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How to make Instagram work for your trade show

Tradeshows are visually stimulating
by nature.

 

When you set up your booth, you try to differentiate your business, with big signs, fancy brochures and fantastic booth set up. However, there’s one inexpensive trade show tactic that you should be utilising: Instagram. It is the most visually-stimulating social media network there is.

Visual images are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text, and 90% of information is transmitted to the brain visually.

So here are some tips to get your tradeshow up to date and on Instagram.

Use Hashtags
As with all trade show social media, find out the event hashtag before you go. This makes your photos more easily discoverable to anybody searching for/through the event on social media, and will also help potential prospects find your booth!

For the image itself, the hashtags you use simply explain what the image is about, and who it is for. For example, if you have a new app you want to show off: #ios, #android, #tech, #apps.

Use location and geotags. These link photos to specific places, which then appear on a map, along with other photos taken with that geotag. You can even create a custom location and link it to your booth “so attendees will know exactly where to find you, for example, “Room 6”.

Tell your story
This does not mean just taking a photo of your booth. It does give people a look into what your tradeshow setup looks like, but by itself, it is rather boring.

Share some photos of the people at your booth, both staff and prospects. This behind allows people to get a glimpse of who/what you really are as a company. For example, get a few shots while your team is setting up or disassembling your booth.

Link in your marketing strategy to your story
If you have a new product launch, then have an image or two featuring the product (be careful not to overdo it). You could also share booth numbers or activity.

A great marketing strategy at tradeshows is to have an Instagram contest. There are numerous different ways you can do this:

Ask participants to take a photo including your logo, or whatever the prize is that you are giving away, and ask followers to like and follow your account for a chance to win. Have attendees take the photo at your booth with your mascot or logo and award the person with the most likes on their Instagram account a prize.

Make sure to include a contest specific hashtag, so that you can easily keep track of how it’s going, and make sure you’re following Instagram’s contest rules.

It is a great networking opportunity
Use the Explore option of Instagram to network with others, wherein you can see posts automatically selected on things like the people you follow or the posts you like. A lot of your audience is most likely already on Instagram, and you can find them, by searching for keywords that relate to your brand/product.

Record
Instagram allows you to record and post up to 15 seconds of content. Not to be overused, but if there is anything you can make 10-15 seconds out of, then do so. It gives a great respite from all of the photos that are being posted. You could record an exciting game at your booth, to create hype with your new product or you could even just record your team having a great time, adding the more human aspect to your brand.

It is also a great way to showcase what is going on for the people who aren’t there. You could give a quick virtual tour of your booth!

Post-show
Make sure to keep some of those photos for repurposing on your website, to keep your engagement up after the show. You could write a blog post, use them for twitter, or even start a throwback Thursday.

In order to really evaluate your return on investment of using Instagram, you could use UTM parameters. UTM parameters are tags that you can add onto an URL to give Google Analytics more information about the link allowing you to accurately track your campaigns and credit traffic that comes directly from Instagram. Here’s a complete guide on how to setup UTM parameters for your social media.

Another option is to use your bio. Instagram allows you to have one clickable link in your profile section. Whenever you have something new to promote, it’s as simple as changing the link, and if you set it up, you can analyse any web traffic via this link.

Analysing site traffic and social media engagement is a key point of any social media plan. If numbers start to drop, it’s a signal that you need to think about changing your content, or doing something new!

Image source: http://www.newincite.com/implement-marketing/8-social-media-marketing-ideas-for-your-trade-show-exhibit/

Create your brand environment

Take your event one stage further…

 

Your brand strategy may be working perfectly.
But when it comes to a live event, these elements take second stage. Because the physical environment takes centre stage over the digital environment.
You may have done the hard work in attracting your audiences. But now they’re at your event, how do you captivate them? Look at your brand environment.

What does that mean?

Your surroundings
Where will your brand be positioned? Near the entrance? By a social/break-out area? Will you be near a competitor? How will you differentiate?

Gillette are one of the many brands we have created brand environments for

Will you be using a platform for product demos or giving speeches? Will that create a sense of importance? Or distance?

You also need to build trust in your environment. Research suggests up to 90% of consumers don’t trust brands. This makes it all the more important to look at options such as…

…experiential marketing. This is an ideal way to build your brand environment, as a multi-sensory brand-experience concept. Delivering an immersive, sensory environment will leave a big impression on your audience.

Guide to creating a branding environment

Understand your audience
Find out where they are. Linkedin? Twitter? Get a sense of their needs and reflect them in your brand environment, to make it easy to connect with them. For example, being aware of the hashtags they use, or the LinkedIn groups they could join.

  • Use technology
    Use real-time tools to engage visitors. For example, display live tweets on a digital display, or provide tablets for people to interact with your brand.
  • Control the surroundings
    Think about how you want to project your brand. What types of lighting do you want? How do you want to arrange your stand? Exclusive, or inclusive?
  • Nurture leads
    Measure the success of your approach with targeted follow-up emails, to gauge reactions, measure engagement, and plan for an even more successful event next time.
  • Unsure of the possibilities?
    We have delivered brand environments for global clients such as Google, Mobil, and O2. We can offer you advice, expertise, and the benefit of our 15+ years’ experience.

