15. Unleash the Power of Mobile
You can incorporate mobile marketing into your trade show program in two ways: the right way and the wrong way. You can use a well thought-out plan that supplements your overall show goals, or you can fall prey to the shiny object syndrome. Unfortunately, most of the exhibitors I’ve seen using mobile have a bad case of shiny object syndrome. They’ve heard about some hot new game or app and immediately want to incorporate it into their booth strategy—or, perhaps I should say, wedge it into their booth strategy no matter what.
Just like the social media tools you use, the giveaways you hand out, and the activities taking place in your booth, your use of mobile technology must support your overall show objectives and business goals. You can’t have everything you are doing in your booth carefully aligned with your show goals and overall company goals and then suddenly throw in some new app because it’s cool. Doing so creates a disconnect and a distraction for your audience.
About a year ago quick response (QR) codes were the hot new thing that everyone was talking about. People were sticking QR codes on everything with little thought as to what they were really trying to accomplish. They were hot, everyone was doing it, and no one wanted to be left behind. They were put on business cards, print advertisements, websites (I’ll never understand that one), and even signs and billboards (try scanning a QR code on a billboard while driving 65 mph...no, please don’t). Many of the codes I scanned took me to a company’s home page. I could have typed in the URL in less time than it took me to scan the image. Some marketers were in such a rush to get their QR codes out there that they never bothered testing to see whether they worked. I came across a full-page color ad in a national magazine once with nothing on the page but a QR code and the brand logo. I scanned the code and was sent to a page that didn’t exist. That is a very expensive mistake.
I’ve also seen some great implementations of QR codes that fit very well into the company’s marketing strategy. It is clear they had a plan and saw where QR codes would be the perfect tool to use to implement the strategy. One example I liked was an exhibitor who had a great mobile app that helped their customers estimate the costs of different areas of their operations. Instead of making customers go to the app store and search for the app and then download it, the QR code did all that for them.
If you find yourself getting excited about the next must-have mobile app, take a deep breath and step back. Is it something that makes sense to your overall booth strategy? Is it a tool that will help you achieve your exhibit goals? Do you have the budget and manpower in place to do it right? Or are you just doing it because it’s cool?
Sometimes it is hard to resist—especially if the app that is causing so much excitement or is something your CEO just loves. You will have to clearly explain why Angry Birds will not fit into your exhibit strategy and not get you closer to your show goals. As an exhibit manager, this is not a new problem; it’s the same battle, just with a new opponent.
When mobile apps are used appropriately, they are a fantastic way to engage your audience and let them interact with your brand in a fun and even educational way. Or, they can be useful tools for your audience to get exactly the information they need quickly and in the way they want it delivered. Either way, the app serves a purpose that fits into your strategy and gets you closer to your goal.
Are Mobile Apps Right for Every Audience?
In late 2009, I was onboard with the argument that not everyone had a smartphone and you had to know your audience before investing money in a mobile app for your exhibit program. According to a comScore Mobile Lens study ending in December 2009, 17 percent of mobile phones in the United States were smartphones.
Today my feeling is that you get onboard or get left behind. In October 2011, Nielsen reported that 43 percent of U.S. mobile phone owners had a smartphone. comScore reports that “U.S. smartphone subscribers surpassed the 100-million mark in January 2012.” In March 2012, Apple reported they sold three million iPads in under four days. We should know by now that technology is moving faster than ever, and we can no longer sit around on our hands waiting to see what will happen.
This notion I often hear that trade show attendees are older and don’t use smartphones and tablets is just wrong. Today my fellow GenX’ers are the older folks. The oldest of us are in our mid- to late 50s, and the youngest are in their 30s. For those GenX’ers reading this, if you are like me, you are shocked to realize that the oldest of the Millennials, born in 1981, can not only legally drink but somehow have turned 30. That’s right; people who might not even have been born the year we graduated high school are in positions of power. Affinity’s American Magazine Study reports released in 2011 show that 54 percent—or more than 25 million Millennials—currently own a smartphone and 18 percent plan to purchase one within the next six months.
This is where our marketing focus needs to turn. To stay relevant, you must turn your eye to the future. Take a look at the next, as yet unnamed generation. You’ll have to pry their phones out of their cold dead hands. According to Neilson, some 40 percent of those aged 12–17 now own smartphones. Even in households with an income of $30,000 a year or less, 59 percent of teens have cell phones. Fully 72 percent of all teens—or 88 percent of teen cell phone users—send text messages.
As far back as 2007 teens and tweens loved their phones, and loved them more than some very popular teen pastimes. The Disney Mobile Cell and Tell surveyed more than 1,500 kids aged 10–17. When asked “If you had to choose between your phone or something else,” they got these results:
• One-third would give up listening to the radio, playing video games, or going to the mall.
