When you have a trade show display, you need to make every square inch count, because you don’t get that many of them. Ten feet by ten feet, that’s all you get. Possibly twenty by twenty feet, if your company is willing to shell out the big booth space rental bucks. In a sea of trade show displays, it can be a struggle to stand out and get noticed by prospects, especially when your brand is only visible inside a limited floor space.
If business professionals want to really stand out, they can’t simply adjust one or two things here and there, they need to reframe how they approach common problems. So, what if, instead of a mere hundred square feet, you had access to the whole showroom? That is exactly the kind of capability drones provide you at a trade show. When the ground is full, look to the air. Trade Show Drones provide a unique way of overcoming space limitations, as well as shattering the old way of doing things. Drones are unmanned arial gadgets that capture real-time views of conference meeting and convention hall space.
Drone technology provide professionals with a new dynamic in treading the trade show waves. Drones provide unparalleled digital advertising opportunities, innovative access to customer data, and that special “wow” factor tech marketers are always chasing. Event drones can also help with exhibition hall logistical issues. How many times have you dealt with show services (union labor or show decorator) misplacing, losing or delaying your display booth delivery? Convention halls get extremely messy during show move-in dates. Aerial drones can be used to locate packages and trade show crates by searching aisles and storage areas.
The uses for trade show drones at exhibitions, conferences and outdoor events are limited only by the the pilot’s imagination. The most straightforward use is creating a moving billboard advertisement. Instead of stationary free-standing signage at the booth, exhibitors are using pairs of drones to fly billboards through the convention hall, taking the advertising to their customers. Since humans are normally drawn to movement, and drones are new enough to still be a novelty, this is a great way to grab eyes. While there are prototypes for digital billboards retailing for upwards of $20,000, drones can modernize traditional printed banners for a much more reasonable cost.
Exhibition drones also provide marketers an exciting new way of garnering consumer and prospect data. Drones are already being put to use by municipal authorities for crowd monitoring and control, and marketers should take notice. Gone are the days of roaming the convention hall floor guesstimating the size of competitor crowds and intuiting what is working and what isn’t. In mere seconds, a drone can provide a real time, bird’s-eye view of a trade show audience. This innovative technology enables marketer to see exactly where the crowd is drawn and how long they linger within a particular location. Drone software provides an exceptional way to capture and analyze data about the quality of specific exhibiting campaign tactics. Using data analysis software tools, companies can turn previously qualitative, intuitive insights gleaned at trade shows into quantitative data and integrate it into their overall marketing strategy.
Perhaps the most humanistic benefit to using drones as advertising tools is the fun factor they provide. Trade show drones are a unique novelty and really quite amusing. Marketers that invest in this technology now will get the infamous “early-mover” bonus. One does not have to be a marketing guru or “growth hacker” to imagine show displays making use of the interactive nature of drones.
Whether it is as simple as hovering it a few inches off the ground, or as monumental as virtually allowing participants to soar through the host city while standing within a ten by ten foot booth space, drones foster attendee engagement. All of this interaction and attention, influences more visitors to engage with sales representatives.
There has never been a better time to bring trade show drones and other exhibition booth technology into your overall marketing plan. If properly integrated, trade shows are a great way to show customers, employees, and stakeholders how much energy and goodwill your company offers. When an innovative company makes strides to rise above the competition, it can create a valuable positive impression. Drone technology isn’t the end-all-be-all but with the right people and strategy in place, drones can take advertising campaigns to the next level.
