For about 15 percent of Americans, there isn't much difference between the sound of a church bell and a chainsaw. That's because roughly 48 million suffer some level of hearing loss. And until this year, their options were spendy as well as restricted: The average cost of a hearing aid can run up to $4,000 or more, and obtaining one requires a visit to a medical professional. But in late 2022, the Food and Drug Administration's over-the-counter hearing-aids ruling went into effect. That ruling was a game-changer that allows people to purchase one of the devices without a prescription, medical exam, or professional fit.

For those with a hearing impairment, the ruling was a sound idea. But for companies like Eargo Inc., it posed a high-decibel opportunity – and challenge. Founded in 2010, the hearing-aid manufacturer was planning to exhibit at the 2023 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to announce the launch of its latest device, Eargo 7. With 115,000 attendees this year, the show presented Eargo an opportunity to crank the volume up on the company's brand awareness. But how? How would it demonstrate what a lack of sound felt like and the difference its technology could make?

Eargo's problem wasn't unique. According to the company, other hearing-aid manufacturers at CES simply defaulted to showcasing their products like a row of cabinet pulls at a Home Depot; Eargo took advantage of rivals' tone-deaf approach by creating an exhibit that offered a true experience and elevated the category.

Inside its 1,800-square-foot booth, the company built a tunnel – call it an auditory canal – that ran roughly 23 feet long. Constructed by Voxx Exhibits LLC out of aluminum frames and covered in hard panels of glossy white Dibond and acrylic, the tunnel contained a trio of hearing stations, each of which included two vertically positioned 60-inch Samsung Smart TV monitors. Each hearing station was spaced 3.5 feet away from the others to allow for better traffic flow as well as avoid sound bleeding from one zone to another.

When guests entered the tunnel and walked in front of any one of the hearing stations, their movements activated a motion detector that triggered LED lights embedded in the walls of the section they were standing in. At the same moment, a monitor displayed one of three different scenarios for each of the stations: spending time outdoors, attending social events, and being in a restaurant.

Here was a key moment. Eargo wanted to show the dramatic difference its technology could make in these common situations with and without its hearing aids. Normally, you might conclude you would need to do nothing more than turn the sound up or down on the video loop to get the idea, right? Not so. The landscape of CES is a tidal wave of noise, drowning showgoers in a roar that pollutes the specific sound levels the company wanted visitors to experience. To neutralize that pervasive din, Eargo used directional sound domes and speakers over the stations that focused each video's different audio levels like a laser beam. This would essentially cover attendees like a cocoon that kept CES's clamor outside and the varying sound levels inside the sonic sheath.

One guest after another approached the hearing stations and cycled through all three of the scenarios offered. With the directed sound effectively blanking out the show-floor ruckus and then playing the scenarios' sounds at different levels of volume and distortion (think muffled speech and unclear consonants), the visitors could truly experience how hearing loss might diminish their everyday lives, and how an Eargo hearing aid could restore what not so long ago would have been permanently lost. For example, one of the stations showed how individuals with hearing loss struggle to discern conversations held around a table in a crowded restaurant.

Before they exited the booth, attendees convinced by the demo they might be missing out on a tapestry of sound could check their hearing in one of two hearing pods. Once they entered the sound-dampened pod and shut the door, they could test their auditory capacity using a set of headphones and a Microsoft tablet with clearly written instructions. After visitors had the opportunity to compare the dramatic before-and-after sound effects of the demo and then take the test, it was plain that Eargo's carefully designed marketing message was coming through loud and clear.

Some things can't be experienced directly. Others shouldn't be experienced. Not if you want to live, that is.

That was the dilemma facing Chevron Products Co., which wanted to exhibit Delo 600 at the 2020 Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition (TMC). The ultra-low ash, heavy-duty diesel engine oil is formulated to not contaminate the emission controls inside modern diesel engines. That particular quality is a crucial differentiator for the product and a critical selling point: Most engine oil additives, in contrast, contain a heavy dose of metallic ash, which collects in and eventually blocks a diesel engine's particulate filter (DPF). The DPF is what captures 90 percent of carbon monoxide (CO) in a vehicle's exhaust, in addition to a brew of other toxic chemicals. Despite its importance, Chevron marketers knew that the filtration process is often out of sight and out of mind for customers and something they only think about when there's a problem.

