Posted in Data Capture, Events, Experiential, Interactive Brand Experiences, Lead Generation, Tradeshow Technology, Uncategorized Bookmark the permalink. What do you think?

Controlling Long Lines at Events

October 15, 2015 at 11:00

by Chris Rogne

Do people wait in line to see your booth attraction? Does it get chaotic and difficult for your brand ambassadors to keep track of who’s next?

There is a solution.

Queue Management—We’ve developed a proprietary app that takes the guesswork out of managing long lines at events and also, additionally, aids in the registration and lead generation process.

The most popular choice is QR codes. Participants enter their information on a branded information screen. Once the data is captured, the QR code is scanned and recorded onto the card.

The participant checks-in for the attraction they are interested in and the brand manager scans the card into the queue system and that person is assigned a place in the order. Easy!

We like to use big screens so the participant can see their place from a distance. We also offer text and email notification. No need to stand around and wait. This increases their enjoyment factor because they can keep track of their place and allows the user to look around your booth! They are not tied down. It increases brand engagement and offers a much better user experience!

We also have to ability to integrate your brand’s videos and images onto the screens. This creates visual interest and engages the audience. Our Queue management system integrates with all of Elation’s other solutions including games, infotainment experiences, contests and more and can track activity of your attendees.

Aside from QR codes, we offer RFID, scanners and other options, as well.

Let us help you control your queue!

Elation Digital develops a wide variety of interactive brand experiences and event technologies to draw crowds for tradeshows, events and mobile marketing tours including photo & video activations, custom branded games, infotainment, social media, data capture, tracking and reporting. Their solutions are perfect for all budget levels from simple solutions to complete integrated campaigns.

Posted in Custom Branded Games, Data Capture, Events, Experiential, Interactive Brand Experiences, Lead Generation, ROI, Strategy, Uncategorized Bookmark the permalink. What do you think?

Measuring the ROI of Adding Branded Interactive Engagements to your Event

October 5, 2015 at 13:27

by Chris Rogne

The one tried and true way of measuring overall ROI is to take the revenue generated, subtract the costs and divide by those costs to get the percentage. Seems simple enough. To measure the ROI of adding an experiential element to your booth is a bit more tricky and yet can still be determined.

First, as I always mention, start with your goals. What are you hoping to gain by adding an interactive technology? These goals will help to figure out what to compare against at the end of the show.

Positive Brand Engagement—adding an experiential solution increases the connection to your brand. Playing a game, taking a photo, learning about your products through interactive screens, make a lasting impression by reaching them at an emotional level. If someone took the time to interact with your brand and not simply chat with your booth personnel, that person has a higher chance of being a quality lead for you.

Quality of leads—this is not strictly a numbers game. You could get boatloads of names from an event. Even your amazing sales pipeline strategy may not be able to help you if the leads you gather aren’t your target audience. Several high quality leads will be far more beneficial down the road for you than 100 names that do nothing (except skew your analytics when you reach out to them).

Partnership opportunities—it’s not always about finding customers. You chose your specific event for a reason. There will be other companies that are synergistic to yours. You may find there is a company that is similar but not directly competitive to you. Together you can take advantage of each other’s strengths and offer each other something you don’t have. Many times that is much cheaper than developing it for yourself.

Longevity of relationships—also knows as the Lifetime Value of a Customer. Perhaps one deal generates a $10,000 deal but that doesn’t quite cover your show investment (Booth costs alone can be that high). If you deliver for that customer and they keep coming back, you are covering your acquisition cost and then some for years to come.

Brand extension—we are constantly talking and writing about how a brand’s perception can last long after the event. Having something beside a #hashtag that can be shared socially is key can reach a multiple factor of the number of people that came by your booth.

The majority of our clients work with us annually or multiple times throughout the year. We are happy when they come back. It’s a testament to the fact our solutions work and met the goals and solutions they were aiming to achieve.

Learn how Elation Digital Can Help you Reach your ROI goals!

