As an exhibition sales house of longstanding we are going to take a huge leap and tell our clients and prospective clients that it is time to reconsider purchasing. As your needs change, your trade show exhibit changes and as your company grows, so does your trade show exhibit. As your show schedule evolves, so do your needs for a variety of trade show exhibit configurations. In Europe – it seems most companies do not own a trade show exhibit. In fact, once the economics are understood, the concept of renting is extraordinarily logical. Renting has been in practice in Europe for so long they think we’re foolish to “sell exhibits”.

A Case for Renting a Trade Show Exhibit

The average life of a trade show exhibit is about five years. Prior to each show, it is taken out of storage and refurbished, but it is still the “same old booth”. Refurbishing gets expensive and the trade show exhibit can look its age, which begins to limit and reduce trade show objectives.

Trade show exhibit renting provides clients with a professional presence at a show while avoiding the responsibility of owning. Renting reduces the cost of exhibiting– saving up to 75 percent of the up-front cost of ownership. That frees up more funds for related sales and promotion efforts. Renting also eliminates the cost of storage, maintenance and retrieval costs, and avoids other “back end” costs that can come with the cost of ownership. A rental exhibit allows a company to expense the actual rental costs associated whereas a purchase is generally a large capital investment, which then must be expensed according to a depreciation schedule. Reselling a used custom trade show exhibit is very difficult. In fact, we are often approached by companies shopping their used exhibit to try and unload it.  They often have a very difficult time finding a buyer.

Exhibit builders sell solutions. The exhibit display is merely a marketing aid to promote our client’s products and services. A rental exhibit can have impact and prestige without an up-front financial commitment. The client has an exciting exhibit with custom graphics ¬ and the possibility of a new exhibit for each show, possibly for less than the cost of owning one booth.