How to deliver experiential marketing

Create memorable experiences that
change perceptions.

 

Let’s talk experiential marketing. Definitions of this relatively new term may vary, but Econsultancy’s David Moth nailed it pretty well:

“The premise to create a closer bond between the consumer and the brand by immersing them in a fun and memorable experience”.

If your brand is part of an event that evokes positive feelings within a consumer, the consumer is more likely to associate your brand with those positive feelings. Which opens the door to brand loyalty and increased customer lifetime value.

Experiential examples
The Simpsons movie was released in 2007. In the US, distributors 20th century Fox transformed 12 7-Eleven stores into Kwik-E-Marts (the Simpsons’ 7-Eleven equivalent). Customers could buy products that appeared in the Simpsons movie, and “experience” being in the Simpsons.

In Sweden, Coca-Cola gave their customers the “experience” of a warm summer’s day… in the middle of winter. People waiting at a bus-stop were treated to projections of summery images, heat lamps and audio recordings of birdsong.

Or why not try out experiential marketing on yourself? Walk into one of the 453 Apple stores around the world. Experience the attentive staff, the ability to pick up and test products, the overall energy and excitement of visitors. Can you apply any of these elements to your event?

Three-step process

1.Establish the brief
Why do you want experiential marketing? What do you want to achieve, and how will you measure it? Do you have figures that will help demonstrate the ROI, or do you want the agency to make suggestions?

2. Know your audience
Experiential offers many options. What’s right for your audience? Will they respond to video games, or something something more cerebral, perhaps involving touchscreen quizzes? Will augmented reality engage them, or will it become the dominant feature and cloud your brand message? Your agency should be able to give examples of how they have helped previous clients.

3. Develop an exit strategy
How will you follow up leads? You probably already know the price of getting a new customer. Seven times as much as retaining an existing customer. So how do you keep delivering a positive “experience” to delegates after the event? You can’t continue with experiential marketing forever, but you can ensure you stay prominent in their minds. Create an inbound marketing strategy, emails, newsletters, special offers.

VR at events: Blurring the lines between physical and virtual reality

Virtual Reality is here, and it’s going to revolutionise the event experience.

 

Brands and events companies are starting to explore the technology’s potential, and the rewards are immense. It enables you to build your brand and engage your audience in unprecedented ways. Here’s why.

Complete immersion
What happens the second one of your prospects puts on a headset? You instantly have their undivided attention. They’re not going to be looking over your shoulder to see who else is around. They’re not going to be exposed to competing brand messaging. You have the ideal opportunity to connect with them in an intense multi-sensory environment.

More accessible than ever before
You no longer need specialist equipment to experience the magical world of VR. It’s now possible to pick up a generic plastic (or cardboard) headset for a few pounds. Combine this with a mobile device (there are plenty of VR apps available on app stores) and you’re all set. Lowering the “entry point” for the technology means VR can be easily incorporated into event budgets.

Reach anyone, at anytime
You can have – literally – no limits to the reach of your campaign. Give delegates a preview of what to expect via an app, building interest and momentum ahead of the big day. If they can’t make the event, you could offer the chance to experience your event from anywhere. Or offer follow-ups, to remind delegates of your offering, and to show others what they missed out on. Here’s how Paul McCartney appeared in a concert, with footage filmed as a “cinematic VR experience”.

Make your first impressions last
Media coverage is still relatively “niche”, with in-depth articles usually limited to the tech sections of mainstream publications. That’s all going to change by late-summer/early autumn, when HTC, Oculus Rift and Sony bring out their consumer headsets. That’s when VR will truly hit the mainstream. And it’s all the more reason to familarise yourself with the technology now. Those that succeed will ensure their brand is automatically ahead of most of their competitors.

Post-event promotion
It can be difficult to take in everything at an event. You may have a packed schedule of engaging speakers lined up – but will your delegates be able to stay all day? You could record the highlights as a VR showreel and distribute afterwards – perhaps as paid-for content. That way you ensure repeated exposure for your brand.

It’s often said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. Harnessing the magic of VR in your event is one surefire way to create a successful future for your brand. And you know what else is great about it? We’re just at the very start of something amazing.

Look at how apps like Periscope are being used to transmit live footage of events. It won’t be long before it’ll be possible to do something similar with Virtual Reality. When that happens… there really will be no limits to your event’s reach. How does that sound? Talk to us to find out how we can make VR happen for you.

The Event Planning Cycle

The Event Planning Cycle

 

Event planning isn’t a one-off exercise. Although the gear-up to an event doesn’t necessarily always fit into a neat linear progression, Eventbrite have illustrated many aspect of event planning into a handy event planning cycle:

It’s roughly divided into four quarters: Planning, Promotion, At-Event and Post-Event.

Here we break these sections down for you and offer you further resources to nail each quadrant of your own event cycle.

