Instantor
InstallerSHOW
Instantor's Exhibiting Challenge:
How can we build on previous exhibiting success, while also confidently entering a new market?
Instantor is a market-leading manufacturer and supplier of plumbing and heating solutions. Following a successful first year working with Nimlok in 2025, the Instantor team returned for InstallerSHOW 2026 with ambitious targets to build on their previous exhibiting success:
- Launch a new product range, leveraging the brand’s pre-established trust, credibility and UVP
- Celebrate 100 years of expertise and incorporate this milestone into their exhibition stand design
- Achieve 30% YoY growth in qualified event leads for their two main audience segments: installers and merchants
Having exceeded their objectives at the previous show, the focus for 2026 wasn’t on starting from scratch, but on evolving the exhibition strategy to support a new set of objectives by creating a cohesive visitor journey through exhibition stand design, impactful graphic design and an interactive engagement activation.
Nimlok's Exhibiting Solution:
Building brand trust through every visitor touchpoint
Instantor understands that brand confidence is essential: merchants must trust the products they stock, while installers must feel comfortable fitting them.
Nimlok therefore developed a cohesive stand experience that connected Instantor’s new underfloor heating range with its established reputation, market-leading expertise, and 100-year history.
The stand analytics insights from the previous year’s event helped refine the stand layout, messaging, and engagement strategy, creating an open visitor journey that encouraged hands-on product discovery and natural conversations.
Launching a new product category by leveraging the brand’s established credibility
Displaying six underfloor heating product systems within a limited footprint required a carefully considered solution.
Nimlok created 4m high product stations that seamlessly integrated pre-assembled product boards into the stand design, communicating the breadth of the product range to potential merchants, while Instantor’s on-stand staff conducted hands-on product demos that evidenced the quality and ease of assembly to prospective installers.
This new product station complemented the evolution of the 2025 exhibition stand design to create a cohesive physical visitor journey, while the graphic design balanced consistent brand elements, value-adding messaging and an extended brand colour palette to transfer the credibility of the established brand directly to the new category.
Engaging attendees with a product-led physical challenge & activation
Last year, Nimlok deployed an interactive multiplayer racing game (CONNECT) that enabled visitors to engage with Instantor’s core service offering.
Two factors influenced the evolution of their on-stand engagement: moving into a new exhibitor zone at the InstallerSHOW, and their primary target audience being practical and hands-on.
This meant their previous digital game evolved into a fast-paced, physical ring-toss activation that allowed attendees to interact directly with Instantor’s core products.
Visitors threw branded rings over Instantor press tools, with a score of 100 unlocking a prize and the opportunity to win a press tool, which is hugely appealing to professional installers, all whilst referencing the brand’s centenary.
Bespoke product supports, logo-shaped rings, and branded hooks demonstrated Nimlok’s attention to detail, while the constant stream of eager players at the show evidenced that evolving the engagement was the correct strategic decision.
Showcasing 100 years of expertise throughout the visitor journey
Instantor’s 100-year history is a monumental achievement that needed to be communicated to the marketplace as a demonstration of credibility and market-leading status, a core message that was crucial to its product launch strategy.
Nimlok incorporated the brand’s milestone throughout the visitor journey, including the flooring, overhead graphics, and inward-facing stand messages. The stand’s position in a new hall at the show saw Instantor exhibiting confidently amongst other recognised industry leading manufacturers.
A central counter with a bespoke acrylic top acted as a walk through of Instantor’s past history, displaying original products, packaging, and marketing materials dating back to 1926.
And then, each afternoon, the space became a bar serving Guinness, bringing visitors together and leaving them with a positive, memorable impression of the Instantor brand.
Instantor's Exhibiting Factsheet:
Stand
Size
Large - 148.5 sqm
Exhibiting
Frequency
2 events per year
Event
Location
NEC Birmingham
Show Objectives
Product Launch
Generate Leads
Engagement Used
Bespoke ring-toss physical activation
The Exhibiting Results:
Targets exceeded, engagement transformed. The proof was in the response rate.
Instantor aimed to increase its 2025 installer and merchant results by 30% at InstallerSHOW 2026.
The 2026 event surpassed these targets by generating almost three times the previous qualified lead volume, while the ring-toss activation, interactive displays and other stand features delivered nearly ten times the anticipated engagement.
More than 800 qualifying game plays were recorded, with many more visitors taking part.
Instantor also converted a merchant enquiry into a new customer within weeks, demonstrating how an engaging stand experience and a slick follow-up process can translate exhibition activity into tangible ROI.
