Roofing is usually about shingles and the adhesives and fasteners that hold them firmly in place. But for its exhibit at the 2018 International Roofing Expo, GAF Materials LLC wanted an exhibit that would nail down an emotional bond between its roofing brand and the show's audience of contractors and distributors while also educating them on its products.

Working with 3D Exhibits Inc., GAF built a 4,900-square-foot exhibit designed around a "Saluting America's Workers" theme to appeal to an industry buffeted by trade wars and rocked by record amounts of imported construction materials. The company anchored each of the booth's three roofing-product areas (residential, commercial, and solar) with a 20-by-18-foot rectangle painted in the company's intense scarlet hue. Looking like humongous building blocks, the oversized frames, constructed from aluminum skeletons with silicone-edge graphics, contained pictures of and personal details about actual GAF employees. Another aspect of GAF's tribute to American labor took place in front of a video wall located in the back of the exhibit. There, Mike Rowe, reality-TV star of "Dirty Jobs" and a figure synonymous with blue-collar trades, gave a short talk about his Mike Rowe Works Foundation, an organization focused on using vocational instruction to create a skilled workforce.

This appreciation of good-old American gumption segued into an educational activation in each of the three main areas. Touchscreens throughout the zones provided attendees with interactive content while double-sided product displays, angled to mimic typical roofs, allowed visitors to touch and feel various items. Staffers also conducted a variety of sessions on estimating costs, installation training, and more near the aforementioned video wall, which ran looping content showing GAF products in use. Employing informative classes, enormous attention-getting elements, and an expressive homage to its workers, GAF forged a bond with hundreds of visitors that just might be as long lasting as its roofing tiles. E