In 2018 Samsara, the leader in the industrial Internet of Things (IoT) for fleets, decided it needed a new trade show exhibit to better reflect the company’s growing brand. Its design team created a unique exhibit concept featuring thousands of colored LED lights. They just needed a vendor to bring the concept to life, while sticking to a set budget.

According to Angelina Elhassan, Head of the Field and Event Marketing Group at Samsara, “Our company had scaled, and we needed our booth to scale as well. We wanted something really unique since our company is built on a foundation of innovation and constantly up-leveling. Our design team put together this really creative design—we just needed to hire a vendor to build it.”

Finding a company able to execute Samsara’s creative design was more difficult than Elhassan and her team expected. In fact, they talked with numerous vendors before they found TTG. The other vendors didn’t work out because they said they simply couldn’t do it, or they would agree to do it—but with a much larger budget.

TTG found a way to make Samsara’s LEDs shine—and on budget

Never one to shy away from a challenge, TTG Senior Design Consultant Austin Montgomery found a way to make things work. “We had never done a project like this before, so I spent many hours figuring out how to get the lighting to work. Fortunately, TTG has a terrific vendor partner we use for lighting, so we were able to come up with a solution that exceeded Samsara’s expectations while staying within budget,” Montgomery says.

Elhassan appreciated TTG’s honesty and excitement about taking on the lighting challenge. As she explains, “When we found The Trade Group, what really attracted us to them as they admitted this was something that they had never done before, but at the same time, they really wanted to partner with us on this unique project because it could be mutually beneficial to both of us.”

There was also pressure on TTG to faithfully execute the vision that Samsara had designed in-house and was very excited about. Says Montgomery, “Normally, it’s my job to pull ideas out of the client’s head and come up with a creative solution for them. This project was different because Samsara came to us with the design already figured out. Essentially, it was their baby, we just had to bring it to life.”

TTG delivers the stunning LED tower and over-delivers with other cool design features

LED FEATURE: When you look at the completed custom exhibit, there’s no question that Samsara’s dream for a jaw-dropping LED feature—2,700 lights strong—came true. Positioned in the corner of the island booth, the angled walls were jam-packed with full-color LEDs programmed to simulate movement. WOW factor? You bet!

FABRIC GRAPHICS: Montgomery also recommended switching the walls adjacent to the LED feature from laminate to a combination of laminate and fabric. “We really wanted the brand messaging on the walls to stand out, and we didn’t want shiny walls to be a distraction. Bringing fabric graphics into the mix really helped make the messaging vibrant,” says Montgomery.

HANGING SIGN: Another feature TTG encouraged Samsara to add was a large hanging sign over the booth. According to Elhassan, “The great thing about the hanging sign is even when you’re way on the other side of the trade show floor, you can automatically see our booth and our company. Plus, it obviously helps our prospects find us at an event.”

CREATIVE ACCENT LIGHTING: TTG’s design enhancements didn’t stop there, and except for the eye-catching hanging sign, they didn’t exceed budget either. According to Elhassan, “One of the things that we really loved about TTG was they thought about things that we didn’t think of. They recommended adding lighting in underneath our smaller demo tables, which really up-leveled the whole booth. It was one of those nice small touches that makes the booth even better.”

CUSTOM DEMO TABLE WITH LEAF: Montgomery also came up with the idea for an optional leaf for the demo table in the middle of the booth. “If we ever want to have a bigger booth presence, we can utilize the booth we already have with the longer table. This idea really amazed me because it showed they were thinking about our bottom line—not just trying to sell us more,” Elhassan says.

Three successful shows to date, with future collaborations on the horizon

Since the custom trade show exhibit was completed, Samsara has taken it to three shows: Great American Trucking Show, National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) show and the American Trucking Association Annual Meeting.

Jessica Whitney, Field and Event Marketing Manager at Samsara, looks forward to working with The Trade Group on future projects. As she explains, “Working with The Trade Group and Austin has been great. They are very responsive and have been able to answer my questions even before I knew I needed an answer!”

Need help turning your creative design ideas into reality?

The experienced trade show and live event experts at The Trade Group are here to help. To learn more, give us a call at 800-343-2005 to speak with one of our friendly sales consultants today.