MEA Quickly Adapts To New Marketing Strategy With Easy SocialPoint Trade Show Game Platform

 

New Marketing Goals Prompts Desire for New Interactive Trade Show Game

When Midwest Energy Association (MEA), a consortium of energy delivery industry organizations, decided in 2017 to completely change their go-to-market strategy, they decided to retain SocialPoint games – but with a different SocialPoint game to fit their new goals.

“We had success in 2015 and 2016 using SocialPoint’s Challenge Bar Trivia game,” said Lindsay Robertson, MEA Marketing and Communications Director. “The Trivia game worked well to attract and retain attendees, when our goal was to present everything we offer.  But, in 2017, we made a strategic shift at trade shows, so we needed a different approach.”

MEA narrowed their marketing strategy to focus on their leadership training offerings, as there is such a huge demand to train new leaders because of the massive retiring of the Baby Boomers.

“Our goal this year was to more quickly profile and qualify our booth visitors, to enable discussions with the most qualified visitors, and to facilitate reaching out post-show with new leads from the show,” said Robertson.  “We asked SocialPoint for a game that would achieve those goals, and they delivered.”

SocialPoint offered an “Instant Win” version of their Virtual Prize Wheel game where, rather than spin a virtual wheel to reveal their prize, instead their prize award pops up on the screen.  MEA’s game was called “Try Your Luck To Unlock The Truck.”

To promote the game, MEA displayed two iPad kiosks, plus “a large graphic of the tailgate view of a truck, the common place our clients have ‘tailgate meetings’ in the field,” said Robertson.  The graphic attracted booth traffic, and signaled to attendees that MEA understood how they worked.

Easy Digital Interactive Game Helps Booth Staffers Prioritize Time For Higher Quality Leads

“The game has been very successful at doing exactly what we wanted from it,” said Mark Bechtel, MEA Training & Tradeshow Coordinator.  “We get attendees into our booth, get all their info at the show, and then we can easily reach out later via email to contact leads after the show.”

Added Robertson, “Our booth staffers really like how simple the Instant Win game is, because they don’t need to babysit someone to show them how to use it – attendees just walk up and start playing.  Attendees were happy to win our prizes, and some came back to play again.

“Best of all, while the game boosts MEA awareness and gathers lead data from all booth visitors, our booth staffers are freed up to have longer conversations with more qualified leads who already shown interest in our new leadership training offerings.”

SocialPoint Platform Allows MEA to Make Changes, Market to Leads Post-Show

Bechtel is pleased with the control the SocialPoint game platform gives him. “I have enjoyed working with SocialPoint’s game platform.  It lets us handle logistics with minor changes easily without any issues. I find it easy for me to make quick changes to the on-screen verbiage and the ratio of winning players. The app is great to play around with and to have that control myself.

 “We have used the ‘Try Your Luck’ game at 6 events so far, and will likely use it for 3 more,” said Bechtel. “The game has been great to use in different events – we use it at any time, at any purpose event, wherever we are.  We can try it out with any type of audience or booth.  And since this game costs less than the Challenge Bar Trivia game, we can afford to use it, even at events with only a couple hundred people.”

“Plus, the game allows me to easily be prepared for post-show success.  I can export a spreadsheet of all my trade show leads so far.  And, I can easily add on another unexpected trade show, with some simple changes on the app, so post-show I can separate out those new attendees. It’s really easy.”

Added Bechtel, “Due to our long sales cycle, it’s still too early to calculate our ROI, but with the improved leads and engagement using this game, we are confident we did well.”

A new marketing strategy didn’t mean MEA had to get a completely new digital interactive vendor.  “It was a blessing to work with SocialPoint,” concludes Robertson.  “We came to them with some out-there ideas, yet still needing an affordable solution. They helped us find a great, customized solution in a very short amount of time.”

If you’d like to see more about how you can drive more booth traffic and get more qualified leads with our interactive trade show games, feel free to contact us with questions or to discuss your event with one of SocialPoint’s Digital Strategists. We’ll help you generate excitement, crowds, and leads.