“The goal of gamification is to engage with consumers, employees and partners to inspire, collaborate, share and interact”, Bi Worldwide. When it comes to events, attendees are always looking for something new, exciting and innovative. In this article, we explore exhibition gamification strategies to help you increase booth traffic, and turn passive exhibition attendees into active participants, drive higher engagement, by creating fun and memorable experiences.
What are the best interactive games that will help drive traffic?
Drive user engagement with scavenger hunts
The purpose of scavenger hunt or treasure hunt is to encourage visitors to compete to earn first place in completing all the items (or most) to find on a list. This can be done around your booth and is a great way of getting visitors familiar with your products and learning more about them. A digital way of doing this is by setting up the hunt via a mobile event app, allowing attendees to take a photo that matches that description. An administrator can then create the challenge and decide who can take part in them. Attendees can then earn points based on how well they do.
Drive traffic with spin-the-wheel
Spin the Wheel is a game based on chance, where if the wheel lands on the correct band of colour the player wins a prize or is directed with another instruction such as ‘try again.’ It’s a great way to invite traffic to your stand as unlike educational games, the aim of this game is purely to win a prize. Visitors will want to have multiple tries and will often bring guests over to your stand to play. It’s a great way for you to network and get a conversation going. Coca-cola incorporated their brand values, messages, and products into an enjoyable experience for players at the exhibition booth, using a drop game to catch the attention of the exhibition visitors and later a wheel of fortune to raffle out different prizes. Both games were designed with bright colours and attractive graphics which made them eye-catching even from far away. Read more.
Social media games
Digital competitions such as social media games are a great way to attract people to your stand as well as boost your social media presence. One way you can do this is by creating a photo contest. You can supplement this with a hashtag, plus a dedicated area to create consistency and a recognisable space for other visitors to find. Prizes can be offered for the best photos or the greatest number of likes received. You can ask your teams to get involved in liking the post to keep the competition moving.
Real-time engagement boosters
Showing and posts in results in real-time helps to foster competitions. Visitors love playing games at events, but it’s the gaming elements that create a fun and engaging atmosphere. This includes gaining points, earning badges, leaderboards to drive competition, being rewarded and getting direct feedback and comments to generate humour. It’s about turning viewers into engaged fans and gamification is key to unlocking that connection. The Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE) designed a gamification challenge that revolved around trivia questions. To earn points, many tasks required networking with sponsors and exhibitors, which prompted booth visits and enhanced sponsor value. Read more.
One way you can do this is by encouraging visitors to take part in real-time quizzes such as live trivia where players can answer questions via a mobile event app. Winners will then be automatically displayed on a leaderboard, encouraging more people to take part.
You could also consider a live social media wall which displays entries in real time. This could be linked to a photo competition, helping to connect you with viewers with feedback and comments.
Mobile voting apps can collect and share results through graphs and charts, tracking participants progress in real time and encouraging more participants to take part.
How does a personalised experience enhance brand interaction?
It’s important that you tailor your gamification strategy to suit different types of viewers and create a personalised experience. Know your audience by gathering data on who they are, their interests, and their reasons for visiting the event. Using this information, you can segment them into specific personas such as demographics, likes, values, and needs. This will enable you to bring gamification into smaller groups, and tailor your approach to create a personalised experience. This creates a memorable experience and strengthens your connection with visitors. You can then follow up with participants to start a conversation with potential leads and customers.
Driving meaningful results
Ultimately, the goal of your gamification tactics is to generate opportunities. Gamification allows you to monitor and measure engagement of your visitors, especially if you have used mobile apps and digital games. By collecting feedback from participants, including comments, ratings and as well as negative feedback, you can identify areas of improvement and adjust your strategy accordingly.
By learning more about your audience from the data collected from the information they have inputted, you are able to create your leads and build your database. Interactive lead capture with gamification allows you to get in touch with your new leads with a tailored approach. This approach provides valuable insights for further sales funnel optimisation.
Conclusion
At Skyline Whitespace, we can help to develop games with your business in mind. Whether it’s a themed campaign, the launch of a new product, or simply brand awareness, we can create games to increase booth traffic and generate memorable interactive event experiences to help you generate leads and conversion.