ideas
Samuel J. Smith
June 30, 2019
Last month we published the results of our exhibitor survey about their trade show giveaway strategies, choices, and perceptions, which we wrote about here. But that wasn’t all we learned.
While exhibitors were strongly positive about the advantages and benefits of using a trade show giveaway, they still had problems with them. Here’s how exhibitors ranked 5 problems experienced when offering a trade show giveaway:
What stood out to us right away is that of the top 2 problems exhibitors have experienced with giveaways, our Virtual Prize Wheel game can help exhibitors solve them both!
Chances are you’ve used trade show giveaways to drive more booth traffic. It’s a time-honored tactic that gets attention and lets attendees go home with a souvenir to remember you by.
But your giveaways can do even more to help increase your trade show results. You can boost their marketing impact in 4 powerful ways, by combining your giveaways with our Virtual Prize Wheel.
Here’s how our Virtual Prize Wheel adds impact to your trade show giveaways:
When you show a colorful prize wheel on a big flat screen monitor, complete with photos of your big prize, it clearly signals to attendees that there’s a fun and beneficial reason to visit your booth. Attendees get more excited to try to win a prize – even if it’s the same giveaways you would have given them anyhow! And attendees love to smash the big button that drives the prize wheel on the screen. As people spin to win, their enthusiasm and squeals attract attention from other attendees. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd!
Note: This is the latest post in our series of audience engagement posts.
One of the challenges of corporate events is to break out of the cycle of sameness. A series of speeches, presentations, panel discussions and an uninspired trade show can have a hypnotic effect on attendees.
So why not shake things up a little and create some fun, energetic activity with a Virtual Prize Wheel? Here are 5 ways to use a Virtual Prize Wheel for audience engagement at corporate events:
Instead of drawing a name out of a hat and announcing the winner on stage, use a Spin to Win Virtual Prize wheel to take things to a howl new level. Instead of putting prizes on the prize wheel, put drawing entrants on it. Then, as the wheel spins the crowd excitedly watches to see whose name pops up – is it their name, or one of their friends? Finally, as the wheel gets close to stopping it slows down increasing the tension and excitement.
When we talk with potential clients for our interactive trade show games, almost every conversation starts with how they want to increase booth traffic and get people engaged with their booth staffers. And that’s awesome, as all our games can help with those worthwhile goals.
And while many clients already know which SocialPoint trade show game they want to implement, some are unsure which of our games they will get the best value and fit with their specific needs and situation.
You can get a sense of which trade show game is right for you by either referring to the colorful chart shown above, or by reading the choices outlined below. I’ll first share a summary table, and then give the explanation for each scenario.
When you include a SocialPoint Virtual Prize Wheel in your trade show booth, you’re going to get more booth traffic. People will be attracted to the cool-looking, moving digital screens, and the chance to win prizes.
But hey, if you’re like most exhibitors, you want even more traffic! To get it, follow some or all of the following 7 steps, to more aggressively promote your prize wheel game:
Use bold, large text in your exhibit graphics above where the game is played (either on a flat screen monitor or on one or more iPads) to let passing attendees there’s prizes to be won! “Spin To Win” or “Play To Win” or “Win A Free ______,” if you are giving away a significant main prize. Consider using color in the graphics that makes these words stand out from the rest of your booth.
It’s simple: When you as an exhibitor use our Virtual Prize Wheel in your booth, you will get more booth traffic. The intent of this article is to help you prepare your booth staffers to better interact with those visitors, so you get more qualified leads and better overall trade show results.
Your booth staffers can qualify attendees drawn to your booth before, during, and after they play the Virtual Prize Wheel:
Qualify attendees before they play the game
If you have a line of people waiting to play the game (yes, it happens!), then your booth staffers can strike up a conversation with people in line, asking them qualifying questions before they even get a chance to spin the prize wheel. Booth staffers can ask qualifying questions such as “What are you looking for at the show?”
One of the biggest decisions for our clients who use our Virtual Prize Wheel game in their trade show booths is: What kinds of prizes should they give away? After seeing some clients struggle with this choice, I want to share with you some advice, so you can have a smoother experience and get more people into your booth.
