Trade Show Custom Trivia Games VS Virtual Spinwheel VS Scavenger Hunt

Trade show games are one of the most effective ways to attract attendees to your booth. They’re fun, entertaining, and engaging. But in an event where you’ve invested thousands of dollars, your objectives are more serious than ensuring people have a good time.

And there are fun and attractive booth games that help you get closer to your event goals. But with so many different games to choose from, how will you pick the best?

Here’s a detailed guide where we’ve compared some of the top exhibition games such as custom trivia, virtual spinwheel, and scavenger hunt to help you with the selection.

Trade Show Custom Trivia

People love playing trivia games. And when the trivia questions are customized to a specific industry, brand, or product/service, it can also help achieve your event objectives.

For instance, the game helps boost brand awareness by educating the booth visitors. In addition, some of the custom trivia games are also connected to a lead collection platform to help exhibitors collect leads. 

Moreover, you can creatively craft the trivia questions to help with lead qualification.

Trade Show Trivia Setup

Custom exhibition trivia have minimal setup requirements. They only need a few iPads for the gameplay and an LED display for the leaderboard. Booth visitors who want to play the trivia must fill out a short lead collection form on the iPad before accessing the trivia questions.

The leaderboard helps make the game more interesting as it allows players to be top scorers and watch their names on the screen. Exhibitors can also distribute prizes to the top scorers to make it more interesting.

Trade Show Trivia Staff Involvement

Booth trivia games don’t require any significant staff involvement. Once the iPads and leaderboard are set, booth visitors can play the game one after the other to try and win the grand prize. So your trade show booth staff would only need to ensure that the iPad remains charged at all times.

Once the booth visitors are done playing the game and knowing who you are and what you do through the quiz questions, your booth staff can then initiate a conversation with them to take things forward.

Trade Show Trivia Cost

While a custom trivia game is not the cheapest trade show activity, it offers excellent value for money. The game can play a critical role in helping you achieve your event objectives and boosting your ROI and ROO.

Trade Show Virtual Spinwheel

The virtual spinwheel or prize wheel is the online version of the popular physical pinwheel. Like the traditional spinwheel, it allows the players to spin the wheel for a chance to win prizes.

While a virtual spinwheel does not educate the audience or boost brand awareness, it does draw crowds. Like trade show trivia, a virtual spinwheel is also generally connected to an online lead collection system.

But while trivia games educate the audience, collect engaged leads, and help with lead qualification, a virtual spinwheel only has limited potential for achieving event objectives.

[READ: 7 Trade Show Lead Capture Mistakes]

Trade Show Virtual Spinwheel Setup

A virtual spinwheel eliminates the need for installing an actual wheel at the booth. Like trivia games, visitors can also play it through iPads and other devices installed at the booth. Exhibitors can also consider installing a large interactive display for the gameplay.

Before spinning the wheel, the visitors need to submit their contact details. The game features various prizes visitors can win by spinning the wheel.    

Trade Show Virtual Spinwheel Staff Involvement

Compared to trivia games, a virtual spinwheel requires significantly higher staff involvement. It is a short game where players are only required to spin the wheel and wait for a few seconds to know whether they’ve won a prize.

So, a booth member will mostly remain occupied with managing the game and distributing prizes.

[READ: Complete Guide To Train Your Exhibition Booth Staff for Maximum Engagement and Conversions]

Trade Show Virtual Spinwheel Cost

A virtual spinwheel game is highly affordable. But as with other expo games, you get what you pay for. While a virtual spinwheel can attract a crowd, it may not contribute to your event objectives.

Trade Show Scavenger Hunt

The scavenger hunt is a classic game we’ve enjoyed since childhood. When used effectively, it can also be an excellent promotional activity at trade shows.

To organize a scavenger hunt, you'll have to create a list of clues that players can use to search for hidden items throughout the trade show floor. While scavenger hunt is generally played in teams, you can also allow individual players to participate.

As you're organizing the scavenger hunt for a trade show, you can customize the clues you provide to the participants to boost brand awareness. Moreover, the hidden items or prizes can be related to your brand or industry.

But apart from improving brand awareness, the scavenger hunt does not contribute much to other trade show objectives.

Trade Show Scavenger Hunt Setup

A scavenger hunt involves an extensive setup. Creating clues and hiding items across the trade show floor will require effort. Not to forget that if you're using the trade show floor to hide the prizes, you'll have to take permission from the event organizer and maybe even other booths.

While a scavenger hunt can be engaging, it is also one of the most time-consuming exhibition games. Even if the clues are easy, it can still take some time for the participants to find all the hidden items.   

Also, if the participants need to work in teams to play the game, it'll take time for your booth to have the required number of visitors ready to participate. 

Trade Show Scavenger Hunt Staff Involvement

A scavenger hunt proves more demanding even in terms of staff involvement. You’ll need at least 1-2 staff members to help participants play the game.

Once a team or individual finds the hidden prizes, you’ll also need to hide them again for the next set of players.

So, if you have a team of 4-5 people managing the booth, it can be very challenging to manage other booth activities such as product/service demos, presentations, and lead collection, if 1-2 members are fully occupied with the game.  

Trade Show Scavenger Hunt Cost

For a scavenger hunt to encourage people to come to your booth and play the game, you’ll have to distribute exclusive prizes to the participants. The award shouldn’t be something visitors could get by visiting any other booth.

So, if we assume that multiple teams or players finish the hunt every day, you’ll be spending a significant amount on the prizes if it is a 3-day event. And if you hire additional booth staff to manage the game and the booth activities, it’ll increase your trade show budget.  

[READ: 7 Tips to Reduce Your Trade Show Expenses]

Custom Trade Show Trivia vs. Virtual Spinwheel vs. Scavenger Hunt: What Should You Select?

Now that you know a bit about these popular expo games, here’s a quick comparison to help you decide-

As you can see in the table here, a personalized trivia game proves to be one of the best choices for a trade show. The game is highly entertaining, customizable, helps in boosting brand awareness, collects and qualifies leads, and requires minimal staff involvement.

[READ: Why do People Love Trade Show Trivia Games and How Exhibitors Can Use them to their Advantage]

If you’re concerned about crafting the right questions for the trivia, you can partner with a custom exhibition quiz service for the best results.

A reputed trade show trivia provider will not only create custom questions according to your event objectives but also provide you with a platform for running the game and help with the deployment. In addition, some of them also offer post-show analytics to provide valuable insights like visitor data, engagement analysis, and more.  

Achieving Event Objectives with Exhibition Games

Every aspect of your trade show plan should take you closer to your event objectives. Even when you’re selecting booth activity like games, it should definitely be fun and engaging but also have a positive impact on your overall promotional strategy.

While something like a custom trade show trivia could be more expensive than a virtual spinwheel, it is vital to consider the value or ROO the game provides. A trivia can help improve brand awareness, collect and qualify leads, and deliver a memorable experience to the booth visitors, making it a value-for-money option.

While browsing through the game options, consider these points so that the one you select contributes towards making the event successful for your business.

You can also check our latest work to know more about booth trivia games and how they can help you achieve your event objectives.

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