Attendee Engagement

Interactive Trade Show Booth Games VS Other Promotional Activities

Select the best promotion strategy for your trade show booth. Explore interactive games, AR/VR, photo ops, and more in this informative post.

The key to any successful trade show plan is a booth promotion strategy. You need to look for something that could attract attendees to your booth and engage them with your brand/product.  

And there are countless trade show promotion activities to choose from. But compared to most popular options, an increasing number of exhibitors now trust trade show interactive games to attract and engage.

What booth activity should you select if you're working on your trade show plan? Take a look-

What are Some Common Trade Show Booth Promotion Activities?

Booth promotional activities such as entertainers, presentations, product demos, etc., have been around for a long time.

Thanks to modern technologies, there are now options such as AR/VR simulation, device charging stations, and LED displays that exhibitors add to their trade show strategy to attract and engage the attendees.

All of these activities have their advantages. 

For instance, entertainers such as magicians, robots, models, etc., are great crowd pullers. Whereas something like a product demo can help highlight the USPs of your product/service.  

What are Trade Show Games?

Not all, but many trade show games are exclusively designed to help exhibitors with their event objectives. 

Like any standard game, an exhibition game involves rules, the ability to score points, and competition with self and/or peers. The exhibitor can also choose to give gifts to winners or top scores.

The most popular options are virtual prize wheels, digital fishbowls, scavenger hunts, and custom trivia games.

Like other booth activities, trade show games also offer vast benefits. 

For instance, a virtual prize wheel is entertaining and helps collect leads. Similarly, a custom trivia game ticks all the right boxes, making it a brilliant addition to any trade show marketing strategy.

What is an Ideal Booth Promotion Activity?

The best trade show promotion activity for your booth is one that fairs well across these critical areas-

1-Help Achieve Event Objectives

Whether your trade show marketing goal is to boost brand awareness, collect leads, or launch a new product/service, the activity should play a role in helping you achieve it.

2-Tech-Based

Our lives now revolve around technology. And offering something relatable could help increase the probability of people visiting your booth and engaging with your brand.

3-Entertaining

While achieving event objectives is your primary goal, ensuring that people enjoy their time at your booth is equally essential. In many ways, both are connected. When the activity is fun, competitive, and something people remember even after, the chances of meeting event objectives such as conversions increase 10x. 

4-Staff Involvement

Your trade show booth staff already has a lot on their plates. It'd waste a lot of their precious time if they also needed to remain involved in the booth activity. That's why something that requires minimal staff involvement is often the best choice. That way, your booth staff can engage on the more important aspect- engaging with the trade show attendees. 

[READ: Complete Guide to Train Your Exhibition Booth Staff]

5-Set-Up and Expertise

 Required

Some booth activities involve extensive set-ups. Such activities will increase your shipping and labor costs. Moreover, activities like AR/VR simulation can also require you to have dedicated technical staff at the event, increasing your trade show event costs.

Trade Show Games vs. Other Booth Activities

Let us compare some of the most popular trade show games with some other trade show activities as per the factors listed above-

Activity/Game Lead Qualification & Collection Brand Awareness Entertainment Staff Involvement Set-Up & Expertise
Entertainers No No Yes No No
Product Demos No Yes No Yes Yes
AR/VR Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Booth Trivia Games Yes Yes Yes No No
Virtual Prize Wheel Yes No Yes No No
Digital Fishbowl Yes No Yes No No

As you can see, booth activities like trade show interactive games can collect leads, boost brand awareness, require no staff involvement or major set-up, and are fun and entertaining too.

How Does Trade Show Trivia Work?

Here are the elements of a custom trade show trivia-

Trivia Quiz Gameplay

iPads are placed at the booth for the gameplay, along with large LED screens that work as leaderboards.

People visiting your booth can play this fun and interactive trivia quiz by entering their contact details on the iPad for a chance to be the top scorer who wins the grand prize. You can customize the game interface with the brand logo for better recall. 

[READ: How Can Trade Show Games Boost Your B2B Event ROI]

Exhibition Trivia Questions

Custom booth trivia games have questions creatively crafted around an industry, brand, product, or service. For instance, if an exhibitor is launching a new product at the event, the questions can revolve around the new product and its USPs.

As people answer the trivia questions, it automatically helps them know more about you, your products/services, and your USPs. Once they finish playing the game, your booth staff can initiate a conversation with them to take things forward.

Custom Trivia Lead Collection

The game is connected to an online lead collection platform. Once the event is over, the game provider shares the collected lead data and other event analytics with the exhibitor.  

Exhibitors can use the lead data to refine their strategy for improved results in the next event.

Booth Trivia Game Set-up

Unlike activities such as AR/VR, trivia games only require minimal set-up. You’ll only need a couple of kiosks or counters for placing the iPads and an LED screen for the leaderboard. The game provider will provide access to their gaming platform for running the trivia quiz.

Once the iPads and LED screens are ready, the trivia games will not require any other extensive set-up, staff involvement, or expertise. It will also allow your booth staff to focus entirely on the tasks assigned for the event.

Choosing the Right Trade Show Booth Promotion Activity

While there is no shortage of trade show booth activities, exhibitors and event planners must be careful with their selection. Focus on the above points to analyze popular booth activities and games and choose one that best matches your requirements and expectations. You can contact us to learn about trade show gamification and how custom booth trivia can supercharge your event promotion strategy.

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