already know, length is not the only reason a corporate film doesn’t work at a trade fair.

So here, once more, are the most important features of a trade fair film:

• strong images that stand out
• must work without sound and text
• footage must be understandable at a glance
• short and punchy
• harmonises with the stand design

Can I show my corporate film at a trade fair?

Creating a trade fair film in English

A trade fair film has no voice-over, but it can certainly include a few facts shown as short keywords. Writing these in English if the trade fair audience is international is therefore no problem.

How else can I use a trade fair film?

The core goal of a trade fair film should always be to persuade people to come to your stand. But the film can reach this goal through various topics: you can use your trade fair film to present your company, your product or even working techniques.

You can read more about how to use a film in our article “Where should I show my film? How to reach the most customers”.

What does a trade fair film cost?

The price of a trade fair film depends entirely on what you have in mind or would like. In general, though, a trade fair film costs between 6,000 and 30,000 euros.
Cost factors include, for example:

1. Actors
2. Voice-over
3. Message 
4. Complexity
5. Graphic design  

These points can also be combined well. One popular combination is graphic design in the form of text overlays or animation together with professional actors who are memorable to visitors. What is particularly important for a trade fair film is that it works both silently and with sound – because depending on the fair, you may be able to play the film with sound and draw attention with an exciting voice-over.

So the more you want to pack into the film, the higher the price of the trade fair film will naturally be – but that is also what makes the trade fair film special, so that it stays in visitors’ minds or encourages them to visit your stand.

• various cost factors
• the message is decisive (sales-driven, promotional or similar)
• should work both silently and with sound
• approx. 6,000–30,000 euros

Tip: plan your trade fair film together with your stand design

The most important thing about a good trade fair stand is a well-rounded overall concept, and the best way to achieve this is to plan the stand and the film together. This way the film can complement the stand design and vice versa. If you already have a finished stand from previous trade fairs but now want a video made for it, the film production company should get the exact stand plan. That way it can at least integrate the trade fair film into the stand design as well as possible.

Conclusion: your highlight on the trade fair stand

In the noisy chaos of a trade fair, your stand has to do one thing above all: stand out.

This is exactly what a trade fair film achieves: impressive footage, exciting images and interesting animations that help you stand out among the other stands and from the crowd, arouse the interest of potential customers and draw them to your stand. Trade fair films are usually played without sound and also differ from the classic corporate film in several other respects. Often, though, they can be made from the same raw footage. The best way to work out how to create the perfect trade fair film for your stand is with the film production company you trust – and we would be happy to help too. We look forward to a no-obligation conversation with you!

If you would like to find out more about what you can do with film, I can recommend the following articles:

1. The corporate film – everything companies need to know
2. How companies can improve their image
3. Industrial film: the marketing tool
4. What should professional aerial footage cost? What you need to know
5. 10 corporate film marketing tips that really help your company