CHICAGO — The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) released a new report for its 2024 Maximizing Attendee and Exhibitor Engagement on the Exhibition Floor series. The second report in the series, titled Balancing Digital Tactics, Show Services, and DIY Marketing for Exhibitor Success, outlines which engagement approaches are working best today, and which are most effective for specific exhibitor goals.
“An overarching takeaway is that multiple event digital tactics enjoy high attendee use, and many show services are rated effective in supporting exhibitor user attendee engagement efforts. The opportunity for organizers is to match digital tactics attendees will use with what helps support what most exhibitors aim to achieve. Additionally, providing show services that help exhibitors maximize their attendee engagement efforts to achieve their end goals is crucial,” said Nancy Drapeau, IPC, Vice President of Research at CEIR.
Digital Tactics
According to the report, 70% of exhibitors incorporate digital tactics into their attendee engagement efforts that are offered by organizers, which is a 10% increase compared the 2017 CEIR study.
The general digital tactics that enjoy the highest exhibitor perception of attendee high use are interactive touch screen way finders (73%), video walls/streaming videos (72%), social media (54%), games (54%), QR codes to access event schedule (53%), show website features (51%), real-time/delayed video feeds from exhibition floor (50%), podcasts from exhibition floor (48%) and show mobile app features (35%).
Despite exhibitors viewing interactive touch screen way finders and video walls/streaming videos to be the most used by attendees, only 21% of organizers offer the interactive screens, while 25% offer video walls/streaming. More than 65% of organizers offer social media, QR codes and show mobile app features though.
“Remember, organizers are apt to offer a broader array of offerings than what exhibitors will use. What is valuable to pay attention to in this report is which digital offerings enjoy high attendee use and which show services are rated effective by the most exhibitor users,” Drapeau said. “They are not necessarily the most popularly offered; for example, video walls are not the most popularly offered, but exhibitors observe they enjoy high attendee use. This is a signal they meet exhibitor engagement needs.”
When it comes to targeted digital tactics, exhibitors view attendee requests for meetings via text and email, emails to attendees and push messaging per attendee interests as the tactics that attendees use most. Notably, while less than 35% of organizers offer attendee requests for meetings via text and email and emails to attendees, exhibitors integrate them into their engagement tactics at 33% and 44% respectively.
“What is surprising is that fewer than half of exhibitors observe that show mobile app features enjoy attendee use, while a majority of exhibitors observe that show website features enjoy high attendee use,” Drapeau said. “I believe this is the case because a show website goes live sooner than the mobile app for an event. CEIR research has documented that most attendees, 90%, pre-plan. A show website is an important resource, and exhibitors likely experience engagement that flows from attendee interaction on a website. CEIR research has documented that when pre-planning, 64% of attendees conduct searches to identify exhibit booths to visit.”
Exhibition/Show Services
When it comes to show services that boost engagement, exhibitors identified specific services that were effective at certain goals. For driving traffic to a booth, lead generation and tracking who visits, exhibitors found lead retrieval (80% exhibitor effectiveness rating), participating in an exhibitor e-vite program (65% exhibitor effectiveness rating), and pre-registration list rental (63% exhibitor effectiveness rating) to be the top ranking. QR codes to capture leads both in booths and outside of booths is also deemed effective.
Related. How to Maximize Attendee and Exhibitor Engagement on the Show Floor — CEIR Offers Tactics
While on-site brand exposure though printed and/or digital signage and banners and giveaways were viewed as effective for supporting branding purposes, for new product promotions, exhibitors found having a visible, physical identifier achieves the best effectiveness ratings. Another service that has a high effectiveness rating is using an event’s video recording service (67%) to curate booth content for post-show social media and digital promotion. Show floor meeting rental space outside of the booth has a 71% effectiveness rating from exhibitors.
Notably, only one-third of exhibitors use exhibitor training offered by an event, but of those that do, a majority rate it as effective in helping them maximize attendee engagement. When looking at the timing of when exhibitor training programs are used most by exhibitors, the day before the event (36%), and available on-demand as an archived video from the web (28%) are when exhibitors participated the most.
Exhibitor DIY Marketing
To be as successful as possible, exhibitors also do their own event marketing activities as well as utilize offerings from organizers. The CEIR report found that 81% of exhibitors do their own pre-event marketing to promote their participation.
“Another exciting discovery is the extent of DIY marketing exhibitors undertake to promote their participation at an exhibition via their own pre-event marketing and marketing while an event is happening. Their efforts complement an exhibition’s promotional efforts,” Drapeau said. “They include a mix of leading-edge tactics as well as more traditional practices. Some of these practices uncover areas of opportunity for organizers and exhibitors to consider how to enhance collaborations to maximize outcomes for all.”
When looking at pre-event DIY marketing, some tactics that aren’t used by a majority of exhibitors are deemed highly effective by those that do use them. For example, while only 8% undertake influencer marketing, it has an effectiveness rating of 71% — the highest rating of all the included pre-event marketing types in the report. Similarly, while 29% engage in phone calls to customers and prospects, 68% find it effective at maximizing attendee engagement. A tactic that does line up between exhibitor use and the effectiveness rating is emailing lists of customers and prospects, with 60% using that approach and it being seen as 60% effective.
During the event, 72% of exhibitors execute a variety of marketing efforts. Phone calls to customers and prospects are found to be the most effective at 71%, but only 13% engage in that tactic, and while 12% text customers during the event, 65% find it to be an effective tactic. Also, during the event the number of exhibitors emailing lists of their customers and prospects drops to 30% but the effectiveness rating remains high at 59%. Influencer marketing effectiveness drops to 55% during the event compared to the 71% effectiveness during the pre-event phase.
Both pre-event and during the event, social media activity is used by a majority and found at least 44% effective.
Find and download the full report here.
Reach Nancy Drapeau at ndrapeau@ceir.org
