Ehsan Kaykhah | KAY

Experiential Marketing/2020

WINDOW DISPLAY, Tehran

Luxury building-materials brands were being shown in the same undifferentiated booth grid as commodity suppliers — a format that flattened exactly the qualities they were selling.

The team on the floor at WINDOW DISPLAY Tehran, hands raised, in front of the thread installation and the Banaye Bartar signage wall
Client
Banaye Bartar
Place
Ava Center, Tehran
Year
2020
Category
Experiential Marketing

The challenge

Luxury building-materials brands were being shown in the same undifferentiated booth grid as commodity suppliers — a format that flattened exactly the qualities they were selling.

What changed

The fifth edition ran as a private, four-day presentation with spatial installations built per brand. Material, light and threshold did the persuading; the printed panel was demoted to a footnote.

The outcome

The edition established the private-presentation model that the following editions were built on, and won the format recognition from Iran's building industry.

Edition
5thEdition
Days, invitation only
4Days, invitation only
Purchase intent
58%Purchase intent

Held at the Ava Center in Tehran, the fifth edition of the platform opened its doors for an annual four-day run as a private presentation of Banaye Bartar and superior companies in building materials and luxury finishes.

The design premise was direct: a material is a sensory argument, and a sensory argument cannot be made from a laminated board. Each brand received an installation — suspended thread fields, illuminated volumes, controlled thresholds — so that the first encounter with the brand was an encounter with the material itself.

The edition also fixed the audience model that WINDOW became known for. Attendance was by invitation, weighted toward specifiers and buyers with active projects, which is what allowed the platform to make a commercial claim rather than a design one.

WINDOW DISPLAY, Tehran — the first edition on film, February 2020Music, no speech.
Signage under the entrance soffit reading THE FIRST WINDOW DISPLAY EXHIBITION IN IRAN, with the TEHRAN 2020 mark
The reception desk with the team behind it, under the banayebartar wordmark and the line WE CAN BUILD A BETTER IRAN
The thread installation and the WINDOW DISPLAY TEHRAN 2020 signage wall, empty
The hall seen the length of its concrete arches, the exhibitor route running away under them
White display frames standing free on the concrete floor, each brand inside the same structure
The floor with the exhibition running, long shadows across the concrete
One free-standing white frame close to, a slab of book-matched marble hung inside it
A white frame lit from within by vertical light lines, crossed by a single orange bar
A living green wall running the length of the concrete hall, visitors alongside it
A setting in blocks of red, yellow and blue inside a white frame, visitors reading the panel beside it
A red and white setting behind glass, a single visitor standing inside the frame
A room of parquet panels hung as samples on a raw concrete wall
A white frame cabin with veneer samples on its walls and one armchair inside it
An open wardrobe setting in oak and steel, shirts hung in a lit bay
A slatted timber chair on a black tripod base, standing alone against a white wall
A panelled room in charcoal and brass — a glass table, a gilt console and a mirror
A marble bench cantilevered from a book-matched marble wall, planting spilling down beside it
A white kitchen setting with a single black tap and open shelving
Two chandeliers hung side by side, one in black chain and one in clear glass
A string quartet and a grand piano playing at the green wall, visitors listening from the seating
High tables under the hall's steel trusses, groups standing in conversation
A table above the city on the terrace, three people mid-conversation at dusk
The exhibitor sheet: every participating mark set in one grid beside the TEHRAN 2020 chair
WINDOW

Client voices

All of them, unedited.

The full set, in the order they were filmed into the day rather than cut for length.

Filmed on the floor at WINDOW DISPLAY, Tehran, 2020.

  • Read the transcript

    The exhibition is fascinating. I had already seen its poster on Instagram, followed it, registered, and used it. I'm generally familiar with the brands that are here, and I've even collaborated with some of them before. I recommend attending the exhibition to all architects.

  • Read the transcript

    It was an exhibition where everyone we invited showed up — great creators, great designers, all of whom were well-known, selected, and curated. It was a really nice private exhibition. It was an interesting concept where everyone brought an element, a piece, a fragment of their work to execute. Unlike a regular public exhibition that takes up a lot of their time and costs them a lot, this concept, with just a piece or an element, was very unique.

  • Read the transcript

    Everyone, great job. Thank you so much for your efforts. A lot of very, very good things have happened for the entire group. I personally didn't expect the outcome to be this significant. Both the organizing team, Mr. Kaykhah and his group, and Mr. Engineer Rafat, who honored us with their presence. The events are solid, in a good and well-defined place. I hope we can, in the future, come together for the next events and do something even more unique. The first and second rounds of an event can be very different, but I think we've set some good standards to start with.

  • Read the transcript

    The exhibition was good. I think the concept of this window was something interesting and new, and I don't think — at least I haven't seen — anyone in Tehran hold such a concept.

  • Read the transcript

    I had participated in several exhibitions, but this one was special. The visitors were very professional. Thanks for the excellent program. Thanks to Mr. Kaykhah. My opinion is that it's very easy for those who are truly in this field to attend this exhibition. The people who come are genuinely interested in this product, so you don't have to waste so much energy explaining it to the general public.

  • Read the transcript

    In my opinion, the exhibition was good because of the services it offered. One of the issues was the parking situation — for someone who came, the guests and visitors assigned made it easier to find parking. The good location, and the artistic vibe of the environment, which was somewhat aligned with our work, made it more enjoyable.

  • Read the transcript

    It hasn't been bad — the reception has been different, because we always participate in these exhibitions where everyone's work is furniture. But here, since it involves architecture and the booths are different from each other, their productions and the things they present are different. It's been a somewhat interesting experience for us. It's also our first time, and I hope we can participate in the coming years as well.

  • Read the transcript

    The exhibition is great in every way you can think of — like the location, its position, umm, where it is, for example, and also the parking, which is in a very large museum. I mean, for us as exhibitors, it's important that our audience — or in fact, customer — who comes has a good experience, and in my opinion this exhibition provided that package really well.

Persian audio · English subtitles

Selected work should show how KAY thinks, builds and delivers.

Book a Strategy CallBanaye Bartar Magazine