• Nearly one-fourth would give up their MP3 players.
• One in five would give up TV.
I spent some time with my eight-year-old niece just the other day. I was taking photos of her with my iPhone, and she asked if I had any games on it. She’s never used an iPhone, but in about 30 seconds she mastered an app called Cat Paint. She intuitively knew that she could “pinch” certain things to make them smaller or expand them. In just minutes she found features I did not even know existed after two years of using the app.
Long story short, there is going to be a learning curve for some of the technology you choose to use in your booth. The older folks are going to need some handholding, while the younger generations will just be able to figure it out on their own. Until today’s teens and tweens start taking over our boardrooms, you’ll have to dedicate some resources to instruction and explanation of what you are doing.
Also, don’t expect everyone to play along. We all use our devices differently, and no one size fits all. Even six months ago, I saw no point in adopting a text messaging strategy for our events. To me, this seemed like an unwelcome invasion. Then I went to a conference where the organizer was using it to deliver information to the attendees. I got off the plane, turned on my phone, and there was a short text message telling me where my ride would meet me to take me to the hotel. Next I received a text telling me exactly where to go at the hotel for express check-in for our conference. I was relaxing in my room getting some work done when I got the third message, just a half an hour before our opening cocktail party. The text told me what time the party would start, where it was taking place, and how to get there. By this time, I was a huge fan of text messaging. No digging for confirmations and agendas—all the information was sent to me exactly when I needed it.
Some people will jump on board right away, others will have to be converted, and still others will simply have no interest. That’s okay. Mobile marketing is just another tool in your toolbox. You can have different tools for each audience preference. Here are a few mobile tools you can try.
Event Apps
Many of the mobile apps that will have the highest adoption rates by attendees will be those that are sanctioned by the trade show organizer. A mobile event app is a customized mobile app that essentially replaces the big bulky printed show guide (see Figure 15.1). It allows attendees to access all that information and more on their smartphones and tablets. When a show moves from printed guides to a mobile app, the sky’s the limit when it comes to the content that can now be shared. Instead of just listing their exhibitors with a short description, logo, and booth number, listings can now include links to video, product brochures, pictures, social media accounts, websites, and more. I am seeing more and more shows both large and small adopting these event apps and as the pricing for developing them continues to drop, this trend will only increase.
Figure 15.1. Sample home screen of a mobile app.
Common modules found in mobile event apps are
• Exhibitor list
• Networking tools
• Organizer messages
• Personalized attendee agendas
• Product showcases
• Schedules
• Social media sharing tools
• Speaker bios
• Trade show floor map
An event app is not something that is purchased or arranged for by you the exhibitor. It is simply another tool the show provides to you. Your responsibility is to participate to the fullest extent you are able by providing the content that will reside there just like you used to provide your company logo and description for the printed guide. Much of the information that populates the event app is pulled from the trade show website and other content the show organizer already has access to. Be sure you have provided all the information the show organizer needs about your booth in the correct format. Many of today’s show websites and event apps offer exhibitors a plethora of marketing opportunities, yet many exhibitors don’t take advantage of them.
Attendees now can click on an interactive show floor map to get detailed information about each exhibitor. And I’m not just talking about a description and contact information. Exhibitors can now upload white papers, brochures, videos, pictures, and press kits to the show’s website, which becomes something of an “exhibitor portal.” Much of this, if not all, is often made available through the event mobile app as well.
Keywords are very important to the way these new exhibitor portals work. Show organizers now request exhibitors to use keywords so attendees can search by their specific product and services needs. Some mobile event apps let attendees search the exhibitor list on a certain category and set appointments directly through the app or mark as favorite certain exhibitors they want to see. These exhibitors are then automatically highlighted on the trade show floor map. Some apps will even give the attendee walking directions from one booth to the next.
Consider a Mobile App Sponsorship
As with just about everything at a show, organizers are striving to monetize mobile event apps and offer branding opportunities to exhibitors to help them offset the cost of the app. Many shows are branding their apps with a sponsor’s logo prominent on every screen, or they divide the sponsorships, selling off different categories. As an organizer, I’ve seen these event apps cost anywhere from $5,000 to over $100,000 to develop. The majority are usually well above $25,000, so this branding opportunity is not going to come cheap.
The good news is that as mobile event apps gain in popularity and competition increases amongst developers, the pricing will go down. That means if you do decide to buy into a sponsorship, you need to be strategic when it comes to the partnership/sponsorship contract. With most sponsorship or branding opportunities, it pays to get in on the ground floor and sign a multi-year contract to lock in pricing. But that might not be the case with event app sponsorships. These apps are still very new, so it’s hard to place a value on the exposure they bring to a sponsor. Most organizers base their pricing of the sponsorship/branding opportunity on their cost instead of the marketing value.
