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Perfume & Oud Exhibiton
Case Study: Expo Center Sharjah
How Expo Center Sharjah went from regular event invites to 100,000 social impressions with experiential invitation design.
“The invites were a huge hit! Our recipients were astonished. The whole experience, from the invites to the Snapchat filter and the event itself, felt connected and truly came to life. We even had people who didn’t receive a box calling to ask for one; we completely ran out! This success has fundamentally changed how we plan our invites and gifting for next year. Following the Kaizen rule, we’re always looking for continuous improvement, and we’re excited to go next-level with your team again.”
Khaled Showaiter, Senior Marketing Executive @ Expo Center Sharjah
Khaled Showaiter, Senior Marketing Executive @ Expo Center Sharjah
Overview
Expo Centre Sharjah is a pillar of the UAE’s events industry, renowned for hosting prestigious trade shows and exhibitions. For their VIP clientele, however, the process of invitation and gifting had become comfortable, almost automatic. Relying on traditional methods, their outreach was functional but they were looking for the spark of true distinction. In an ecosystem saturated with competing events, Expo Center Sharjah recognized they were defaulting to the expected.
The Challenge
The need for change was triggered by the upcoming Perfume & Oud Exhibition. This event is luxurious, and Expo Center Sharjah needed the invitation itself to feel equally special. They realized their regular invitations were not exciting people and risked making the high-end event feel ordinary.
The process and solution
We joined Expo Center Sharjah as their guide, moving away from “gifting” and toward experiential design.
- Understanding the goal: We began by getting hands-on, bringing creative samples to the ECS team and diving deep into the psychology of their high-net-worth attendees.
- The creative solution: The solution was a bespoke, multi-sensory invitation box. The centerpiece was a meticulously designed 3D pop-up that, upon opening, unfolded into a delicate sakura scene, framing a luxurious perfume bottle at its heart.
- Practical use: The box also included a drawer where VIPs could easily find their lanyards, access passes, and parking passes.
- Going digital: The final touch was integrating a Snapcode into the physical pop-up. Scanning it launched an Augmented Reality (AR) filter, bringing the scene to life with gently raining flower petals, transforming a static object into a shareable, digital moment.
The impact
The response from VIPs and VVIPs was overwhelmingly positive. One exhibitor, recognizing the unique nature of the piece, recorded the box opening and the pop-up unfolding specifically to include it as the introduction in his own event recap. The design became content, generating high social visibility for the exhibition. The embedded Snapchat lens reached over 100,000 impressions in just two weeks, providing a trackable boost to the event’s social media presence. This successful transformation brought a new standard for their event communication, proving the power of design to elevate prestige and drive engagement.
This result came from our Experiential Invite Design. A highly bespoke service focused on turning brand materials into memorable, interactive, and shareable experiences.