6 Trade Show Games and Activities Guaranteed to Draw a Crowd
You don’t exhibit at a trade show in hopes of having an empty booth; you want your booth teeming with prospects! But more booth traffic sometimes forces attendees to wait in line for personal attention from your sales team … or walk away entirely. Trade show games and activities help by keeping prospects busy and engaged, giving you more time to connect with them.
Trade Show Games Are Serious Business
In one of our previous blogs about trade show games, we explored how exhibitors are using a myriad of tools like prize wheels, winning key contests, trivia games, social media raffles, and even virtual reality to engage attendees and capture sales leads.
In this article, we’ll discuss six more creative ways to lure attendees to your booth — and make it hard for them to want to leave after they get there!
1. Instant Winners
There’s an allure to a game of chance. Especially when it involves a fast cash payout or free gift. Scratch-off games are popular and inexpensive, and exhibitors have several options for getting them into the hands of attendees. You can physically mail them out ahead of time to early show registrants, ask show management to distribute them at the registration desk, or simply hand them out right at your booth.
Tip: The most effective trade show scratch-off games use a number or symbol match, requiring attendees to come to your booth to find out if they’re a winner — which of course gives you an opportunity to discuss your services or products.
Scratch-off cards like these from Mr. Scratch Off can be custom-printed to include your company name, graphics and booth number.
2. Big Reveal
Imagine a big red curtain on a platform. Magic acts and red carpets have conditioned us to look and be curious. What’s behind it? You can choose to reveal a prize, big announcement or maybe a big giveaway. If you’re working with a sponsor, reveal it with flourish from behind the curtain or on a special stage. The goal is to instill curiosity and draw a crowd. This will do it.
3. Carnival and Arcade Games
Step right up and feast your eyes on the vast array of in-booth amusements at your disposal. Carnival and arcade games bring out the kid in all of us, and for trade show exhibitors, the good news is that many of these types of games can be incorporated into booth spaces and customized with company logos. For example, you can rent a Zoltar fortune-telling machine to entertain your prospects and keep them from moseying away to your competitor’s booth. (Hint: Zoltar predicts many sales conversions in your near future!)
Money booths or “cash cubes” are another great option. The booths are custom-brandable and instead of cash, they can be stuffed with vouchers, gift certificates or discount coupons to be used for same-day or limited-time purchases.
Zoltar machines and money booths like these from Wow Entertainment can be customized to display your company logo, branding and color scheme.
4. Spotlights
Have you ever looked into the night sky and seen a spotlight? When it moves, aren’t you curious about where it leads? You can use the same tactic at a trade show. In particular, exhibitors with tall island displays generally have more room to accommodate floor-based spotlights, which can be aimed to shine upward against the top level of your exhibit or toward a side wall of the event venue. The light can be turned on for short bursts of time during which the first 20-or-so attendees who follow the light to your booth — and perhaps repeat a secret phrase that pays — get awarded a prize. That light could be just a spotlight, your logo … or even the famous Bat Signal.
5. Name That Tune
Everyone loves a catchy tune. Use it to your advantage! With all of the free music game mobile apps out there, exhibitors can easily host “Name That Tune” and music trivia games right in their booths. (Remember, of course, that if you’re going to play music out loud, your booth needs to be positioned far enough away from other exhibitors that the noise won’t be considered distracting or disruptive. Check with the show venue management for noise volume guidelines.)
Available on Google Play, the Guess the Song app has been downloaded over 400,000 times and allows two players to compete against each other.
6. Power Up
Locating a venue, looking for directions, uploading pics … our phones need JUICE. So offer it up by adding portable charging station furniture to your exhibit. Charging station tables, for example, offer eye-catching LED edge lighting, hold up to 20 cables for 5 different kinds of devices, and can be customized to display your logo and branding colors on the table top.
Available in cafe and bistro heights, these Charging Station Tables feature fully brandable table tops to showcase your company logo and graphics. The LED edge-lighting can also be customized to complement your specific brand colors.
Bottom Line
Whether you prefer a more HEY-LOOK-AT-ME strategy like red-curtain theatrics or a more subtle approach like games of chance, there’s really no limit to your options for keeping prospects engaged and entertained at your booth. The real measure of success for exhibitors, however, lies in having a firm sales lead qualifying process as well as a solid post-show followup system in place so you can capitalize on all that extra booth traffic.
Looking to add more interactive elements to your display, but not quite sure how to do it or how it might look? We’re here to help! The trade show design professionals at EXHIB-IT! will carefully listen to your ideas and make suggestions to fit both your brand and your budget. Connect with us today!