LOUISIANA-PACIFIC

Driving cost savings through innovation.

Client

Louisiana-Pacific

Solution

Industry

Building Supplies

Project Brief

Louisiana-Pacific (LP) continues to trust Derse, their partner of 15+ years, to tell their story through innovative product displays, realize cost savings, and drive business opportunities at the International Builders Show (IBS).

Every year, Derse is given the opportunity to design an innovative experience for their attendees. Our creative designers brainstorm story-driven product experiences that allow LP to save on shipping costs and demonstrate the effectiveness of their products to their audience at IBS.

Strategies

Purposeful Creative
Customer Experience

COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

At the core of our fifteen-year-long partnership with LP is our commitment to collaboration. Louisiana-Pacific consistently relies on Derse to collaborate with their agency of record (AOR) to present solutions that drive their business forward and effectively display their products. At a show as saturated at IBS, LP looks to Derse for new ideas to make an impact while considering effective cost-savings solutions. LP has launched products nearly every year throughout our partnership with them; each product has given us the opportunity to tell their story and engage their audiences. Our goal is to create exhibit experiences that are more than simply displaying pieces of wood, and actually get to the heart of who LP is and what they do best.

PRODUCT DISPLAYS THROUGH IMPACTFUL STORYTELLING

Derse’s customer experience designers worked with LP and their AOR to design engagements
for attendees to better understand the effectiveness of their products.

SmartSide

For one of the engagements, we created a display in which attendees could pull back and release a sledgehammer into one of their competitor’s fiber-cement siding, which disintegrated, and then released another sledgehammer into LP’s SmartSide siding which remained intact. The idea for this demo came from one of Derse’s carpenters who developed the initial prototype ten years ago – this impactful demo is still in circulation today.

FlameBlock

In an effort to capture the attention of large crowds and generate conversations about LP’s FlameBlock flame-resistant sheathing, Derse developed an idea to use faux fire to communicate with attendees the essential role the product plays in slowing down a fire. Derse designed and built a six-foot-wide display that generated mist across a bank of lights that flowed upwards, clearly imitating flames. The display not only mesmerized droves of attendees who flocked to their booth, but it also created opportunities for LP’s staff to discuss the benefits of FlameBlock with attendees.

Legacy

LP’s Legacy products are known for their durability and strength. To demonstrate the effectiveness of their product, LP was planning a campaign in which they created a shark cage using Legacy and aluminum and submerged it under water for 30 hours. When they pulled the shark cage out, the structural integrity of the Legacy product was undeniable. Derse’s recommendation to the client was to bring the shark cage to the exhibit, and create an interactive experience for attendees. To draw attendees in, a prominent virtual reality experience welcomed attendees to walk into the exhibit and visualize swimming with sharks. LP used this story beyond their trade show strategy to anchor their position in the building materials market.

TechShield

For LP’s TechShield product (a radiant barrier which lowers attic temperatures up to 30 degrees), Derse designed and constructed a Plexiglass display case that featured a miniature roof that used TechShield and another miniature roof that did not. Within the display case, a radiating heat source mimicked the sun to demonstrate the effectiveness of the product. Thermometers attached to the inside of each of the simulation roof structures showed the difference in temperature between both of the displays.

INNOVATIVE PRODUCT DISPLAYS

In pursuit of a new way of displaying their products at IBS 2023, LP’s AOR came up with the idea of creating an interactive kiosk. Derse’s execution of this idea allowed attendees to view a 3D image of a home that utilized LP siding and trim products on a monitor. They could select different colored products by waving their hand over a bank of sensors. The digital kiosk allowed home developers and architects to see the look and feel of LP giving them confidence in the products they purchase.

Derse Experiential Marketing Trade Show Exhibit

COST SAVINGS

The best ideas don’t have to be the most expensive. From our unique physical and digital product engagements, the product kiosks, and the ongoing conversation about rising transportation costs, we have been committed to being good stewards of LP’s budget. Although LP had often achieved success at IBS with a house-like structure utilizing their building materials as the focal point of their exhibit, Derse worked with the client to create a new solution for IBS 2023 that would allow them to maximize their trade show investment and fill their exhibit space without shipping heavy materials. Our consultative approach to strategic business planning allowed them to save more than $100,000 in material handling and I&D.

To identify further cost savings, Derse recommended not to ship the properties from Las Vegas back to LP’s home division in Pittsburgh, but instead to store LP’s products in our Las Vegas facility, saving the client on transportation both for this year’s show, and for their next show.

Derse’s focus on account management and approach to innovative creative solutions are a true representation that we are an extension of LP’s team. Our consultative approach helped LP engage their audience, tell the story of their durable products, and make the most of their trade show investment.