The answers continue! At Exhibitus, we start with questions – questions that develop a strategy that guides a concept to an event’s business success.
In our current webinar series, we answer five of your pressing questions in 25 minutes. Below are nuggets of expertise and insights we learned during our November session with Exhibitus’ Ashely Tomashot, Experiential Designer, Phoebe Mathius, Creative & Creative Workforce Development + Advancement, and Lynn Reves, VP – Marketing & Results Strategy. To hear each response in its entirety, listen to the replay of the November 12th 5-in-25 webinar here.
We look forward to continuing to provide answers at our next webinar on January 29th 11:00 am EST. Register and submit your questions for this and future webinars here! {add links}
Engagements – The Experiential Answer or Simply an Element?
Q1: What is audience engagement and why does it matter?
- Before we dive into defining audience engagement, let’s remember who makes up an audience. It’s people. We are complex creatures who crave interactions that speak to our emotions, the emotions fundamental to creating experiences that drive brand loyalty.
- A successful engagement creates an emotional connection through storytelling, interactivity, novelty and immersion.
- Key emotions that foster brand loyalty are trust, happiness and belonging.
- Trust – you want to feel confident in the quality of a brand and know that it is reliable
- Happiness – happy and satisfied users lead to repeat purchases, and often recommendations to others
- Belonging – a sense of belonging to a community of users creates brand loyalty
Q2: Do all engagements have to be based on innovative technology?
- As a designer responsible for the spatial aspect of an experience, I have to create an architectural structure that makes sense for the engagement.
- Once attendees are in the environment, engagement should happen throughout. That makes it important to first understand how an audience interacts with the brand story. We follow the “story before structure” mantra.
- For sure, technology is a great way to enhance a story but we do not use tech-for-tech-sake to bring a brand to life. Never forget that a warm handshake is engagement.
- Also, there are different levels of technology to consider: high-tech, medium-tech, low-tech, no-tech. To hear examples of these levels, listen to the webinar replay.
Q3: How, if at all, is AI being employed at events?
- Today, brands are using AI to research around goals, objectives and creative ideation. But it is wise to remember that AI is drawing from what has already been done.
- An example of AI at an experiential event is selfie booth. The attendee walked in, answered and identification questionnaire and then the camera took a headshot and enhanced the photo so the final version was professional quality.
- On the trade show floor, AI is being used in lead capture technology, measurement software, badge technology, customer journey tracking…and much more.
Q4: How do I create an experience that empowers my audience to learn?
- Knowing your audience is the first step. Study the demographics, find out what and how they consume information.
- Consider the type of event where you are meeting your audience. Trade show floors have many distractions. A user summit offers a captive audience. A road show gathers the masses.
- Determine the goal you are trying to achieve and provide information in a way that supports success.
Q5: How do you connect engagements to the sales funnel?
- When it comes to engaging visitors at an event, we recommend an interlocking strategy between sales and marketing. Both teams agree on the action that they want a visitor to take and ensure the engagement designers craft an experience that meets that goal.
- It is important to have marketing and sales agree on the definition of a qualified lead and work together to identify high-value leads from the masses at an event that can move immediately to the sales funnel.
Thank you Randy, Samantha, Andrew, Barbara, and Peter for sharing your “top-of-mind” questions with us. We look forward to responding to the next set of issues and challenges on our 5-in-25 webinar session on January 29th.