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interactive trade show games convincing your boss to try them
benefits of trade show games

Convincing Your Boss To Try Interactive Trade Show Games

The good news: You’ve discovered how interactive trade show games can boost exhibiting results with significantly more booth traffic and leads, and you’re eager to try games in an upcoming event.

The bad news: Your boss doesn’t share your enthusiasm.  At least, not yet.

As you would expect, we want to help you be persuasive about this.  Therefore, here are 5 points you can share with your boss, written from your perspective:

1. We Need An Activity To Maximize Trade Show ROI

We won’t get enough booth traffic without an activity. Just standing in the booth doing nothing will not bring in the visitors. Attendees have become too reluctant and time-starved to walk into every booth. We need a compelling activity to grab their valuable attention and pull them in. A popular activity will multiply our overall results far greater than their additional marginal cost.

Best trade show games - a checklist for success
benefits of trade show games

Best Trade Show Games – A 10-Point Checklist For Success

You or someone on your team has proposed that you host a game in your trade show booth. That’s great, because games can make your booth come alive. But what really makes a trade show game successful?

The best trade show games succeed for many reasons, which are given below in a 10-point checklist. Use it to compare ideas you’re considering.

But at the highest level, the best trade show games do two things: They appeal to attendees AND provide marketing benefits to exhibitors. Let’s look at both areas of value.

comparing SocialPoint interactive trade show games to other trade show promotional activities
benefits of trade show games

Comparing Interactive Games To Other Trade Show Promotional Activities

While your ultimate goal in hosting a trade show promotional activity is to drive more booth traffic, that’s not the only thing exhibitors consider when making a buying decision.

While you can choose from a myriad of ways to pull people into your exhibit, only interactive games also meet several key purchasing criteria of many exhibitors. It might be like comparing apples to oranges. Let’s see how.

Download Our Trade Show Activity Comparison Tool

key purchasing criteria for trade show promotional activities

What Factors Matter To Exhibitors When Choosing Trade Show Promotional Activities?

Exhibitors consider many criteria when evaluating potential trade show promotional activities. These are several common features and benefits exhibitors value highly:

4 reasons for not getting enough trade show booth traffic
benefits of trade show games

4 Reasons Why You Aren’t Getting Enough Trade Show Booth Traffic

After all the planning, investment and hard work, imagine standing in an empty trade show booth while attendees simply walk on by.

If you’ve been in that situation, chances are you were frustrated, while your bored booth staffers wished they were somewhere else.

Trade shows are too expensive to do without having a consistent flow of traffic in your booth. Here are 4 reasons your booth traffic is too small – reasons you can fix to turn that trickle of booth traffic into a flood.

1. You’re Not Hosting Engaging Trade Show Activities

Trade show attendees have changed in two major ways, that make it harder to get them out of the aisle and into your booth. And both of those causes are from technology.

Tech trade show exhibitor interactive trade show game - iBoss at Black Hat 2018
benefits of trade show games

Why Technology Exhibitors Use Interactive Trade Show Games

Technology companies love exhibiting at trade shows:

  • If you thought tech companies would only market via the Internet or social media, consider this: The largest show in the country is CES – the Consumer Electronics Show!
  • Tech companies exhibit because tech buyers still want to see tech products and potential vendors face-to-face.
  • According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), Communications and Information Technology is the second-largest sector of shows, with over 1,000 to choose from!
  • Not to mention how many high-tech companies also exhibit at shows in other sectors, as new entrants and disrupters in traditional industries.

We are a good fit with tech exhibitors, whether it’s for a single large show, or as part of their annual show schedule.  While every exhibitor has their own objectives, they often tell us this is their motivation for choosing us:

1. Tech Exhibitors Require A High-Tech Activity To Match Their Brand

Tech exhibitors know they need to host an activity to stand out from their neighboring exhibitors. But, that activity can’t be a glass fishbowl to catch leads, or an old school prize wheel, or any other activity that works without the power on.  They need something tech-driven, to fit with their tech-centric products.  They understand their image will be tarnished if their booth attraction doesn’t match visitor expectations.

trade show promotional activities pull in more interested attendees to your booth
benefits of trade show games

7 Reasons To Host Trade Show Promotional Activities

With all the logistics you have to manage for your company’s trade show program, you might feel justified in skipping trade show promotional activities. But that would be like planning a party, and not sending out all the invitations.