Elation Digital develops a wide variety of interactive brand experiences and event experiential technologies to draw crowds for tradeshows, events and mobile marketing tours including photo & video activations, custom branded games, infotainment, social media, data capture, tracking and reporting. Their solutions are perfect for all budget levels from simple solutions to complete integrated campaigns.

Posted in Advergames, Custom Branded Games, Experiential, Interactive Brand Experiences, Interactive Museums, kiosks, Multi-Touch, Uncategorized Bookmark the permalink. What do you think?

Gamification for Honda Entertains and Teaches Recycling

September 4, 2015 at 12:18

by Chris Rogne

I’ve written about how our interactive infotainment solutions can help teach participants information companies want to convey, as well as many other ways these activation can help attain goals. When we meet with prospective clients, we assess their goals, budget, allocated space at the event and then we determine which of our activation will meet their campaign objectives.

Honda reached out to Elation Digital to create an educational game for the 2015 International Car Show. There was a dedicated area to keep children occupied and they wanted something that would be engaging and different. We developed a custom game to teach children about recycling. Multiple gaming kiosks, at varying heights, were set up for children to play.

The game had different recycle bins at the bottom of the screen and the colors represent what types of recyclables are allowed to go in each bin. Different objects fly on the screen at varying speeds and the child uses her finger to drag the object to the correct bin.

The children were engaged and educated at the same time. Parents were pleased and so was Honda!

Check out the video of the experience:

Learn how Elation Digital Can Help you Reach your Gamification goals!

Posted in Experiential, Interactive Brand Experiences, Lead Generation, Uncategorized Bookmark the permalink. What do you think?

Great Example of Experiential Marketing

August 12, 2015 at 13:52

by Chris Rogne

One of the key areas of my job is to create or find and share good content. I search for topics that relate to our business and keep an eye out for great examples of experiential marketing as well as what the competition may be up to.

I came across this video of an interactive experiential marketing campaign and loved, loved—simply loved it.

It’s a tad long, but it’s worth it. Please take a look.

It has all the elements of what makes experiential marketing great:

Engagement

Interactive

Personal

Humor

Emotion

A compelling offer

Memorable

Sharable

BRANDED

This particular campaign has integrated technology as well. It’s not a requirement for experiential marketing but since that’s what we do, it was even more compelling to me. After watching this, what I know is, I want to go there! (That’s effective marketing)

Learn how Elation Digital can create great experiential solutions for your brand!

Posted in Events, Experiential, Interactive Brand Experiences, mobile marketing tours, Uncategorized Bookmark the permalink. What do you think?

Why You Need Personalization for your Marketing Events

July 28, 2015 at 12:32

by Chris Rogne

Here’s an example of what Coca-Cola did to use personalization to help create a buzz for their brand. Visitors had the opportunity to take a picture with a giant coke can. Using Elation Digital’s customized photo activation software, their name was placed on the can. They walked away with a physical photo and the opportunity to share the picture socially which extended the brand. There were also other giant cans adorning the name of famous soccer players. Cool, right?

Here’s what adding personalization can do for you:

1) Increase Engagement—When people feel they are treated as unique and welcomed by name, they are more likely to want to engage with your product or service. They are more willing to learn what you have to share. If you know even more about them, even better. By doing this, you create a connection. You’ve appealed to their ego—and whether people like to look at it that way or not, it’s true. If you’ve touched upon an emotional nerve, people are more likely to buy. That’s where the connection becomes internal.

2) Improve lead nurturing—So at this point you’ve chatted with them and you know something—what do they want? This allows you to tailor your follow-up campaigns to show them you have what they want and you understand their needs.

3) Customer retention—You’ve made that connection and you have a customer. You will have a higher retention rate and they will be more responsive to you if you keep the personalization going in your on-going marketing. Even simple personalization tools like addressing customers by first name in email, when they visit your site or by acknowledging and remembering their preferences can make a difference in their loyalty to your brand.

It’s important to incorporate personalization into your event. How do you do that?

• Send out a pre-event survey and ask questions that can help you develop a marketing message that will resonate with them once they visit your booth.
• Have an RFID scanner to recognize their name and have it displayed on an LED screen. Who doesn’t want to see their name in lights?
• Create a survey to have on hand using a tablet, like we did for Capgemini, and capture relevant information right there on the spot and enter them to win a prize just for playing.

