Firestone Building Products at IRE
It wasn’t long after we created the new brand positioning for Firestone BP that we were asked to create a new booth experience for their premiere show of the year, the International Roofing Expo in 2015.
It wasn’t a case of money is no object, but it was about making an impression with a sizable budget. The focus of our work was to make sure people understood our position against our prime competitors and to launch four new products to an expectant audience, including one product that hadn’t been done before.
The initial work was the most fun of all: dreaming big! We presented four completely different experiences that they would then choose from one to bring to life.
No matter what the client chose, we wanted to make sure it would be easy to update, repurpose elements from the main booth for smaller, regional shows and provide for an experience to build relationships as well as show off.
In the end, the client chose the Product Walk. This 50’ long booth had a “promenade of products” that lead you from the entrance to the area below the second floor to have one-on-one conversations and demos.
And, at the time when 100-inch monitors were not the norm, we bundled three of them together to create four video walls at the entrance (to draw) and inside (to inform).
These 100″ monitors were a replacement for graphics around the booth. We were able to make it flexible from show to show, and use them at smaller, regional shows with minimal adjustments. Here’s a quick sample of the product showcase I designed for this.
No matter if people were looking to build a new relationship, or cement an existing one, we had something for everyone. For the product walk, we designed custom kiosks with two-sided, touchscreen videos that could be later used for interactive experiences.
Each kiosk had a video that went with it, entirely made in After Effects and played on touchscreens to future proof the experience. Here’s a quick example of one we did.
Below, a place where a product could be shown off and interacted with, or perhaps even demo’d. And, if not, self serve so you can go at your own pace.
To top it off, we completed the journey with two hospitality areas. On the main floor we created a café with treats that were made just for the event and upstairs an eight-person sitting area that gave their sales team an opportunity to have private conversations or to entertain.
In subsequent years, this booth was also used in Las Vegas where I programmed a jackpot where the social media wall was the year before. We also found some additional spaces to add meeting tables to further optimize the experience for those in attendance.
In all, this new booth was designed to serve multiple years so that content could be refreshed regularly and easily.
roles
Production
Exhibit House, Indianapolis, IN
Overall Concept
Layout and Design
Motion Graphics
On-site setup
Game Design (2017): Software was third party, but the layout and working were all me.