For 25 years, EXHIBITOR’s annual Sizzle Awards competition has honored red-hot trade show exhibit promotions while simultaneously providing a pre-, at-, and post-show roadmap to promotional success.
So, to celebrate a quarter-century of inspirational strategies and exceptional execution, the EXHIBITOR editorial team reviewed each and every Sizzle Awards case study the magazine has ever published and arrived at a list of 25 promos that stood the test of time and are — on some level — as relevant today as they were back when they originally graced our pages.
Impact XM is honored to be recognized with a 25th Sizzle Award for the bizarre fashion show we crafted for BASF way back in 1997. Our unexpected approach to promoting the innovation and leadership of BASF in the plastics industry led to an extremely popular trade show exhibit experience at the National Plastics Expo.
The fashion show—called “Planet Innovation”—consisted of several models that strutted along the stage wearing plastic end products that highlighted BASF’s innovative approach to the future uses of plastics. The outfits donned by the models featured everything from computer keys and car manifolds to electrical connectors and fishing poles. One showstopper: an environmental costume resembling a psychedelic peacock, which was made of colorful carpet tufts that can be recycled into plastic beads.
Despite the undesirable location of their booth, BASF was able to seize more than 1,100 leads and reported a 40-percent increase in overall booth traffic. Additionally, the exhibit even received national news coverage on CNN, NBC, and FOX News for this pioneering example of experiential marketing. In an era where plastic recycling was a relatively new concept, BASF agreed that the fashion show was a clever way to educate attendees on its technological advances and prove that plastic has endless applications.
Learn more about this unique trade show experience that won our client the 25th sizzle award in the full case study here.
