BoothTag: PACCAR Parts Trade Fair
PACCAR Parts
New Roads to Success 2011
On two nights in September, one thousand truck parts dealers gathered (500 on each night) in a cavernous ballroom large enough to house four different entire semi trucks, a bus, 96 other truck parts exhibitors and 2 large prime rib and barbecue buffets.
All this required considerable expense in logistics, freight, displays, food, hotel and many other expenses.
The point of all of it was an investment designed to attract dealers and get them closer to purchasing parts from the exhibiting suppliers.
If you build it, will they come?
But even if I set up a lemonade stand, there's no guarantee that customers will visit, or even that they'll make a purchase if they do. Even if you build it, they might not come.
Even with sleek LED lighting, 3D animation on big screens, eye-catching polished aluminum, free candy and giveaways, getting dealers to stop, engage with sales staff and move closer to buying is a challenge. Those elements help with packaging an experience, but we still need to deliver valuable traffic to the exhibitor booth.
Competition rules!
That's where gamification comes into play. Gamification taps into our inner desire to compete, rise above and be rewarded for our efforts. At this truck parts event, gamification exposed this powerful inner desire with exceptional results.
The game itself was simple: about 25 of the 100 parts suppliers exhibiting invested significant dollars for premium sponsorship recognition. Each premium supplier received an iPod Touch specially configured with Microsoft Tag Reader to scan the barcodes on each dealer-attendee's name tag.
Dealer-attendee's were given the challenge of a scavenger hunt (with helpful clues) to find and talk with each of the premium exhibitor sponsors to get their name tag barcode scanned. Every scan registered 10 points in the BoothTag game system, and when you achieved the maximum number of points, you were eligible to win some very nice prize packages. Prizes included an iPad, high-quality brand apparel and several gift cards with values of $100, $250 and $500. Those incentives carried strong appeal for these dealers!
Proof of engagement
The dealer-attendees took to this game in much the same way they rallied around their college football teams. Groups from the same dealership competed against other dealerships. Individuals competed against each other, returning frequently to peer at the big-screen leaderboard displaying the names of points leaders, and to look for their name in the scrolling list of up-to-the-moment scan activity.
- Where can I see how many points I have?
- How come I'm not on the leaderboard?
- Can *you* scan my name tag?
- How can I tell if I've hit all the right spots?
- What do I have to do to *win*?
Some played for fun. Some played because it was interesting technology, Some played for keeps. All played to win the prizes.
Features that got the game on
A few features were added to the game to make it more interesting - and have greater business value:
Bonus scan points could be earned by taking a survey rating the experience of the event. When word got out that you could earn extra points by taking a survey with a roving representative on an iPad, the survey reps were kept busy for a span of three hours straight.
Random selection of winners from the group of top points leaders, coupled with more than 25 different available prizes made sure that everyone felt included and had decent chance of winning something. The shouts of triumph and cheers as the prize winners were announced made it clear that all the attendees had a good time.
While everyone had a good time, the BoothTag game system was hard at work delivering value to exhibitors and the event producers.
Delivering traffic
The game construct with barcode scavenger hunt gave suppliers a steady stream of traffic. Attendees wanted a scan, and exhibitors provided a scan after talking with the dealer-attendees about their product and service offerings.
Delivering record of activity
Supplier-exhibitors will receive an Excel spreadsheet with name, company, contact information and time and date stamp for every person scanned at their booth. BoothTag integrated with the event registration data to make sure that activity records were complete and accurate. Exhibitors were relieved to know they wouldn't have to spend their evening entering business card information into a spreadsheet!
Measuring value provided to exhibitors
BoothTag's administrative dashboard displayed real-time information on total number of engaged attendees, total scans for the event, average and peak scans per attendee, average and peak scans per exhibitor, and more. With this information, the event producer could clearly demonstrate to premium sponsors the value of their investment in terms of volume of traffic over time.
Dramatic Results
Most dramatic was the amount of scanning that took place over the three hour event: roughly averaging 28 scans per minute. You might say that's more than one scan per participating exhibitor, per minute, isn't there a question of quality of traffic?
When you consider that each exhibitor maintained multiple booth staff to engage visitors in meaningful discussion, the volume becomes very valuable.
Wrap-up
The game concept? Simple. Technology? Easy-to-use, responsive and feedback-rich. The incentives? Strong. The results? Business-valuable for attendees, exhibitors, and the event producer.
When you work with BoothTag, you get help managing all the elements and delivering on that lightning-strike of trade show event success.
