Written by Martin Wiggins, MD

Looking ahead to what is already shaping up to be a very hectic 2019, one of the critical developments that we expect next year is the increased drive by our clients to better understand the value of their investments, particularly in terms of exhibitions and how best to maximise the ROI from that spend. Historically, this has been a question that is often asked of exhibitions and trade shows: how do I know that the budget actually gets me results?During 2017-2018, we demonstrated that, with the integrated use of communications, content and social media, we could really drive business opportunity with a variety of campaigns for clients across different industry verticals, sectors and territories. However, we think that next year will really take a step forward in terms of how we actually use the space at an exhibition stand or trade show, and aim to engage with visitors to ensure that they get content that actually reaches out to them rather than the ‘corporate broadcast’ that most companies employ. I’m not suggesting that there is anything wrong with the ‘broadcast’ approach – something that is impactful and engaging is certainly worth the investment, but there must be an opportunity to make that content focus on the ‘individual’ more and, in the process, recognise more about how your visitors engage with the booth, the people on it, and the messages that you’re trying to push forward. And, for 2019, I think that there is!During the course of this year, we have been working with our partners to provide a service to our clients that will allow them to understand the following key metrics in terms of their investment on exhibitions and trade shows:

• What really did engage with your visitors?Here, we are able to show through ‘heat mapping’ where your visitors went and how long they stayed at certain parts of your stand. Therefore, we can align these to the key ‘hot spots’ in terms of the messaging that a client pushes out: a product demonstration for example.
• Understanding how many people attended the booth and when: understanding the peaks and troughs of the day is important to make sure that the booth is managed properly - matching the right people at the right time to the agenda on the booth.
• Driving the right content:with the use of facial recognition, we can match content to the right people on your stand. No longer is it the same content for everyone; now we can match content to gender as well as age.
• Content Flow:with ‘real-time’ MI, we can now balance content across a variety of screens to make sure that you optimise key messaging, ensuring the content is seen by as many people as possible.

All of the above now allows us a much greater and deeper understanding of the value that trade shows and exhibitions give us, making the understanding of the results from the investment that much greater. So, if you’re keen to understand more about these new services and what we can do to help make your 2019 events even better – as well as driving more business, then don’t hesitate to get in touch.Contact us here or email me directly at mwiggins@brandformula.co.uk.