Many organizers are pricing their sponsorships very high to cover their costs. Sponsorship pricing is all over the map depending on the show. I’ve seen some sell for $20,000 and some as high as $125,000. Next year that same app, either through the same vendor or a competing vendor, can cost half that or even less. Based on this “cover your cost” pricing structure, your sponsorship investment should go way down, no? But if you lock yourself into this year’s prices for three years, you could be paying inflated prices.
Instead, work with your show organizer to create a contract that is a win/win for both parties. Your investment should be directly related to the adoption of the event app and therefore your exposure on it, not the cost to build it. The first year the app is launched might see only a 30 percent adoption rate by attendees. That could go up fairly significantly the second year as more people see its value; then it could really increase the third year. As a sponsor you might come to an agreement with the show organizer that you might pay an investment cost for the sponsorship of $5,000 and then $2,000 for each 10 percent of adoption of the app. If in the first year only 30 percent of attendees use the app, your sponsorship fee might be $11,000 (the $5,000 investment plus the $6,000 for the 30 percent adoption rate). In year three, when they have 70 percent of attendees using the app, your fee would increase to $19,000.
With a contract like this, you make an investment with the show at a time when you might not see a huge return. The show organizer needs to understand that. At the same time, if the app grows in popularity, you need to understand that its value increases, and it becomes a huge asset in the organizer’s sponsorship toolkit. You need to agree to a contract based on adoption rates as well as investment values.
The other thing you need to consider before committing to a sponsorship is the usability of the app. Some app vendors do a much better job than others. Some apps are so clunky and hard to use that it’s too difficult for attendees to find what they need; they just give up and close down the apps and never refer to them again. I’ve used some mobile event apps that were so intuitive that once I downloaded them, I never had to look at the printed program again. Keyword searches tied into educational sessions, showed presenter bios and linked right to exhibitors and even downloads that they made available. That is the kind of app you want your name associated with. Not the clunky one that everyone is complaining about throughout the show.
Because you don’t want your name on a lousy app your going to want to see and experience what you’re investing in. Simply ask the show organizer whom they have contracted with to build the app; then contact the vendor and ask to see what other mobile event apps they have developed with modules and content similar to the show you are sponsoring. You should download them to your smartphone or tablet and start playing with them as a show attendee. Do not have the vendor walk you through a demo. You should not need any instructions on how to use the apps. The app should be intuitive and should let you easily find what you are looking for. If an app is complicated and requires a demo, attendees are not going to use it.
If you decide to sponsor a mobile event app, work with the show organizer to market it to show attendees. Make sure it is being marketed early and often to ensure higher usage. I would even go so far as to suggest having a branded (your branding of course) help kiosk on the show floor to help attendees download the app and navigate it. Yes, it should be intuitive, but us old farts might still have some trouble.
Location-Based Social Networks
With location-based social networks, users check in to places they visit with their mobile device using an app, such as Foursquare, Yelp, and Facebook Places. They can then push those check-ins to their LinkedIn, Twitter, and/or Facebook accounts. Users who check in might win special prizes or get discounts provided by the businesses they are visiting.
Show managers and exhibitors are using these types of location-based networks to drive traffic to booths much like how the low-tech passports were used in the past. The idea of the passport was that visitors had to go to certain booths to get a stamp. Once they filled their books, they could be registered to win a prize. This is now being done by checking in to certain booths and gathering points.
I am not a fan of this gimmick and never have been. Back in the day of passports, visitors would race from booth to booth to get their books stamped. The exhibitors had to pay a premium to be included in the passport book. What did it get the exhibitor? A crowd of people who stayed in the booth only long enough to get a stamp and then were on their way. They didn’t even know whose booth they were in half the time. They could care less what the exhibitor was displaying—all that mattered was the end prize.
I see the same thing happening with these location-based social networks. Attendees are running around from booth to booth, checking in to gather points but never once talking to the exhibitor. Some apps build some type of scavenger hunt into the game and require that players actually get answers to questions, which is somewhat better, but it is still distracting to an exhibitor’s real goals. I have never met one exhibitor who felt his company’s participation paid off in sales. Time will tell if someone comes up with a legitimate use of these types of apps in a trade show situation. Right now all I’m seeing is a distraction from your exhibit’s true purpose.
