Stacey Rosenberg, Marketing Specialist at Aurora Diagnostics, wanted an interactive trivia game as part of their large booth at the American Academy of Dermatologists (AAD) show for three main reasons:

• Have a fun, interactive booth with an activity that was quick and easy to play, to get more people into their booth
• Have an additional way to gather leads beyond the show’s badge scanners (which often lacked attendees’ email addresses)
• Showcase company services and benefits by including easier company-specific questions mixed in with dermatology-based quiz questions

Aurora Diagnostics first used SocialPoint’s Challenge Bar Trivia Game at AAD 2018, with excellent results: “Wow! Quite the turnout!” affirmed Rosenberg.  “About 30% of our booth visitors played the game.”

“I was happy to get 332 additional leads at the show. The game was actually an easier way to collect leads than asking everyone to scan badges, which some people are put off by.”

Plus, attendees came away from the show better informed about Aurora Diagnostics’ services and benefits: “We had some players who were there for hours, just wanting to be top on the leaderboard.”

Success Leads To Game Reuse at AAD 2019

Because of their success at AAD 2018, Rosenberg made the easy decision to repeat using their customized trivia game for AAD 2019: “The trivia game totally exceeded our expectations in 2018,” said Rosenberg.  “SocialPoint is amazing to work with and they really went out of their way last year for us.  Therefore, we did it again in 2019.”

“The cost for our second year was very minimal.  And the process to set-up the game this year was less than a 20-minute phone call.”

At AAD 2019, Aurora Diagnostics had similar strong results, with 320 unique game players, who played 551 games, and answered 9,632 trivia questions.

Game Set Up: Trivia Configuration, Prizes, Exhibit & Graphics

Getting the game set up was “a seamless process that SocialPoint walked us through,” said Rosenberg.

“Both years, we had 6 iPads and an 80” screen leaderboard for our booth. For our first year, we set-up all the graphics, game questions and what questions we wanted our audience (mostly physicians) to answer for our leads being collected.”

To make the game quick (and not overdo attendees’ limited attention-span), Stacey asked SocialPoint to limit the game plays to 3 minutes. “SocialPoint did have other options, but I thought this was best for us,” said Rosenberg.  Players could play individually rather than wait for other players before starting. This also let more people play the game. People who wanted to play more could simply play the game again.

Aurora Diagnostics created over 100 trivia questions, so attendees who played more than one game saw mostly new questions each game.  Rosenberg requested their game Leaderboard display the top 20 scorers: “I wanted to put as many names as I could, so more people could be up there.  They just liked seeing their name on the board.”

For visibility, both years the game was set up on the booth corner on the main aisle.

In 2018, Aurora Diagnostic’s exhibit counter supported 6 game iPads.  Counter graphics promoted the trivia game with the words, “Faceoff here – Dermatology is not a Trivial Pursuit.”  Aurora Diagnostics also had matching page-sized graphics atop the counter showing the Dermlite they could win by playing the trivia game. “We gave Dermlites to the top 3 people per day on the leaderboard,” recalled Rosenberg.

At the 2018 AAD Show, Aurora Diagnostics set up their first SocialPoint Trivia game on the corner of their booth on the busiest aisle to grab more attention and booth traffic.

In 2019, rather than put the game player iPads on a counter, Aurora Diagnostics put their 6 game iPads on kiosks, which made it easier for players to approach and see the game leaderboard.  They renamed the game “DERM Master Challenge.” Aurora Diagnostics also promoted game with graphics on their exhibit components, and with 2 larger signs saying, “The top three scores will win a YETI” that included a photo of the prize. “The custom Yetis cost us only half as much as the Dermlites, but were an equal draw for attendees.” Aurora Diagnostics also used the trivia game as a “gate” to visit the candy bar they had in their booth, further motivating attendees to play their game (and learn more about their products).

After successes at AAD 2018 and AAD 2019, what will Aurora Diagnostics do for AAD 2020?

“Our booth was so well received this year,” concluded Rosenberg, “that we will do the same game again next year, and probably not change much.  We are also considering using our DERM Master Challenge trivia game at another show, and other SocialPoint trade show games for our smaller shows. ”

Savvy exhibitors know that exhibiting at vertical market shows can be the best strategy for improving trade show results.

These smart exhibitors understand which industries their most valuable customers come from – and then exhibit at shows were those valuable customers attend.

For example, if you sell a software product for professional services firms, you may exhibit at a big software trade show.  But once you know that ad agencies and engineering firms buy three times more than your average client, you can instead exhibit at shows where ad agency employees or engineers attend.

