Let’s say you’ve got yourself a couple of exhibition stands in the UK and are ready for action. You arrive at one of London’s world-class venues and the visitors pour into the exhibition hall. You get plenty of casual interest, but why wouldn’t you? Your stand is a visual masterpiece.
And yet, one problem remains: the guests don’t seem to linger at your stand. Attendees seem more interested in your competitors, even if their stand is smaller. You end up with fewer conversions as a result, and your ROI suffers.
In a fast-paced event environment, you need something special to generate leads and make them stay longer.
Enter an evolving phenomenon in the world of B2B trade shows: interactive exhibition stands. These builds provide more than just a visual display; they create dynamic and engaging experiences on the show floor. Besides attracting more guests for longer, they also enhance your brand’s presence and recall.
Let’s explore how you can add interactivity to your exhibition stands today.
Capturing Attention In A Busy Environment
In the crowded and overwhelming setting of B2B exhibitions, it can be challenging to stand out. Interactive stands allow your brand to break through the noise by offering something unique and engaging:
- Visual engagement: Moving visuals and interactive screens immediately catch people’s eyes. Meanwhile, elements such as LED walls and live demonstrations create a stimulating environment. Both encourage visitors to stop and explore.
- Auditory engagement: Sound from music or interactive auditory experiences attracts stand visitors’ attention from afar. It also helps keep them engaged once they arrive at your stand.
- Tactile interaction: Allowing visitors to physically interact with products provides a hands-on experience. These become far more memorable than simply viewing them from a distance.
Creating Dynamic And Engaging Experiences
Bespoke interactive solutions transform passive viewing into active participation. We’ve just seen how this significantly enhances the visitor experience. Here are some creative ways to bring your stand to life:
- Augmented Reality (AR): This new technology creates immersive experiences where visitors engage with you in a new way. For example, an AR tour of your manufacturing process can captivate and educate visitors.
- Virtual Reality (VR): Creates a immersive experience by replacing the real world with a digital environment. Visitors wear VR headsets that cover their field of vision, but my receive other equipment as well. Visitors become immersed, interacting solely with the virtual world they see through the headset.
- Interactive demonstrations: Live demonstrations involve visitors touching, trying, and testing products directly. If you’ve ever tested out a new laptop in a store, you’ll recall how much more personal and memorable the process was. This hands-on approach helps visitors better understand the benefits of your products.
- Gamification: Incorporating competition into your stand can make the interaction fun and rewarding. Visitors are more likely to remember a brand associated with an enjoyable experience.
- Personalised experiences: Tailoring interactions to individual visitors makes them feel valued and understood. You can achieve this through custom product recommendations or one-on-one demos.
- Storytelling: Everyone loves a good story, so use interactive displays to tell your brand’s story in a compelling way. Interactive timelines, customer testimonials, or behind-the-scenes videos make your brand narrative more engaging.
- Social media integration: Encourage visitors to share their experiences on their social media. Use branded photo booths alongside hashtag campaigns for exposure beyond the exhibition floor.
Leveraging AR
Virtual reality and Augmented Reality are not the same. Augmented Reality (AR) enhances the real world with entirely digital overlays. It’s easy to access through devices like smartphones, tablets, or AR glasses. AR users see and interact with both real and virtual elements simultaneously.
AR is becoming increasingly common in the exhibition and tradeshow space. Retail has seen huge adoption of the technology with 40% of consumers saying they would pay more for a product if they could customise it in AR.
If you’ve not started to look at how to implement AR into your exhibition strategy, start thinking today!
AR in action
The San Francisco Asian Art Museum demonstrated how it uses AR to create an immersive visitor experience. You can read all about it here.
Fostering Deeper Connections
Interactive stands provide an opportunity to build deeper connections with your audience. By engaging visitors in meaningful ways, you can foster loyalty and long-term relationships:
- Engagement analytics: Use interactive technology to gather data on visitor preferences and behaviour. This information can help tailor follow-up communications and improve future exhibitions.
- Immediate feedback: Interactive elements like touchscreens gather real-time feedback on products or services. This not only engages visitors, but also provides valuable insights for your brand.
- Networking opportunities: Interactive stands often double up as networking hubs, where visitors engage with your team and one another. This fosters a real sense of community around your brand.
In summary, interactive exhibition stands are essential for capturing attention at busy events. They go beyond static displays to create dynamic, engaging spaces that enhance your brand presence.
Tips For Planning An Interactive Exhibition Stand
The following tips work best in conjunction with our handy exhibition stand planning guide. You can also discover more cutting-edge exhibition stand ideas to make your booth stand out.
Using Technology
As we have seen, leveraging innovative technology can greatly enhance visitor engagement. Tech solutions like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and touch screens all create memorable experiences.
Take extra care planning where and how these will fit into your overall stand design! You’ll need to balance budget with your logistics and staffing requirements.
1. Virtual reality: Offer virtual tours of your products or services, providing a unique way for visitors to interact with your brand.
2. Augmented reality: Use AR to superimpose digital elements in the real world, allowing visitors to see your products in a new light.
3. Interactive apps: Develop an app that visitors can use for deeper engagement at the event. It could be anything from interactive games and product demos to scavenger hunts.
Encouraging Visitor Engagement Through Gamification
Technology should not only be engaging, but also encourage active participation. Some unique design elements that promote this include:
1. Interactive games and quizzes: Simple games like darts, skittles, or Jenga can attract more visitors. Your sales team can exploit these for greater interaction.
2. Proximity beacons: These send personalised offers to visitors’ smartphones as they physically approach your stand.
3. Product challenges: Host meaningful competitions that highlight the benefits of your products. Implement these competitions as part of a giveaway for maximum effect!
Promote Social Sharing
Develop activities that are both entertaining and shareable on social media. You’d be surprised how many positive comments you can receive! Encourage visitors to share their photos with a specific hashtag for broader reach.
1. Photo Booth: Set up photo opportunities with branded backdrops or props. Encourage visitors to share their photos using a specific hashtag.
2. Interactive Demos: Encourage visitors to record their interactions with your products, where applicable.
3. Informative Workshops: Offer mini-workshops to educate more visitors about your offerings.
4. Tactile Elements: Provide hands-on experiences that invite visitors to see your products up close.
Creative Giveaway Ideas
1. Unique Freebies: Let’s face it, generic corporate handouts have gotten old. Move beyond standard promotional items like branded stationery. Consider creative giveaways like branded popcorn bags, self-pour beer stations, or street food samples. Link these freebies to an interactive activity to maximise engagement.
2. Embedded Giveaways: Integrate giveaways into your stand design to increase brand exposure. Imagine having a branded food wagon or a coffee bar to capture people’s taste buds.
Interactive Exhibition Stands: An All-In-One Experience
By integrating these comprehensive tips and insights, you can end up with an engaging and interactive stand space that attracts visitors and leaves a lasting impression. This, in turn, helps you achieve your exhibition goals more effectively. There are endless ways to keep your target audience on their toes!
That’s also where we come in. Booth Exhibits™ are exhibition stand builders that streamline the design and build processes without compromising on quality. Why? Because seeing the stand of your dreams shouldn’t take forever. From large custom showpieces to flexible modular marvels, we’ve got you covered around the world.
