The Cheshire County Show is a two-day event focusing on agriculture. Cheshire East Council (CEC) wanted a stand design to maximise its message for its 'Love Food, Hate Waste' campaign.

"Building a relationship is a key priority between any contractor and client," says exhibition and design manager at event consultants Mills Media, Lonn Landis. "We won the bid to produce an exhibition stand and a range of design work for the council’s presence at the Cheshire County Show, organised by the Cheshire Agricultural Society."

Love Food, Hate Waste is a nationwide campaign designed to raise awareness of the need to reduce food waste and is something the council was keen to promote at the show. The design of the stand and accompanying material needed to fit in with its national message, but also give the brand a regional feel. The council wanted to highlight its commitment to waste reduction, raise awareness of waste issues and educate visitors.

Cooking up a storm
The brief from the council was to provide design and graphics for the stand, which consisted of three marquees, an exhibition trailer and a display garden. Mills Media also produced 10 triangular banner towers, which were custom built onsite, and banners for the three themed marquees.

The branded marquees covered chef demonstrations, composting and a children’s activity zone. Other design work included printed 'passports' and stickers for the children’s activity marquee, and branded uniforms and tablecloths for the chefs and staff.

"We decided that clear graphics would grab the attention of people and communicate the waste reduction message clearly. We decided to use an earthy colour palette with natural tones to reflect the theme and provided several custom illustrations for the different themes the council wanted us to focus on," says Landis.

The build-up time from the initial appointment and brief was six weeks. Mills Media prepared a project time schedule and stuck to all of the milestones; this allowed a quick, but thorough, build-up period.

"We were in near daily contact with the CEC team and progress was monitored from their end on a frequent basis," adds Landis.

Several face-to-face meetings helped to develop a good working relationship and progress ideas rapidly. "Several changes were made to the stand design, so we acted quickly in overseeing this. We also discussed how we could market the stand on the day and implemented a Bluetooth campaign, which broadcast a Bluetooth message to everyone within 300m of the stand," says Landis.

Singing in the rain?
Landis explains that another issue which everyone had to consider was the weather as the stand would be outside at the event. Mills Media had to make sure that the stand, banners and marquees would be able to withstand unstable wind conditions and possible rain. "We did this by building the stand fully before the event at our in-house studio and testing its strength," he adds.

But, at the event, the weather was thankfully sunny and it attracted more than 85,000 people.

The proof is in the pudding
The stand helped the council achieve a strong brand positioning at the event and allowed it to convey its message strongly. The three activities and the Bluetooth campaign were co-ordinated, attracting many people and the council gained positive feedback.

The stand won Best Trade Stand, Champion Stand and Special Effort awards at the show. "Winning the best trade stand was something that we had aimed for, so the two other awards were a welcome bonus," says Landis.

The council was impressed with how Mills Media listened to the message it wanted to impart. The design complemented the brief and gave the council an award-winning and re-usable stand design.

The components were built with flexibility in mind and would be able to accommodate different size sites at future events. This is something the council felt strongly about; any marketing or promotional material that is commissioned will be a cost-effective purchase.

Any good contractor will work closely with its clients, and they should, for this story shows the kind of results that can be achieved.