It seems important to at least mention, the Internet of Things (IoT) in this blog. Companies are looking to connect devices, products and services via the Internet and even with products not online. And, what is at the center of IoT? Personalization. Why do I say that? Because it’s personal to each user accessing their devices, their choice of communication and owner is in control and recognized by the company. Connecting devices is connecting companies to individuals on an individual and personal level.

These same principles can work for your site too, it doesn’t have to be an event. Do what you can to be relevant to all visitors at all levels you can.

Learn how Elation Digital can help you achieve personalization success!

Posted in Events, Interactive Museums, Technology, Uncategorized Bookmark the permalink. What do you think?

Interactive Exhibit Fantazia Showcases Art from Elation Digital’s Creative Art Director

July 22, 2015 at 12:20

by Chris Rogne

Not only does our Creative Art Director, Alejandro Gabriel, produce amazing digital interactive graphics for our integrated technologies, he is active in the art community and enjoys expressing his talents outside of Elation Digital. His animated work is being displayed at the Fantazia event at PS Gallery in Argentina.

The show opened July 17th and runs through September 18, 2015. It is an interactive exhibition for the whole family showcasing Contemporary Art: audiovisual, kinetic and animated shorts. DMAG magazine, in Argentina, described the show as being about Art, Sustainability and Interactive Technology.

Alejandro with his sister at Opening Night!

Felicitaciones Alejandro!

Learn how Elation Digital can create Interactive Solutions for your brand!

Posted in Data Capture, Events, Experiential, Interactive Brand Experiences, Lead Generation, Uncategorized Bookmark the permalink. What do you think?

3 More Ways Data Capture Solutions Help Achieve Event Marketing Success

June 30, 2015 at 12:17

by Chris Rogne

Awhile back I wrote a blog on capturing attendee information and how data capture helps lead to event success. Here are three more ways to successfully maximize data intelligence:

Prize management—Giving away prizes can be a very successful way to entice attendees to share their information with you. By scanning badges or capturing their information before entering to win something, you can follow up with them after the event. If you choose to have them be required to check back in to see if they’ve won something, you have another opportunity to grab their attention to teach them about your company and products.

Qualifying leads—Once the attendee has given you their information, you need to find out if they are a true lead. Adding a short survey after the initial data capture can help qualify each visitor. This will help you target your messaging when you create your follow-up campaigns. By knowing where they are in your pipeline, you will know whether you need to nurture that lead or attempt to convert them.

Personalization— It’s critical for your booth ambassadors to connect and engage with attendees. To meet them at a more personal level you need to find out what their preferences and needs are. By doing so, you can tailor the information you provide to create an experience that will be relevant to them which will develop a deeper relationship.

Marketers typically have two goals at events and tradeshows: lead generation and product education. Utilizing the data capture process to create the best lead follow-up campaigns, allows for you to capitalize your show success and event ROI.

Learn how Elation Digital can help you achieve data capture success!

Posted in Advergames, Custom Branded Games, Events, Experiential, Interactive Brand Experiences, Interactive Museums, Multi-Touch, Uncategorized Bookmark the permalink. What do you think?

It’s All About Connection – Gen C

June 26, 2015 at 11:00

by Chris Rogne

Connecting to your customers is key. To do that, it’s crucial to know your audience. Who are you targeting? There’s so much information about Millennials, how to reach them and why they require a different marketing approach than other groups. Now comes Gen C also referred to as Generation C. The C stands for connected.

Is this a different group of people? Gen C is not defined by the year you were born but by your digital actions. When writing about millennials, I found myself thinking I had many of the attributes that described them (well not the age part-I’m older) but then I read all the articles about Gen C, these descriptors are a much closer description of how I work and surf. What are these characteristics?

