Experiential Marketing in Tradeshows Post-COVID: Custom Expo Quiz Benefits

During the COVID, exhibitors, marketers, and attendees extensively used digital channels to stay connected from the safe confines of their homes. 

Many trends emerged in the online medium of marketing and exhibiting. One such trend used by exhibitors during the pandemic was experiential marketing. And it did great for those that experimented with it. 

However, it was expensive to set up and still lacked the physical touch people craved. 

With physical B2B trade shows getting back on track post the lockdowns and restrictions, many organizers are looking to carry forward some of these trends and see if they can mimic them in the offline setting. 

As experiential marketing has been extensively used on digital channels that were wildly popular during the pandemic, the strategy has started making its presence felt in the exhibition industry too.

And what better way than a custom trade show quiz to immerse people into your brand? Let’s take a look at what experiential marketing is and how a custom quiz can contribute to your event objectives-

What is Experiential Trade Show Marketing?

Merriam-Webster defines ‘Experiential’ as relating to, deriving from, or providing an experience. In the world of marketing, it translates into a strategy that can engage people and encourage their participation in your brand experience.

So, what is an experiential trade show booth? A booth that offers unique and memorable experiences and succeeds in creating an emotional connection between the visitors and the exhibiting brand could be called an experiential booth.

Why Experiential Marketing for Trade Shows?

As per a 2020 report, 84% of customers agree that the experience a brand offers is as vital as its products and services. And now, in the post-COVID world, experience has only become more important.

With traditional trade show marketing strategies, consumers were mostly considered passive receivers of the brand message. But that’s not the case anymore. Instead, an increasing number of people now expect active and rewarding involvement with the company they’re dealing with. And herein lies the most critical advantage of experiential marketing.   

With trade shows and experiential marketing, brands can directly involve customers face-to-face and offer them a bird's eye view of how the company has evolved. The memorable experience sets the brand apart from the competitors and helps them build a deeper emotional connection with the consumers to bolster loyalty.  

How Can Custom Trade Show Quiz Help with Experiential Marketing?

Customization is the key to achieving success with trade show games. Here’s how it can contribute to your experiential trade show marketing goals-

Quiz Questions Created Around Your Brand/Product/Service

With experiential marketing in a trade show, the objective is to involve people with your brand. A booth activity like a trivia quiz perfectly matches this requirement. The quiz can have creative questions about your brand, product, or service to help booth visitors know more about your company.

Along with other booth elements, like design, graphics, product/service demos, and giveaways, custom trivia could significantly contribute to your experiential marketing objectives.

Fun and Challenging Quiz Attracts and Engages Audience

Quizzes are already a massive hit among people. Compared to something like a fish bowl where people can drop their business cards, custom trade show trivia is way more effective in attracting people to your booth. Also, the entire activity of playing a quiz, answering questions, and being the top scorer is in itself very engaging for the booth visitors.

You can also install a live leaderboard at the booth to make the experience unique and memorable. And the easier it is for the visitors to remember your booth/brand, the easier it’ll be for your sales team to approach them for follow-ups.

[READ: Why Have a Custom Trade Show Quiz?]

Booth Quiz Supports the Efforts of Your Booth Staff

Your booth staff also has a critical role in providing visitors with a memorable experience. But if your booth is crowded, it is almost impossible for your booth staff to give adequate attention to every visitor. In the process, they might end up losing several quality leads.

A customized booth game like trivia can keep the people engaged while your staff is busy talking to other potential candidates. Moreover, once the quiz makes the visitors aware of who you are and what you do, it is easier for your booth staff to strike up a conversation with them to try and build a deeper connection.

Custom Trivia Digitalizes Lead Collection and Collects More Leads

No matter your trade show marketing strategy, lead collection would probably be one of your objectives. Unfortunately, traditional lead collection methods such as offline lead forms and badge scanners are impersonal and too common. More importantly, these methods help you collect just leads and not engaged leads. They don't engage the visitors with your brand in any way.

[READ: Trade Show Games Vs Badge Scanners – Which is Better for Lead Generation?]

But with trade show trivia, you can integrate the lead collection into the game. So, in a way, the lead collection becomes part of the experience you're offering at your booth and not a separate process.

[READ: 7 Common Problems with Your Current Trade Show Lead Capture Strategy]

How to Make a Custom Trade Show Quiz Work for Your Booth?

If you’re working on an experiential marketing strategy for an upcoming B2B event and would like to add a custom trivia to your booth, here are some tips that can help-

• Work with a reputed custom trade show trivia provider
• Check the past B2B events they've covered to understand their capabilities better
• Ensure that the quiz provider allows you to customize game graphics to aid branding
• Some quiz providers offer audience engagement analysis after the event to offer valuable insights into your event performance
• Work with the quiz company to create fun and challenging trivia questions
• Use a live leaderboard to make the quiz interesting
• Distribute prizes/giveaways to the top scorers of your quiz
• Have a lead follow-up strategy to take maximum advantage of the collected leads

[READ: Choose the Right Trade Show Trivia for Your Booth]

Leverage Experiential Marketing at Trade Shows with a Custom Booth Trivia

Several reasons make a custom trade show game like trivia an excellent addition to your experiential marketing strategy. The booth game is fun, engaging, rewarding and offers visitors a unique and memorable experience.

Contact us to know more about how a custom trade show quiz works and how it engages booth visitors. You can also check the Our Latest Work section to see how B2B brands utilize custom games to achieve their event objectives.