So, what does that have to do with best interactive game choices?

When you exhibit at various vertical market trade shows, your audiences won’t be one-size-fits-all. Therefore, you will likely have a variety of audience types and booth sizes between shows.  So, you can boost your effectiveness by matching the best interactive game to the show.

• When attendees are professional, competitive, or like to learn, your best choice is our Challenge Bar Trivia This works great for attendees like engineers, programmers, health care providers, and other similar professionals.
• When attendees are more adventure-seeking, or money-driven, or impatient, then our Virtual Prize Wheel fits the bill. Think high-paying sales people, blue collar workers, and others who would be more likely to wear a pinkie ring than join a book club.

Booth size matters, too.

You can also select the best interactive game based on the size of your booth space:

• If any of your vertical markets are valuable enough that you exhibit in an island booth, you are more likely to In your biggest show, you may invest in Challenge Bar Trivia. A bigger show can more easily absorb the higher purchase price (click here to see our trade show game pricing). And you have the booth space to have multiple iPads for players to get engrossed in the game, and place a large flatscreen leaderboard on the exhibit.
• When a vertical market show only requires a small inline space, either our Virtual Prize Wheel or our Digital Fishbowl are a better fit.
• And if you have many shows with similar vertical market audience types, then you may opt for the annual plan on any of the games, to lower your price per show.

A vertical market exhibiting strategy can be just the trick to generating greater results.  You avoid wasting money at big shows with broad audiences where too many attendees are unlikely to buy.  You focus your effort on getting face-to-face with only your best potential buyers. And with our variety of games, you can choose the best interactive game that fits each, different vertical market audience.

If you’d like to see more about how you can drive more booth traffic, keep attendees engaged longer, and capture leads with our fun interactive trade show games, click here to ask for a product demo. We’ll help you generate a serious increase in excitement, crowds, and leads.

Adding a trade show interactive has become one of exhibitors’ favorite tools to getting today’s more reluctant show attendees to cross from the aisle and into and their booth space.

Why are trade show interactives more necessary than ever?  Let me count the ways:

1. Attendees today have more control of the buying process, because they can easily get product info from the web. So, exhibitors must offer a more compelling experience attendees can’t get online to get them into their booth.
2. Attendees love technology, and spend much of their personal time playing with their phones and tablet computers consuming digital content. So, tech-driven interactives meet their expectations – especially with Millennials, which are now the largest generation in the workforce.
3. Attendees are overwhelmed with too much work and not enough time. So, when they return to work after the show, they all too quickly forget much of what they learned, except for the most compelling experiences.
4. Time-starved attendees need a more personalized experience that gives them just the information they need, in a faster and more memorable fashion.
5. The high potential sales value from trade show visitors justifies investing more to create greater impact and results from each face-to-face interaction.

For all these reasons, trade show interactives are more popular than ever.

Trade Show Interactive Definition

What actually is a trade show interactive? It can have many elements about experience, senses, journey, and more.  Here is our definition:

A trade show interactive takes attendees beyond just looking at displays or conversing with booth staffers. With a trade show interactive, attendees interact in a staged, planned, personalized, multi-sensory way with objects, technology, games, and people to more memorably experience the exhibitor’s marketing message or story. A trade show interactive can be as small as a trade show game on an iPad or as large as an entire island booth.

Now that we have a more formal definition, let’s do deeper dives into various key aspects of trade show interactives.

Trade Show Interactive Ideas

Creating a trade show interactive requires a shift in perspective.  Marketers and agency creatives have expertise about their company and client brands. They represent those brands in digital marketing campaigns, print ads, direct mail, and other mediums.

Now, the goal is to create activities that help trade show attendees experience, absorb, and retain brand elements and competitive advantages.

You can get inspired for your own trade show interactives by:

• Deep understanding of your target audience: What industry are they from, their level of management seniority, their main job responsibilities, their worries, and their aspirational goals. And what do they look like demographically – their age, gender, education level, and level of introversion/extroversion.
• Knowing your company’s brand personality – is your company reserved or playful, youthful or established, risk-taking or conservative, and more.
• Surveying your current and planned marketing: What current marketing campaigns are working well in other media? What promising new campaigns could be morphed into an interactive experience?
• Looking at examples inside and outside your industry: Have you and your team experienced an interactive at a trade show that wowed you? Not to rip them off, but to examine the effective elements of their trade show interactives, and as inspiration to raise your game.

