If you are looking for some new trade show ideas to set your trade show booth apart from the rest of the pack, you might consider the power of gamification. Gamification is the term for bringing game elements and mechanics into a non-game environment. Utilizing some of the techniques from gamification, you may be able to increase the interest level of trade show attendees and deepen engagement with your brand.
If done well, the integration of gamification techniques could mean that your trade show booth design leaves a lasting impression on visitors. You can use gamification techniques to further interest in your products, increase brand loyalty and gather information on prospective clients or customers.
So, what might this look like? Well, there are many forms that gamification can take. A mini-game could be integrated into a presentation on your company’s history to increase engagement, for example. Or, say you wanted to gather some information on your prospective clients or customers. You could create a survey disguised in the form of a trivia quiz and reward takers with small prizes with your branding on it, or perhaps product discounts or some other form of recognition. You could even set up a competition to crowdsource the best ideas for your next trade show booth ahead of time.
A custom exhibit for a trade show should have several elements that increase its attractiveness to attendees before they enter the trade show booth and encourage engagement once visitors are at your exhibit. Gamification can assist in both of these tasks. The aforementioned examples increase engagement for visitors to your booth and outward displays of the games or competition, such as announcements of winners accompanied by lights and sounds can increase interest from afar.
Gaming elements have use beyond trade shows as well. In fact, they are most widely applied to websites which wish to incentivize certain behavior, like sharing a blog posts on a social media outlet or commenting on a video. Services like PunchTab demonstrate how this can increase customer engagement and be useful for marketing. Other companies like Bunchball and BigDoor were gamification pioneers and still offer a variety of gamification services including website integration and consulting. They might be approached to recommend a means of integrating gamification elements to create an engaging trade show booth.
Although it still may be somewhat experimental, the integration of gaming elements as a trade show idea has many possibilities for increasing interest and engagement of visitors to your trade show booth. Through gamification you can also incentivize all kinds of desired behaviors, making it very powerful indeed.