2. Who Optimizely is and why they were at these fairs
Optimizely is one of the most recognised digital experience platforms (DXP) in the global market. Founded in 2010, its proposition centres on continuous experimentation: A/B testing, content personalisation, audience segmentation and digital experience management at scale. Its clients are, for the most part, large companies with mature marketing and product teams that need to improve the performance of their digital channels in a systematic and measurable way.
For a company with this profile, trade fair presence is not a representation expense: it is a direct commercial lever. Their potential clients attend these events, their competitors do too, and the physical stand space becomes the only opportunity to materialise the brand promise into something that can be seen, touched and remembered. The paradox is clear: a company whose business is digital experience has to translate that philosophy into a space of just a few dozen square metres, surrounded by visual noise and hundreds of competitors.
In 2024, Optimizely decided to be present at three top-tier European fairs for their sector, with consecutive calendars in three different cities. The project was managed through 2020 Exhibits, a company specialising in international exhibition solutions, which entrusted TARS Design with the design, production and full installation of all three stands.
3. Brief and real constraints
The commission that came to TARS Design had several layers of complexity that went well beyond designing a conventional stand.
Brand consistency across three very different contexts. Optimizely has well-defined visual and communication codes: clarity, precision, technology, trust. Those codes had to be maintained across all three events, even though each fair had its own register and its own audience. The challenge was not to make three identical stands, but three stands that were unmistakably Optimizely.
Different surface areas and budgets at each fair. The three stands had different dimensions, which required adapting the architecture, the content layout and the scale of the visual impact without losing the common narrative thread. The task was not to scale the same design — it was to reinterpret it.
A linked calendar with a tight operational margin. Three events in three countries in the same year meant managing three production, transport, build and derig processes in parallel or in rapid succession. Each completed project was the starting gun for the next.
Experiential activation as a requirement. At least one of the events required going beyond passive communication. The personalised perfume experience at OMR did not emerge as a random idea: it responded to an explicit desire to physically translate Optimizely’s personalisation promise into something the visitor could be the protagonist of.
4. The three fairs: audience, tone and what each one demanded
Understanding the context of each fair is essential to understanding why each stand was designed the way it was. These are not interchangeable events.
OMR Festival, Hamburg
OMR is, above all, a festival. Not a conventional business fair, but an event that combines high-level conferences with an atmosphere of energy, entertainment and digital culture. Its audience is predominantly young: digital marketing professionals, startups, creative agencies and technology enthusiasts. The tone is informal, dynamic and experiential. Attendees do not come just to collect catalogues — they come to experience something. In this context, a conventional stand with screens and brochures is invisible. What works at OMR is what generates conversation, what people photograph, what gets shared.
For Optimizely, OMR was the ideal setting to connect with a young, tech-savvy audience that might not know the brand in depth, but could become advocates or future users.
Shoptalk Europe, Barcelona
Shoptalk Europe is a different kind of event. Held at Fira Barcelona Gran Via, it is one of the reference events for the retail and digital commerce sector in Europe. Its audience consists of executives and decision-makers from major retail chains, consumer brands, e-commerce platforms and technology providers. The tone is executive, sophisticated and business-focused. People do not come to play: they come to evaluate solutions, build relationships and make purchasing or partnership decisions.
For Optimizely, Shoptalk was the environment in which to speak directly with their target clients: marketing and product directors at major retailers who need exactly what Optimizely offers. Visibility in the hall and the stand’s visual credibility carried direct strategic weight.
DMEXCO, Cologne
DMEXCO is the reference event for digital marketing and advertising technology in Europe. Held at Koelnmesse in Cologne, it attracts tens of thousands of sector professionals every year, from creative agencies to major advertisers, technology platforms and media companies. It is the largest of the three events, with an extremely high level of visual competition: leading brands compete for attention with large-scale installations, looping video production and ambitious ephemeral architecture.
At DMEXCO, size matters. Not as an end in itself, but because in a saturated environment, scale is the only way to guarantee visibility before a visitor gets close enough to read a message.
5. Design decisions: the reasoning behind each stand
OMR: personalisation as a lived experience
The central decision at OMR was to turn Optimizely’s personalisation concept into something the visitor could experience first-hand, not read on a panel. The perfume activation was the answer to that question: how do you demonstrate at a stand that your technology creates unique experiences for each user?
The mechanic was simple but effective. The visitor used the app or website to configure their ideal fragrance by choosing from different olfactory notes, and the system generated a unique code. That code was redeemed at a machine installed at the stand which physically produced the bottle with the chosen fragrance. The result was a personal, tangible object that the visitor took away with them. A perfect metaphor for Optimizely’s business: every user receives an experience designed specifically for them.
The 62 m² were organised to facilitate this flow without generating queues or congestion. Two large-format screens supported the brand narrative in motion, and the surrounding infographics explained the value of Optimizely’s solutions visually and accessibly for an audience that was not necessarily an immediate potential client. The objective at OMR was not to close sales: it was to leave a mark.