Augmented Reality
I am getting more and more excited about augmented reality apps the more I see them used wisely by marketers. Augmented reality occurs when technology adds to reality. You may be familiar with the use of augmented reality without even realizing it. If you watched hockey on television back in 1997, you might remember the introduction of the blue halo around the puck to allow viewers to track the puck better. Well, that was not much of a success, but it did start the company Sportvision. That company went on to create that yellow first down line shown on screen during football games. That is augmented reality. It’s technology adding to reality.
Imagine visitors in your booth using their smartphones’ cameras to point to a product on display and up pops a customer testimonial video on their screen. You could tag signs and products in your booth using GPS and a digital compass, and then direct visitors to point their cameras in that direction for more information. Keep in mind that this technology is very new to people so there will be a learning curve. You’re going to need to figure in the cost of having resources available to show people how to download the app and use their smartphones to point and view. But this is one gimmick that could have big payoffs by providing education in an engaging memorable way. Instead of just looking at your product in your booth, the visitor could be transported to another customer’s location via video, and see your product in action. Augmented reality applications could easily tie into your trade show strategy.
Another idea would be to create a tour of your product or service using this technology. Let’s say you have a product, such as LED lighting, that is used in several places throughout the city the show is located in. You could give booth visitors a tour map (and thorough instructions for how your augmented reality app works) and send them off to view how your lighting products can enhance their everyday surroundings. It just might give them ideas for how to use your product in their own businesses. Perhaps your audience at the show are hoteliers. Why not take them on a tour of the venue, highlighting spots where your LED lighting could create a better experience for their guests and telling them how much money could be saved yearly by using LED lighting in those areas.
Sounds great, but what’s to stop a competitor from tagging your booth and showing her own promotions? That’s where Geofencing comes in. Geofencing creates a virtual boundary around your physical space. It’s quite a lot to think about, but your app developer can help you through all the technology.
If you are curious about augmented reality and want to see some examples, download the Layar app available for both iPhone and Android devices. Layar was used by events like the Canne Boat Show and Eureka’s Arts Alive! Monthly art tour. Another fun app you can try right now is Pocket Universe available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It will set you back $2.99, but it will give you a fun tour of the night sky. It might get your creative juices flowing for possible applications in your booth.
Mobile Polling
The first year of our consumer show we had a lot of difficulty getting attendees to participate in our surveys. We had a team armed with clipboards, paper, and pens asking attendees a few questions while they wandered the show floor or as they were leaving. Attendees just didn’t seem to have the time to answer even two or three short questions. The next year we decided to ditch the paper and pens and used an online polling service for our surveys. We picked up a few iPads and sent the crew out onto the floor again. This time everyone wanted to participate. There was something about the fascination of the technology that lured everyone in.
But fascination aside, this tactic saved us bundles of time analyzing the data. It was also much faster to implement the survey using this online tool, which might have helped with our participation rate. You could put this type of tool to use in your booth to find out what product features your customers like the most or what features they’d most like to see added. You could collect customer satisfaction feedback or even find out how your company is perceived in the industry. Just make sure if you are using a web-based survey tool you have a reliable Internet connection in your booth.
If your audience likes to text, you could use SMS mobile polling. You might be familiar with this via American Idol, which lets the audience vote for their favorite performer by texting a code to a certain phone number. You could do this in your booth to get customer opinions on features they would like to see you add to your product or service. Most mobile polling systems allow you to display the results on a monitor in real time. This way, your booth visitors can see what their peers are interested in as well.
Whereas SMS polling is good for getting opinions of your customers through simple poll questions, a more involved survey could be used as an icebreaker or even to better qualify your booth visitor. Low-cost or free apps are available for download to smartphones and tablets. You can set up your survey online and download the survey to each booth staffer’s mobile device. No Internet access is needed to complete the survey after the app is loaded. All the data will be automatically uploaded once an Internet connection is available. You could even use something like this to collect leads with customized qualifying information and requests for specific follow-up.
Lead Retrieval
Speaking of lead retrieval, most shows partner with a registration company to manage attendee and exhibitor registrations. Part of that deal is that the registration company also provides lead retrieval equipment to exhibitors for a rental fee. The lead retrieval equipment reads the attendees’ data stored on their badges and then holds that data for each exhibitor in a format that is easy to upload into the exhibitor’s customer management software. However, many exhibitors have had frustrating experiences with the equipment used to scan badges. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. As your booth staff fumbles with the equipment, the booth visitor, in a hurry, will often give up and leave before you can collect her contact information and qualify her.
More registration/lead retrieval suppliers are coming out with applications that exhibitors can download right to their own smartphones. No swiping is required; you just enter a visitor’s badge number into your smartphone and presto! All the visitor’s information is downloaded into the app for easy retrieval later. These apps can even be customized with qualifying questions or demographic information.
