The credit crunch is developing into a full-on recession and that means that advertising budgets are shrinking. The events and exhibitions industry is feeling the pressure just like the rest of the advertising and marketing industry and is desperately thinking of new ways and new products virtual roundtables to ensure that visitor numbers are high. It is not an easy task but many events professionals are beginning to see the sense in going the extra mile in order to make sure that their invitations and other events publicity materials do not get overlooked or ignored in the morning’s business mail.
The manufacturers of pop-up and interactive marketing products also have their work cut out and enterprising companies are constantly coming up with new ideas to keep the wheels turning. It seems that events organizers and exhibitors are all looking for the same thing – something different! As well as traditional shapes such as pop-up cubes, pop-up balls and pop-up pyramids some new polyhedrons (or polyhedra) are coming to the fore.
For instance there is one product that is made up of ten triangles, a pentagonal dipyramid which is also known in geometric terms as a Johnson Solid – a “Johnson 13” or “J13” to be precise. This product makes an excellent high-impact event invitation. It has a unique shape with an automatic pop-up action which guarantees that the product will get noticed. Not only that, it is likely that it will get bounced about quite a lot which makes it very interactive and highly memorable. The fact that it has a chunky shape makes it is very unlikely that this event invitation will get binned.
The product has a very distinctive shape that adds to its curiosity value. That, combined with its automatic pop-up action, qualifies it for consideration as a publicity handout at many types of event. Typically, this pop-up polyhedron would be a great success as a trade show handout where it would be received with much more enthusiasm than a hundred leaflets. It would be met with an equally positive response as a handout at a product launch event.
The unusual geometric shape of the Johnson 13 lends also itself to being designed as a Christmas decoration. This aspect is further enhanced with the addition of a loop of silver or gold string which transforms it into a Christmas tree ornament. This particular design option marks the product as being eminently suited to being used in conjunction with Christmas events such as a corporate party invitation, a New Year celebration or an exhibition held at that time of year. It would obviously be suitable for a manufacturer of Christmas products as an exhibition invitation at any time of year!