Every visitor on a show strolls. With a T. Yes, it sounds like scrolls, with an R. Because it's the same principle. They wonder, until they find something. The stroll stops somewhere. Just like the scroll stops somewhere on TikTok or Instagram.

Now the important question if you're exhibiting is: did they stop strolling at my booth? And most importantly why did they stop? Was it because the person found what it was looking for? Was it because they got tired? Or was it because in the aisle, my booth, or my staff stopped the stroll?

Now let me tell you a secret I've learned in more than 10 years on trade shows engaging visitors: stopping a stroll is to stop a pattern.

What is a pattern you could ask? It’s what repeats itself, what’s expected, anticipated.

Now here's the thing: people don't come to shows, or scroll social media, because they're looking for something they anticipate. Quite the opposite, they're looking for something new, unexpected, to get them out of their habits, their own patterns, their 9 to 5.

So on a show, a person, a booth, that does not look, or act like the others stops a scroll. In a newspaper, a headline that said something the brain was not expecting, stops the scroll. A video that started in the middle of something already happening, stops the scroll. In life, surprises, whether good or bad, get people out of their patterns, their scroll.

The brain did not choose to stop. It was stopped.

Is this an accident, a hazard, or can it be manufactured? Let's look at what science of information has to say.

Why visitors stop at some booths and walk past others

Claude Shannon and the mathematics of attention

In 1948 mathematician Claude Shannon published a theory that changed how we understand communication. His argument was simple: information is not what you say. Information is the probability of what you say.

 

The lower the probability, the more visitors you attract

If I tell you the sun will rise tomorrow, I have told you nothing. The probability is so close to one hundred percent that your brain registers zero new information and moves on. But if I tell you something with a one percent probability of being true, your brain cannot ignore it. It stops. It pays attention. It needs to know more.

If you're old enough, this is what happened when you heard about 9/11. You couldn't believe it, because the probability that it would happen, the way it did, was very low.

Shannon called this information entropy. The lower the probability of an event, the higher its information value. The higher its information value, the more attention it commands.

In scientific terms it's the signal/noise ratio.

What's expected is noise, business as usual, what's not is signal.

This is why newspapers were built around headlines. Why television anchors say "coming up next" before the commercial break. And why the best advertising does not describe a product but disrupts the world the viewer was already living in.

 

What this means for your trade show booth strategy

If your team is sending a signal every other booth sends

When your team stands at the edge of the booth and waits, they are sending a signal with a probability of one hundred percent. Every other team on that floor is doing the same thing. The brain of the visitor walking past has already predicted exactly what is about to happen if they make eye contact. A smile. A "can I help you." A pitch.

 

The pattern that kills your booth traffic

The probability is so high that a team will act this way, that it carries zero information. The brain does not stop, and the body neither. Visitors keep walking past you because visitors' brains ignore what they can predict.

Why being pushy doesn't fix it either? Because being pushy is also expected of a salesperson. They carry a reputation with them, unfortunately.

If you want to dive into the subject I have written a piece about it: why the best salesperson do not look like salespersons. And if you want to understand in detail why visitors keep walking past your booth, the full diagnosis is here.

So how to send a low probability signal?

 

What advertising can teach you about booth traffic

It's about being unexpected, in other terms, it's about being original, unique.

Let me throw the word: disruptive.

That's what marketing is all about. Sending a strong signal that breaks through the noise. As Seth Godin said, it takes 5 minutes to learn, but a lifetime to be good at it. It's simple, but not easy (definitely not).

 

What Jean-Marie Dru wrote in 1996

If you want to go further into the subject, in 1996, Jean-Marie Dru, today Chairman of TBWA\Worldwide, a world leading advertising agency, wrote an entire book about this called Disruption.

His argument was that the only advertising that works is advertising that breaks the convention of its category. In other terms that pierce through the noise.

 

What the Mad Men understood before anyone named it

If you ever watched the tv show, The Mad Men (of Madison Avenue) you know advertisers were practising disruption before Dru gave it a name. But they're not the only ones. Great political leaders, great business leaders, and great salesmen have used it since the beginnings of times.

(If you want to get inspired by how ceos and salespeople put this into practice I have compiled the best videos I know of on the subject).

 

How to apply disruption to get more visitors to your booth

 

The oldest trick to attract visitors to your booth

On shows, because of the noise, disruption is harder, and it makes it all the more necessary. With it, a company steps at the foreground, without it, it not only fades in the background, it becomes the background.

Disruption on a trade show relies on two things: disruptive marketing AND disruptive behavior.

In this article, I want to focus on the latter, but if you're interested in the marketing part you can read trade show marketing done right.

So, a disruptive behavior relies on 2 things: a mindset, and attitude if you want, and actions that stem from it. And one tool in particular: a show stopper. Spoiler alert: it is not a gimmick. It's not a prize draw or a bowl of sweets. Those have a high probability of happening at any show and carry almost no information to the brain.

A show stopper is a precisely calibrated disruption of expectation. It works on the same principle as the best scroll-stopping content, the best newspaper headlines, the best television hooks, the best advertising campaigns. It breaks the pattern the brain was already running and forces attention. And on a show, attention is the gold everyone's looking for.

 

How a new exhibitor disrupted a show

Imagine if you had never exhibited before. No reputation, no brand recognition, no budget for spectacle. That was the case of 2 clients of mine when I met them. But they had one thing: the attitude of disrupters. So all they needed were the techniques to go with it. And after one day of training with me, they got it: the ability to create a low probability moment in the first three seconds of a potential conversation.

 

A team exhausted but efficient

When a team got this disruption right, at the end of a show they're exhausted. And that's a good sign. Because pushing a signal to pierce through the noise takes energy. So, in case you were looking for a low effort solution, that is not it. It's not effortless, but it's cheaper than pouring ten of thousands in a booth design and much more, much more, efficient.

Just one caveat, it works perfectly if you're at the right show to begin with. Cause, unfortunately, most exhibitors don't even know if they are the right show to begin with. Why this phenomenon happens is what I explain in another video.

Ready to get more visitors to your booth?

If you feel the time has finally come to make your shows more profitable, and you have 15 min to spare, I've documented in a video how show stoppers work and how David and Julie used them on their first show. Knowing how to use them might be the one thing that separates you from success at trade shows.