Kristine
This post was written before Traffic and Conversion 2020 was postponed and moved online due to COVID-19. You can find updates about Traffic and Conversion Summit here.
Trade shows can provide numerous opportunities for your business to attract new customers, create partnerships, and even increase your social media following… if you can find a way to stand out from the hundreds of other exhibitors, that is. At especially popular marketing events, like the annual Traffic and Conversion Summit, each company has to compete for the attention of thousands of attendees.
Instead of throwing together a simple prize wheel or doing business card drawings, you can make a lasting impression by hosting a fun, unique game that people will actually want to play. You don’t need to have a massive budget or give out lavish prizes to make a positive impact on every person who visits your booth. All you need is an outgoing attitude and a bit of creativity to incorporate one of these trade show booth games at your next marketing event. Just remember not to take on more games than you can handle, so that your main focus can still be on meeting new people and learning new things!
Minute to Win It
These quick 60-second challenges are entertaining for observers and participants alike, making them the perfect trade show booth games for busy conventions. Ask participants to sign up or follow your business on social media to play, and then award branded merch to the winners. Take photos and videos of the challenges (with permission, of course), and post them on social media with the event hashtag to attract more people to your booth throughout the day.
Most Minute to Win It games are fairly cheap and simple to set up, so you could rotate through different challenges as the trade show progresses. Have an enthusiastic host lead participants in popular games such as:
- Name Drop. Ask contestants to list as many celebrities as they can within just 60 seconds. To make it more challenging, you could change up the criteria with each new group of contestants, such as limiting the category to female actresses or talk show hosts.
- Cookie Monster. The goal is simple: contestants need to move a cookie from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands. As they give their facial muscles a serious workout, participants can race against each other to amp up the competition and hilarity.
- Mock Interview. This could be a great ice-breaker at the workplace, too! In this game, pairs of strangers each get one minute to interview the other person and jot down as many facts as they can. The winner is whoever can remember the most facts about the person they interviewed, such as their workplace, hometown, or middle name.
Find Your Match
This is a genius way to get attendees to go out and bring other people back to your booth. Ask everyone who stops by your booth if they’d like to participate in a game. Those who agree simply need to wear a sticker on the front of their clothing. The stickers should have obvious variations in style, such as numbers or symbols, with just two identical pairs in each style. As the day goes on, people will need to look for their “match,” or the attendee who’s wearing the same sticker as them. When the first match is found, both people can come back to the booth to receive a prize.
Jeopardy!
Who doesn’t love trivia games?! You could have an actual “host” for the game or simply set up a few screens for people to play on their own whenever they’d like. As a prerequisite, just have each participant submit their phone number or email before playing so you’ll have their contact information for later marketing campaigns. If you want to really inspire some friendly competition, create an eye-catching leaderboard with the names and scores of the biggest winners. Whoever gets the highest score at the end of each day could be given a special prize and a social media shout-out!
Social Media Scavenger Hunt
Everyone will be on social media during the trade show, so make your own posts stand out by creating a unique kind of scavenger hunt around the venue. Require attendees to follow your page, and then update your page with various clues and riddles to encourage people to explore the convention center, talk with others, and work together to figure out the puzzle. Have participants upload their finds and responses on their own pages as they work through the scavenger hunt, and award the quickest detective with a memorable prize. Even at the end of the event, you’ll have plenty of user-generated content in the form of videos, posts, and photos you can react to and share for weeks to come. Your marketing team will thank you!
Arcade-Style Games
Inspire some child-like fun and enthusiasm with some classic arcade games at your booth! Set up a few small hoops for a basketball toss, and watch as even the most professional attendees stop by to take a shot. You can have people compete head-to-head to entertain passersby and create a sense of friendly competition. If you want to take it up a notch, you can incorporate these other ideas to increase attention and participation:
- Create a leaderboard to show off the highest scores of the day.
- In true arcade fashion, award tickets instead of one prize. As people come back to try their hand at the challenges, they can trade in their tickets for a variety of different prizes.
- Offer digital games and encourage players to take pictures of their scores and share them on social media with the event hashtag.
Conclusion: Making It Your Own
Each game, activity, or challenge you decide to implement at your next trade show should somehow tie back into your business for the greatest possible impact. For instance, if your company is a digital marketing agency, you could host a trivia game that revolves around different marketing trends or eCommerce statistics.
In addition, most of the prizes you give out should display your company logo to maximize visibility. Make sure to give out useful items that attendees will actually use and appreciate after the convention ends, such as reusable water bottles or fanny packs emblazoned with your logo. Whenever they use the item, they’ll be reminded of the event, as well as the friendly people who were giving them out.
At the end of the day, the best thing you can do to make your next trade booth a success is to keep it fun, simple, and focused on meeting new people that could become customers, partners, or otherwise valuable business connections. These fun trade show booth games are awesome ways to attract more people to your booth and help make networking fun, but make sure you also have a plan for getting to know and staying in touch with the people who visit your booth!
To build off the success of your next trade show, remember that creating content is of the utmost importance. If you want to provide highly relevant content for your loyal audience and new customers alike, click here to learn how a professional Content Cucumber writer can help you reach all your business goals!