Shoptalk: height as an argument
At Shoptalk, the challenge was different. The 36 m² surface was more contained, and the audience was more demanding and more specific. The decision to raise the structure to 4 metres, making it the tallest stand at the fair, followed a clear logic: in an environment where visitors are executives with packed schedules and limited time, the stand’s first job is to be seen from a distance.
The tensioned fabric structure covering the ceiling and walls served several simultaneous functions. Visually, it created a recognisable volumetric identity that stood apart from the surrounding stands, most of which relied on standard modular systems. Functionally, it enabled creative use of lighting that created a distinct interior atmosphere, separated from the visual noise of the hall. And in terms of message, the cleanliness and precision of the tensioned lines connected directly to Optimizely’s brand values: clarity, rigour and technological elegance.
The interior was designed to facilitate quality conversations, not to accumulate footfall. Two monitors displayed strategic content, large-format infographics allowed a rapid reading of the platform’s value, and the ambient lighting created an atmosphere that invited people to stop and stay.
DMEXCO: scale as language
At DMEXCO, scale was the brief. With 100 m² and a 6-metre-tall structure, the Optimizely stand had to compete in an environment where the sector’s biggest brands play with proportionally ambitious budgets and architectural ambitions. The tensioned fabric, which had already worked at Shoptalk, was deployed here in its most monumental version: an enclosure that created its own distinct, recognisable interior space, visible from any point in the hall.
Two large-format video walls animated the interior with dynamic brand content, turning the stand into a space in constant motion. The decision to prioritise video walls over static panels responded to the context: at DMEXCO, visual competition is so intense that static content becomes invisible. Movement, light and video are the only languages that guarantee sustained attention.
Large-format infographics completed the narrative, translating Optimizely’s technical capabilities into comprehensible benefits for a heterogeneous audience. DMEXCO brings together everyone from senior marketing directors at large corporations to technical specialists and agency managers. The content design had to work for all of them.
6. Execution: the complexity of doing the same thing well three times
Managing a stand at an international fair is, in itself, an exercise in logistical and technical coordination. Managing three, in three different countries, with consecutive calendars, multiplies that complexity in a non-linear way.
Each stand involved independent production processes, coordination with the technical services of each venue, adaptation to local regulations for ephemeral construction and management of material transport between cities. The tensioned fabric — the structural and visual element common to all three projects — required rigorous quality control at each installation: incorrect tension changes the visual perception of the space and can compromise the integrity of the structure.
Working with 2020 Exhibits as the direct client added an additional layer of coordination: design decisions had to align with the end client’s requirements — Optimizely — while managing the operational relationship with the intermediary. Clear communication and well-defined validation processes were decisive in maintaining the project’s coherence across all three events.
The result of this management was that all three stands were delivered on time, to the required technical and visual standard, and meeting the objectives of each event.
7. Results and resonance
All three stands met their specific objectives in each context.
At OMR, the perfume activation became one of the most talked-about experiences at the festival. The mechanic generated constant traffic to the stand, created moments of genuine interaction between the Optimizely team and visitors, and produced a personalised physical object that attendees took away with them, extending the brand’s reach beyond the fair venue.
At Shoptalk, the stand’s height made it a visible landmark from any point in the hall. Visitor flow was consistent throughout the three days of the event, with a high proportion of relevant profiles for Optimizely’s business: retail executives, e-commerce managers and technology partners.
At DMEXCO, the scale of the stand and the intensity of the video wall content positioned Optimizely as a first-tier brand at the most important digital marketing event in Europe. The visual presence was consistent with the leadership position the company wanted to project in the market.
“Each fair had its own rhythm and its own audience, but our objective was always the same: for the visitor experience to reflect the value of the brand. And I believe we achieved that.”
Mateo Escolano Bertomeu, Project Manager, TARS Design
8. Three lessons for anyone designing stands at technology fairs
The fair’s context overrides the size of the stand. There is no universally correct design for a technology stand. What works at OMR, where visitors seek stimulation and experience, does not work at Shoptalk, where visitors seek credibility and efficiency. Before deciding what the stand will look like, you need to understand who will be looking at it and what mental state they will be in.
Brand consistency does not mean uniformity. Maintaining Optimizely’s visual codes across all three events did not mean making three identical stands. It meant making different design decisions in each case, all of them justified by the same brand values: clarity, precision, innovation. Consistency is a matter of judgement, not of templates.
Experiential activations must be connected to the business. The perfume activation at OMR worked because it was not a decorative gimmick: it was a physical demonstration of Optimizely’s value. When the stand experience is a direct metaphor for what the company sells, the visitor understands it without anyone having to explain it. That is the level of integration to aim for.
9. Does your company need to be at international fairs with a stand that matches your brand?
At TARS Design we manage the design, production and installation of exhibition stands for fairs across Europe, from compact high-impact projects through to large-scale installations like the one at DMEXCO. If your company participates in international fairs and you want your physical presence to match your brand, tell us about your project.
