For your next trade show booth, why not take advantage of the near ubiquity of modern smartphones to take your trade show booth up to the next level in terms of engagement. There a number of ways to leverage the mobile experience offered by smartphones and the versatility of the platform to improve the ease with which attendees can engage with your company and to provide a more interactive experience at your exhibit–giving new meaning to the term mobile exhibit.
Mobile, not as in you are actually moving around the room, but rather you are encouraging attendees to continue to interact and engage with your company and your trade show booth, even when they’re not actually at your exhibit. Many companies are doing this by developing interactive software and displays that interface with a smartphone through a proprietary app. Yes, this can be high-end stuff that won’t be within everyone’s budget, but if you are looking for another way to leverage technology to get your brand out there more, it can be a very effective tactic.
This mobile exhibit would actually travel with attendees through the smartphone app around the trade show itself. For example, perhaps you set up a bit of a scavenger hunt which encourages users to find interesting checkpoints around the trade show floor in order to win a prize. Or, perhaps you even break up your trade show booth into smaller sections that are scattered throughout the show floors (this may not be possible in all instances, but it is a cool idea). This can make it seem like you are everywhere and can also allow you to have a specific focus or theme for each trade show booth. Users could get updates about what is happening at a specific trade show booth through your smartphone app (there is a raffle here, a seminar there, an announcement here etc.)
Again, this is really cool stuff, but it will require developing a large amount of content and coordinating a much larger and more complex presence at your next trade show. However, this can result in a serious impact and a presence at your next trade show that many attendees won’t soon forget. Developing a cohesive content strategy would be key to successfully pulling off a mobile exhibit tactic like this, but the payoff can be huge.