Adding Interactivity to Trade Show Exhibit Booths

Trade show exhibit booths that get visitors involved tend to be the most successful. Who wants to be talked to and advertised to, with no exchange between the company and you? If you were the customer, wouldn't you rather have an active part in determining for yourself whether this product or service is right for you?

You can create an interactive display in several ways, depending on your products or service. Here are a few ideas for adding customer participation to your exhibit:

The most memorable displays are those with product demonstrations that customers get to participate in. Your purpose is to let the visitor experience first-hand why your product fills one or more of their needs or desires.

Rather than having your product sitting on display atop a pedestal, find a creative way to get it into your customers' hands and let them use and experience it.

If you decide to offer a game or contest to draw in visitors, be sure to tie it in with your product and your exhibit goals. Don't have one just to produce traffic; aim to attract qualified visitors who are interested in what you have.

Visitors should pass a qualifying step before getting to actually play the game or participate in the contest. The qualifier should be something that people not actually interested in buying your product would not want to bother with - such as filling out a questionnaire or sitting through a brief product presentation.

Next, the game or contest should involve your product. Design the activity to be fun or surprising, with your product appearing as the solution to a problem.

Remember, however, that shy or reserved people may not wish to participate.

Good presenters can turn trade show booths into attention-getters. A live presentation should be interesting and memorable, involving your booth's visitors whenever possible. Demonstration plus interactivity can be a killer combination.

Surveys also have a place in many exhibits, as a way of providing customer interaction. Invite visitors to test one of your products, and then ask them to complete a survey.

If you decide to incorporate surveys, make them brief. Ten questions or less is all you should ask of your visitors. Don't expect participants to answer essay-style questions; all questions should be multiple choice.

Let customers compare your product head-to-head against other brands. Taste tests are a good example of this technique. Comparisons are most successful for your company if you know your product really is superior to its competition. If a visitor to your exhibit can test drive your product against another from a different brand, and find that yours is better, this can be a very powerful form of customer interaction.

With a computer station and presentation software, many trade show booths are letting an electronic presentation do the talking and convincing. It's a great way to provide a presentation that visitors can experience at their own pace by clicking their way through it.

Face-to-face interactions between your booth staff and customers are often one of the best methods of customer participation. This method is inexpensive, and very effective if the staffer is a good listener.

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