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Interactive Tech for Events
So you’ve got your exhibitor’s stand at the next big property trade expo all booked. You know that this event in particular is a huge opportunity to network and create leads for your business, with decision makers from some of the biggest names in the business due to be out in force.
But being there is only half the job. With dozens of other exhibitors in exactly the same boat as you all vying for attention, how do you make sure you stand out from the crowd?
Event marketing has always relied on a healthy dose of creativity to help businesses make an impression at packed shows. Nowadays, thanks to touchscreen technology, it is easier than ever to show a touch of innovation in how you engage the crowds.
Here are five ways a touchscreen will add a wow factor to your stand and help turn passing interest into firm leads.
Mix things up with multimedia
They say variety is the spice of life, and that is certainly true with regards to how people like to receive information. One of the oldest rules of grabbing and maintaining attention is to engage as many of the senses as possible at once, and certainly visual, auditory and tactile/kinaesthetic.
As a multimedia console, a touchscreen can deliver all of these. A blend of graphics, animations, video, audio and text keeps things interesting for the audience, as well as covering all the bases in terms of the different preferences people have for how they best absorb information. But the real trump card is the element of touch – on top of the visual and auditory possibilities of multimedia, touchscreens allow people to interact with the content and explore the way they choose.
Screens mean extra seconds
The key upshot of all this multimedia interactivity is people will spend more time at your stand making use of your touchscreen display. A lot of soul-searching goes on about whether we all spend too much time glued to screens nowadays, but there is one fundamental fact that underpins this – people find screens hard to resist.
As an exhibitor, you have every right to tap into this. In digital marketing, there is a concept referred to as ‘increasing dwell time’, or the amount of time people spend on a website. The higher the dwell time, the higher the conversion rate. Event exhibitors should be thinking along the same lines, using touchscreens to serve up engaging multimedia content that increases dwell time at their stand.
Make a game of it
One great way to boost dwell time is to appeal to the kid in your visitors. Ten years ago, businesses were investing in getting the ‘story’ of their brand or product turned into a script and dramatised in short films. Nowadays, it’s all about doing the same with ‘gamified content’ or, if you prefer, a video game. Marketing depends on taking the seemingly mundane and bringing it to life in fun, engaging ways – what better way to do that than through a video game? Thanks to its interactive qualities, a touchscreen is the perfect medium to deliver.
Live in the moment
Another aspect of a touchscreen’s interactive qualities is that you can get your audiences actively involved in what you are presenting. It might be something as simple as conducting various polls throughout an event and having the live results on display. Or, linking back to gamification, you might run quizzes or games and have a live leaderboard on display. The principle is the same – the more ‘in the moment’ you can make your exhibit, the more engaging people will find it.
Showcase cutting edge tech
Finally, there are a lot of amazing new technologies coming online which event marketers are starting to adopt because, quite simply, they really add an x-factor. The likes of VR environments, interactive 3D graphics (including the amazing world of AR-driven projected ‘holograms’) and AI voice assistants will all increasingly make waves at trade shows over the coming years, and touchscreens are perfect for delivering them. Think virtual tours of new developments, 3D renderings of architect plans, interactive portfolios powered by Alexa-type bots.
It’s all there, right at your fingertips.
Author: TouchscreenRentals.co.uk