The best part about these new lead retrieval systems is that they are native apps. Once downloaded, you do not need Internet access to use them to enter badge numbers. The other thing I love about these mobile apps is that you can use the app anywhere, not just in your booth. If your booth staff is in the hallway, at a luncheon, in the bar, or on the elevator, he can easily enter an attendee’s badge number and collect the data.
You can also go low-tech with your mobile lead retrieval. Many inexpensive business card scanner apps are available for the iPhone and Android and Blackberry devices. You simply use your phone to capture the card data, and the program automatically loads it into your contact database. The downside to this method is that you get only the data on the card. You’ll have to fill in your own notes to indicate the level of qualification. Also, you’ll need some sort of tagging system to know which contacts were collected at the show.
Whatever you decide to use, the most important factor is that you are able to follow up with booth visitors in the way they requested with the specific information they were looking for. If your system does not accommodate this type of specific information, it is useless.
QR Codes
I have a love/hate relationship with QR codes. When done right, I think they are very useful. However, many applications of QR codes are nothing more than a silly gimmick and deliver nothing of value to the booth visitor. They also require the user to download a QR code reader to her smartphone or tablet device to scan the code. This means you need to have staff on hand to teach those not familiar with QR codes how they work. While QR codes have caught on in other countries, we’re still not completely on board with them in the United States. That can be partly because we still don’t know what they are. And that poor implementation in the past has left those who know what they are very disappointed, so let’s not blame the tool when it’s been used improperly.
The Gartner Symposium/ITxpo did a fantastic job incorporating QR codes into its event. Codes were included in presentations and signage throughout the venue that clearly stated what would be delivered via the scan. Attendees used the codes to get access to specific Gartner research, video, and webinars. Gartner also alerted attendees prior to the event how the QR codes would be used and that they would need to download a scanner available via the attendee’s smartphone or tablet app store. Granted, this is a tech savvy group, so they did not need a lot of instruction.
On the flip side, I talked to one exhibitor who used QR codes in his company’s booth to eliminate much of the paper passed out in his booth. A scan of QR codes in the booth would launch a specific product video. This company’s audience was not as tech savvy as Gartner’s, so very few people actually scanned the QR codes (notice they had a way to measure whether they were being used). This company felt the real estate they gave up on their graphics was not worth the effort.
Another problem was the fact that Internet access was spotty in the venue. Although booth visitors could scan the QR code, the videos required too much bandwidth to load. As I’ve said earlier, if anything you do requires Internet access, you need to make sure you’ve taken steps to have a solid connection in your booth.
More and more show attendees will be walking around with smartphones in their pockets or tablets in their hands in the very near future. The right mobile app can be a key tool in your trade show strategy. We’re going to start seeing these apps used more and more, and attendees will come to expect them. As smartphones grow in popularity, tools such as QR codes and augmented reality will require less hand-holding and instruction on use. Your booth staff will spend very little time showing attendees how to use the technology and will be able to focus more on a conversation about the attendees’ need for your product or service.
I’ve named just a few types of mobile applications I think could work well with your booth strategy. But remember, they are just tools and should have a larger purpose than just a wow factor. Sure, that will help you draw in visitors, but then you need to deliver something to the visitor that helps connect them to your company. There was a time when the telephone was new and exciting—now it’s just a faster, easier way to communicate. The same could be true of augmented reality in a few years’ time. Technology moves at a much quicker pace these days. Six months from now I’m sure there will be many more cool new tools on the market.
If you have a large budget and the human resources to commit to it, you might want to think about trying something that is very cutting-edge. If you don’t have a large budget for this, tag along with what the show organizers are doing and take advantage of their marketing. But one way or another, you need to start going mobile, or you’ll be left behind.
Summary
With more than 100 million people using smartphones, it’s time to think seriously about incorporating mobile technology into your trade show strategy—strategy being the key word here. Use mobile technology strategically and only if it brings you closer to achieving your goal. Don’t get caught up in following trends just because they are the hot topic of the month.
Many show organizers are realizing their attendees are smartphone-wielding, mobile-savvy buyers, and are developing event apps. Make sure as an exhibitor that you are taking full advantage of the opportunities the show organizer gives you by submitting any and all content your buyers will be looking for on the event app.
Consider incorporating mobile technology such as location-based apps, augmented reality, mobile polling, texting, lead retreival, and QR codes into your booth strategy. However, whenever you consider using any type of mobile tool, ask yourself whether it will help you achieve your goal, or whether it’s just a gimmick. Until your audience gets up to speed on new technology, you’ll have to plan for the on-hand staff to do some hand-holding.