Trade Show Prep Starts Now For KBIS/IBS 2027: Part I

By Frankie Wenson, Strategic PR/Marketing Advisor, Merlot Marketing

Wait, didn’t KBIS and IBS just end? I’m still unpacking crates and sorting through business cards!!

Ask most brands how the 2026 show went and they’ll tell you about the booth: the traffic, the demos, the badge scans, the aisle energy. All of it real. All of it worth measuring. But by the time those doors open in Las Vegas next February, the biggest decisions will have already been made. The work that determines whether a show pays for itself happens long before attendees ever step onto the show floor.

The booth is the visible ten percent. The other ninety (the part no one photographs) is where trade show ROI is actually won or lost. After 25-plus years powering the communications teams behind some of the home and building industry’s most recognized brands, that’s the pattern we see most consistently: the brands that treat a show like IBS or KBIS as the centerpiece of a campaign, rather than a standalone event, come home with something durable. The ones that treat the booth as the whole strategy come home with a lead list and a hangover.

So here’s the arc of what a serious trade show program looks like: not our proprietary playbook, but the shape of the work. Read it as a benchmark for what you should expect, whether you’re managing it in-house or partnering with an agency to do the work.

Before the Show: Everything Upstream of the Booth

	It starts with the story, not the square footage. Before a single graphic gets designed, the first question is whether the brand’s positioning is sharp enough to carry a crowded show floor. We’ll run a quick audit of where the brand stands, often pulling elements of our REDiscover™ process, if not the full exercise, to pressure-test the messaging foundation: what you stand for, who you serve, and why it matters right now. Everything tactical flows from that. You cannot amplify a story you haven’t defined, and a booth built on a fuzzy message is an expensive way to be forgettable.
	Then the comms engine is built. Well ahead of the show, the monitoring, reporting, scheduling, and distribution systems are set up and the audiences are loaded across news and press releases, social, email, and digital advertising. This is unglamorous work that nobody notices when it’s done right, and everybody feels when it isn’t. It’s also where transparency lives: when the templates and audiences are in place early, the whole team has eyes on the plan instead of scrambling the week of.
	It’s also the phase where hundreds of seemingly small details get buttoned up: product photography, media kits, booth messaging, award submissions, speaking proposals, exhibitor profiles, email campaigns, social creative, press room assets, interview schedules…the list goes on. None of it is glamorous, but every piece helps ensure the brand shows up looking polished, prepared, and ready to make the most of every opportunity. A content calendar becomes the single source of truth. Every message, on every platform, mapped to the weeks leading into the show and the weeks coming out of it. It will certainly shift, but everyone knowing when and where the brand shows up is what turns a dozen disconnected posts into a campaign with momentum.
	Media outreach begins months out, matched to how editors work. The editors at the trade and consumer titles that matter aren’t waiting to be surprised; they’re planning issues on published editorial calendars. So the pitching starts early and runs on a steady beat tied to their lead times – trade outlets roughly two to three months ahead, consumer titles closer to five – with angles built for each beat rather than one release blasted to everyone. In parallel, we’re identifying and submitting the awards worth pursuing: for the company, for its executives, and for the specific product going to market.

Authority gets built before the floor opens. Plan for webinars, event sponsorships, panels, CEUs, speaking slots…anything that puts the brand in front of its audience as a credible voice. This matters more than it looks. A brand that editors and buyers already recognize as a subject-matter authority walks into the show pre-sold; coverage compounds when you’re a known quantity rather than a cold pitch. That authority-building can extend right onto the show floor itself through onsite presentations and brand-sponsored moments.

We’ve seen firsthand that the brands generating the most buzz on opening day are rarely starting from scratch. They’ve spent months building anticipation through product announcements, award submissions, strategic media outreach, speaking opportunities, social campaigns, and customer communications. By the time attendees arrive, people are already looking for them.

Keep an eye out for next month’s newsletter where we’ll be sharing tips and tricks on how to win on the show floor and after everyone leaves.