But actually showing attendees how well Delo 600 works would also mean exposing them to the DPF, which would be like inhaling a landfill of toxins. The DPF, then, is one of those proverbial items you wouldn't want to touch with a 10-foot pole even if you wore a hazmat onesie. And that's not taking into account the fact its internal temperature runs at nearly 600 degrees Fahrenheit – hot enough to reduce a block of lead to a steaming puddle.

Instead, the company hit upon a model solution with, fittingly enough, a model. Chevron and its exhibit designer, Deckel & Moneypenny Inc., constructed a replica of a filter that was 10 times the size of an actual one. This would form both a curious traffic builder and create a psychological atmosphere to explain the lube. Oversized objects in exhibits exert a gravitational pull that might impress even Newton, ranging from stoves the size of cathedrals to blocks of cheese that weigh more than two adult African elephants. The size overwhelms attendees psychologically and renders them receptive to messaging – in this case, how Delo 600 can prevent turning the DPF into a lethal weapon.

Looking a bit like a portal to another dimension, the 9-by-9-by-12-foot model was made of an aluminum frame and clad with printed PVC panels. Its carroty color reflected the DPF's scorching internal temperature. As visitors entered the stylized DPF, their motion triggered a video explaining what a DPF is and how it functions. As the video completed, it prompted attendees to continue to a nearby second monitor where they could see how metallic ash builds up inside the DPF and blocks airflow, and how Delo 600 prevents that calamity from occurring.

Other exhibitors might have fallen back on freestanding or wall-mounted graphics. But by using a supersized model, Chevron made visualizing the DPF irresistible, while the information on monitors inside the oversized filter holding attendees "captive" reinforced how without Delo 600, the sludge would build up in it like plaque filling an artery. So effective was the company's approach that it's used the model DPF for the last several years now at multiple shows.

Back when cars were the hot new horse-and-buggy-disrupting technology of the day, automakers could easily demo them at auto shows by setting up tracks and putting the newfangled transportation through its paces. But when Eaton Corp., a multinational power-management company, wanted to portray itself as a global leader in vehicle electrification at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it had to illustrate a process that was concealed to the naked eye, with no easy way to demo how it works. Electricity, after all, is something that is all around us whose invisibility we shrug our shoulders at and often take for granted.

With the help of Sparks Marketing LLC, the company designed and created a life-size 7-by-13-foot car model to tell Eaton's story at the massive electronics expo. Cleverly, it made the car not any recognizable model, but simply a stripped-down wireframe one, so that visitors would instantly identify the effigy as an auto, of course, but one of no particular make. That way, attendees who might otherwise be dazzled by the sinewy silhouette of a Tesla or a Lamborghini would focus on the process Eaton was showing instead. The wireframe also offered the benefit of not having a typical car's exterior components that could end up blocking attendees' view.

Displayed on a raised laminated platform with LED downlighting within Eaton's 30-by-50-foot booth, the two-tone artificial auto's lower body was painted black with the upper frame tinted pearl white, then clear coated to give it a hyperreal appearance. Two 55-inch touchscreens on the dais were butted up to make one large monitor offering three modes – charging, driving, and exporting power. Pressing any of these modes activated elements within the motorcar to light up via LED lighting strips and show how AC and DC power flowed from the Eaton-made charger through wire channels. Each mode also took users to a screen where they could view featured offerings and product details pertaining to a particular setting.

The visual appeal of the minimalist motorcar drove heavy traffic into Eaton's booth, where the interactive touchscreen's allure was accelerated by kinetic lighting. The demo turned a conceptual idea into a concrete display and put Eaton in the fast lane, doubling its engagement goal and quadrupling its target for social-media impressions. To riff on Ford Motor Co.'s famous slogan, when it came to showing how it helps electrify vehicles, Eaton had a better idea.