• Connected—well of course, that’s the premise of this blog. Many were born into this technologically driven connected entity and others have adopted it. They connect through technology: smart phones, iPads, tablets, and wearable devices. It’s how they create deeper relationships with their family, friends, interests and co-workers. They are online—all the time.
• Community centric—as a way to stay connected to things they are passionate about, they think community by joining and following online groups or starting them.
• Content driven—whether they create it or consume it, it’s important to them. It’s where they derive their information and that drives their actions. Videos have become a huge part of the content they enjoy and YouTube is a favorite destination for them.
• Communicators—they communicate digitally and often. It’s become an easier medium for them to reach out this way. Social platforms have certainly helped with this.
• Collaborators—they absorb the information they consume and share it. This allows them to collaborate with companies and brands. They provide reviews and look to others for their reactions and opinions

Do these describe you too? I’m sure some, if not all, these apply to many of you. If you are reading this–you are connected. Gen C overlaps with Millennials and other generations too. Since it’s based on behaviors, the age group can span from teens to retirees.

So what do we do now? Just as in reaching millennials, it is important to connect to the Gen C audience in the medium they prefer—digital. Meet them where they are, allow and encourage them to interact and communicate with you. They are already connected. You just need them to connect with you.

Learn more about how Elation Digital can help you connect to your audience!

Posted in Uncategorized Bookmark the permalink. What do you think?

Google Jump a 3D Virtual Reality Solution

June 17, 2015 at 10:17

by Chris Rogne

At Elation Digital we love technology. We are a bunch of geeks–technology geeks, that is. Well, I’m a marketing geek, but I’m always awed by the technology we create. We keep an eye out for the latest in tech advancements and we experiment with them too, so we can bring them to our clients.

This new Jump technology is an awesome step in virtual reality. With multiple GoPro camera’s, they will capture a 360° view weaved together to make a video. You’ll be able to watch these videos on YouTube this summer, using Google Cardboard. Technology is always improving and the newest technology is the new hot thing. We’ll see soon enough.

This Jump technology reminded me of a video activation that we offer using multiple camera technology similar to the Google Jump concept; we call it Elation Photo Motion. Our solution uses a series of cameras harnessing several computers to weave a photo motion video capturing 180° or 350° action of a person (or people) doing a fun activity like jumping. We describe it as capturing a “Matrix” style video (you know, like the movie). It’s a cool technology and our clients like it. We are also experimenting with embedding a person’s photo motion video into a 3D background. It will be very cool!

Learn more about how Elation Digital can help you reach your goals!

Posted in Custom Branded Games, Events, Experiential, Interactive Brand Experiences, Tradeshow Technology, Tradeshows, Uncategorized Bookmark the permalink. What do you think?

Prize Management Drives Lead Generation

May 27, 2015 at 08:29

by Chris Rogne

Elation Digital recently finished up another successful event. For this trade show, we worked with Capgemini at Sapphire Now, the SAP conference in Orlando that took place earlier this month. Their goal was to generate leads and collect information from interested attendees in a fun and engaging way. We developed an integrated software solution that scanned the badges of attendees and offered the opportunity to play a spin wheel game for a chance to win a prize. We also incorporated a trivia game to educate visitors about Capgemini. This concept made learning about their company more interesting and gave the salespeople an opportunity to engage with the prospects.

Here’s how it worked:

ATTRACT: An attendee approaches the booth and is enticed to learn more about Capgemini (and possibly win a prize–this always a great booth attractor).

COLLECT: The brand ambassador scanned the badges to collect the lead.

QUALIFY: The addition of a quick survey captures additional important information about the lead.

EDUCATE: As the trivia game gets played, the attendee learns about Capgemini. The brand ambassador is also nearby to share any pertinent information tailored for the visitor based on information gathered during the survey.

ENTERTAIN: Spin to Win! Our prize management system allows booth personnel to add the prizes, quantity, and expected booth traffic times, so that the prizes are inventoried and evenly distributed throughout the show in real time.

WINNER: The attendee finds out what they won!

The Capgemini booth was well received by attendees. Lead generation and product education are two of the main goals most companies have for events and tradeshows. Some marketers fear that giving away prizes do not generate qualified leads. If the interaction between the brand ambassador and the lead is genuine and informative, as it was in this case, it works. We are pleased our integrated interactive solution met the needs of our client.