Sure, the show organizer will get people to the show floor.  But it’s up to you to get them to your booth space.

Here are 7 reasons why trade show promotional activities are so worth your effort:

1. Attract more booth traffic

As attendees wander down the aisles, their eyes are bombarded by structures, images and words from all sides.  What wins in that sensory battle?  Motion and sound – which you can do best with activities.  Activities in your booth catch and hold their attention, and if enticing enough, bring them into your space, leaving your neighboring exhibitors staring at you in envy.

Bio-Rad at BPI Europe 2018 interactive healthcare trivia trade show game
benefits of trade show games

How Healthcare Exhibitors Use Interactive Trade Show Games

Healthcare exhibitors choose to use our interactive trade show games for many of the same reasons as their exhibiting peers in other industries.  But not always.

The most common reason exhibitors use our games is to drive more booth traffic, and in that respect, healthcare exhibitors are similar – our games help fill their booth with attendees.  Those attendees can then become leads and sales, or stronger relationships with influencers:

Edifecs interactive trade show game medical exhibitor

Gather more attendees in your healthcare trade show booth with interactive trade show games

healthcare and medical interactive trade show games get a crowd

While many healthcare exhibitors are concerned about rules limiting the value of gifts and giveaways they can offer, not all healthcare exhibitors limit their gifts. Some healthcare exhibitors are interacting with audiences that fall outside healthcare’s complex, stringent rules, so they can still offer substantial gifts.

Low price trade show games
benefits of trade show games

11 Things You Give Up With Lower Cost Trade Show Games

As a trade show manager, it’s understandable that you would want to get the best deal on the interactive trade show game you choose for your booth. As you shop around, you may find some games that cost less than ours, and at first blush, appear to be similar enough.

However, if you choose a lower-cost interactive trade show game, you are very likely giving up more than you are getting. Here are 11 things you get with SocialPoint trade show games that you give up with lower-cost alternatives:

Many trade show booth activities require capable booth staffers
benefits of trade show games

Major Exhibitors: 7 Benefits You Get From SocialPoint Interactive Tradeshow Games

Is your company a major exhibitor? You certainly are if you:

  • Exhibit at multiple shows in island booth spaces, with your biggest booth 600 square feet or larger
  • Exhibit at 50 or more shows a year in booths of all sizes, likely some internationally
  • Your management considers trade shows and events the economic engine driving your company’s brand and sales, and invests accordingly
  • You value internal trade show experts and leading vendor partners so that your company does trade shows very well

We are grateful to work with a number of major exhibitors who have expanded their use of our interactive tradeshow games over the years. They tell us they value our company and offerings because they benefit them in these 7 ways:

1. Help achieve their key sales and marketing goals with our interactive tradeshow games:

According to the 2018 CEIR Marketing Spend Decision Report, exhibitors’ top 3 reasons for exhibiting are to generate leads, build awareness, and meet with existing customers:

Top 3 Reasons for Exhibiting at Trade Shows - 2018 CEIR Marketing Spend Decision Report

Our interactive tradeshow games drive more booth traffic that increase all three of these top metrics. Our games are visually customizable to your brand, and represent your brand well. We help major exhibitors succeed at what matters to them most.

Digital trade show games help B2B salespeople
benefits of trade show games

8 Reasons B2B Salespeople Love Our Digital Trade Show Games

While exhibitors choose our digital trade show games for their marketing impact, the group of employees they really affect the most is your B2B salespeople.

Your salespeople play two major roles on both sides of trade shows. First, salespeople are often the biggest part of your booth staffing team. And second, exhibitors’ main exhibiting goal is to generate leads – which are handed off to their sales team!

Let’s see how our games help salespeople in both these roles:

B2B Salespeople love our digital trade show games as booth staffers because:

1. Get more booth traffic

The top reason exhibitors choose our digital trade show games is to drive more booth traffic.  The increased traffic helps salespeople staffing your booth, because they don’t have to work so hard to pull in attendees.  Remember, even though your salespeople may be excellent on the phone or in meetings may not be good at getting people out of the aisle and into the booth. Your salespeople will be so grateful to avoid having to hook all the attendees in.