Trade Show Interactive Games

Exhibitors love trade show games because they give attendees a fun, non-threatening way to enter their booth and enjoy themselves.  Games shake attendees out of their trade show stupor and put them in a more heightened state. At that point, exhibitors can more easily engage their booth visitors in meaningful discussions.

Trade show interactive games can run the gamut from an off-the-shelf activity that sits on a table top or fits in the hands of attendees, to large-scale customized tech marvels played on a stage and overseen by a game host.

The best trade show games not only fun for attendees, but also:

• Match the exhibitor’s brand (visually with colors, logos, images, and fonts, plus also emotionally with the brand’s personality)
• Integrate with and educate about the exhibitor’s marketing message, so while attendees have fun, they also go home better informed about the exhibitor’s products, services, benefits, and advantages
• Use technology well, so attendees quickly grasp how to play the game, and have a smooth, enjoyable experience that matches or exceeds their expectations from consumer technology
• Are affordable and easy to implement, because exhibitors don’t have excess time or budget for any promotional activity – too often, exhibitors skip promotional activities because they run out of time or budget.

Trade Show Interactive Touch Screens

For many exhibitors and attendees, touch screens are an integral part of any trade show interactive. Perhaps the most common tech used in trade show booths are iPads and other tablet computers.  Those touch screens allow visitors and booth staffers to navigate websites without a mouse or keyboard.

Exhibitors also design trade show interactives that leverage the touch screen in every visitor’s pockets: their smart phones.  This can include creating interactives that encourage or require smart phone use, such as sharing photos with show-specific hashtags in order to win a prize.

To stand out even more, exhibitors go beyond iPads and smart phones in two meaningful ways: First, they use larger touchscreens, and second, they use more sophisticated media than websites.

While an iPad allows for a personalized, one-on-one experience, a larger touchscreen monitor lets groups of attendees engage with a presentation or an app.  Exhibitors can build their trade show activity within a custom app that allows for bigger impact, still using the navigational superiority that a touch screen provides.

Custom apps deployed on large touch screens powerfully digitally portray and explain physical products.  Prospects can interact with product specs, videos, literature, 3-D product models, capabilities, uses, and more.

While most custom apps let attendees navigate information brought together especially for the trade show experience, other custom apps can take visitors on a digital journey.  This may be a game, a self-driven presentation, or more.

Trade Show Interactive Tech With Virtual and Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are two of the more popular of the higher tier of technologies for trade show interactives.

Virtual Reality allows exhibitors to create trade show interactives that give attendees an even more personalized and sensory experience.  Virtual Reality surrounds and submerges attendees within a digital world that portrays your products, locations, games, and customer experiences.

Augmented Reality overlays computer-generated images, animations and objects over real objects seen through the view of a smart phone or iPad. trade show interactives.  Attendees enjoy the interactive aspect of Augmented Reality as they digital elements appear and move, prompted by where the attendee aims the iPad.

Trade Show Interactive Kiosks & Displays

Exhibitors searching for trade show interactive kiosks and displays can widely range in size and substance:

• An iPad stand that holds their trade show interactive application
• A small part of their overall booth, meant to provide more interactivity with attendees, with or without digital technology
• A comprehensive, experiential trade show marketing campaign, hosted in most or all of their booth space

The first two choices are more common and manageable for exhibitors. Plug-and-play trade show interactives give exhibitors the freedom to experiment with various promotional campaigns as they move through their trade show schedule.  Trade show interactive kiosks and smaller displays also let exhibitors integrate the same promotional idea in a wider variety of booth sizes.

When ambitious exhibitors decide to host an experiential marketing campaign, they desire trade show interactive displays in the largest sense of the concept.  These exhibitors want their display to act as a stage to host the activity. So rather than design their booth around the usual company features, benefits, and product images, their display instead is designed to facilitate the interactive experience itself.  At this point, the exhibit and the experience are combined.

Are You Ready For A Trade Show Interactive?

Trade shows continue to thrive as a marketing medium, because they get thousands of potential buyers in the same big room as sellers. But, to get those attendees into your booth and then have a meaningful, memorable experience, more and more exhibitors are relying upon trade show interactives.

If you’d like to see more about how you can drive more booth traffic, keep attendees engaged longer, and capture leads with our fun interactive trade show games, feel free to contact us with questions or to discuss your event with one of SocialPoint’s Digital Strategists. We’ll help you generate a serious increase in excitement, crowds, and leads.