At this time of the year, it is easy to forget that autumn is just around the corner. Yes, we know, doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? But it is. In another couple of weeks, the kids will be back to school and the summer holidays will be a thing of the past. And the trade show season will be looming upon us before we can think of it.

So now is the time to get planning – if you haven’t already – and one of the things that can get attention at a trade show – which is what you want – is a roller banner, or even several roller banners, depending on the size of your stand and the type of business in which you are engaged.

Roller banners have so many advantages when you want to get a message across. The first thing is that – by definition – they are so easy to transport. You can pop them in the car, get to the exhibition centre, unroll them in two minutes flat, and you have a distinctive and memorable message in full colour on your stand. You could use two, three, or even four high-quality roller banners to emphasise certain points about your products or services.

They don’t cost a lot either. You can get a decent quality budget roller banners for under £30 if you are only going to use it for one trade show or exhibition, but you can pay a bit more and have one that is guaranteed, and that you will be able to use over and over. That is one of the advantages of top-quality roller banners: you can use them again and again and you only have to pay for them once.

Use Them Outside Too

If it is permitted, you can also use roller banner stands outside - in the car park, for instance, to direct visitors to your stand, before they even set foot in the exhibition hall, hotel, or wherever the show is taking place.

One of the things that you need to consider is your budget. If you are only attending one trade show, a budget roller banner will be fine. However, if you are going from one to the next, with the roller banners being shoved in the back of cars, or even on planes, and they could get knocked over at an event or opened and closed repeatedly, it may well be worthwhile spending a little more for a high-quality banner that can take a few knocks. A higher quality product will last longer and be a better investment than a budget one in the long run.

It has long been said, and it is still true, that you only ever have one chance to make a great first impression. Your roller banner makes a statement about you as a company, and so what you say on it needs to be impressive. If you have a brand, it should include your logo and any mission statements that appear in your other advertising. In other words, it needs to be cohesive.

If your business has a consistent set of colours, fonts, and styles that you use, then you want to stick to them and not try to be too "clever". Yes, you may be promoting an entirely new product or service, but you need visitors to remember that it is still "you", and your new product or service is just the latest innovation that you have produced for their benefit.

So you need to sit down and think long and hard about what you want a roller banner to say. Don’t forget vinyl banners either. You can use these along the top of your stand or at the back to add impact to what you are promoting.

Typically, roller banners are two metres high and come in widths of 800mm, 1,000mm, and 1,200mm. However, you can also have roller banners made in an A3 size. Yes, that’s small, but you can use those on a table or other fixture to add emphasis to a product, or to display a certain feature of it. So your main banner may be about your latest car, but your mini banners can tell people that it has this, that, and this feature.

Get creative with roller banners!