Community Building
First and foremost is community building; which is followed by a continuous cycle of data capture, analytics, feedback and refinement or improvement.

Communities are inherently different from networking organisations. Communities are networks who share ideals or demographics, in which people concentrate on building relationships rather than using each other.

As Tim Flannery explains;

“When your biggest take away from an event is some combination of forced conversation, boredom, and pizza, all you’ve found is exasperation and carbs. You have little to no chance of finding a co-founder, business partner, or otherwise helpful contact. At best, you’ll exchange transactional value quid pro quo with a new LinkedIn connection. That’s why I’ve focused on building communities”

If your networks don’t sound like a community, it might be time to start building your own and his article can help you do it.

Planning
When you have a great new idea or concept for an event or session topic you can hit the web for a bout of planning and market research.

But remember, it’s 2016! Don’t just grab a piece of paper and a pen – there are a multitude of digital tools out there to help you with your investigations and keep your notes organised and easily retrievable.

Eventbrite state “With our smartphones in our hands and the internet at our fingertips we’re better equipped than ever before to conceive, organise and promote successful events.”

Here’s their super useful collection of 8 useful tools for your event planning.

Promotion
With an ever-increasing array of social media tools literally available at our fingertips – it’s never been easier or cheaper to promote an event. That said, the amount of technology out there can sometimes feel overwhelming.

This great Eventstag article highlights 10 of the most effective ways technology can be utilised for event marketing.

“The average event planner may be able to handle two tasks, but the best planners can handle ten. Why is this? You could chalk it up to variances in skill, education, passion or drive but there is one constant among all the most efficient event planners: they embrace new technology and understand that it can improve their event. It can also save enormous amounts of time and energy, and as an event planner, you know how valuable that can be.”

At-Event
After all the prep, don’t forget the actual event itself! Corporate events will always add value in terms of promoting your business internally and externally, as well as reinforcing brand values and corporate messages.

Planning smooth entry management, delivering your planned experience, capturing and sharing the highlights and noting what works and what doesn’t for future events are all integral!

This article by Eventologists has some further tips to ensure your event goes smoothly and wows those in attendance!

Post-Event
You can’t quite relax just yet! Following up after your event is integral to cement all of that hard work you’ve put in already.

As Attendly put it;

“Making plans to change your approach for next time is an important step in the process of improving your work, so treat this one seriously and use it to your advantage”

Read the rest of their article here to ensure your post-event follow up maximises the potential of the event you have curated.

How to make your event and exhibition giveaways memorable

Giveaways will move away from simply “things” and focus more on experiences, personalisation and points of difference.

 

“Experiences deliver more-lasting happiness than things,” a 20-year study conducted by Dr. Thomas Gilovich of Cornell University has shown. This article by Entrepreneur focuses on the power of experiences and how they become part of our identity.

So, how can tradeshow and exhibition giveaways fulfil this need?

Experiences
This article by Forbes: It’s Time To Rethink Your Branded Giveaways shows a great example of utilising experiences for attendees, including hosting an on-site service. In this case a massage for attendees, which as well as being a crowd puller, also promoted the brand’s message – ‘We take the pain out of the insurance process’.

“Keep people engaged with your brand by creating an experience instead of a booth. That could mean showing an interactive demo, bringing in a food truck, hosting a contest, or offering an on-site service. At a recent event representing my digital insurance agency, we brought in masseuses to give attendees five-minute chair massages. Not only did the masseuses draw a huge crowd, they pushed our brand’s messaging: We take the pain out of the insurance process. Whatever experience you provide, make sure it naturally drives conversations about what your company does.”

Personalisation
Small Business Trends have some good advice on focusing on “upgraded” giveaways in exchange for a completed questionnaire, and also limiting the amount of marketing collateral you give away. Consider perhaps focusing on one or two key pieces of information in exchange for their contact info to send a personalized information kit after the show. This will allow you to follow up after the show, and send them something personalised and most importantly memorable.

The Delta marketing groups article 9 Inspiring Trade Show Giveaways has an interesting the idea of using digital reward promotions as an alternative giveaway, allowing the recipient to choose what they want:

“While everyone else at the trade show is giving out boring pens and magnets, you can give your prospects something they’ll actually be excited to receive. Imagine offering your prospects free music downloads, restaurant rewards, digital movie rentals, eGift cards, eBook downloads and more.”

Eco-friendly
Consider making your tradeshow giveaways eco-friendly. Trade Show News Network have some excellent advice on how to do this in their article – 5 Ways to Make Your Trade Show Giveaways Eco-friendly including choosing something reusable, using recycled or sustainable materials and going digital.

“Tradeshow takeaways are proven to leave an impression with your customers and if done right they can even drive traffic to your booth, so giveaways are a necessary marketing tool. Getting branded gear in your customer’s hands will definitely increase your brand awareness and recognition, but they are also an opportunity to reinforce your company’s stance on environmental issues.”

Whatever route you take, try to make your giveaways enticing but more importantly, memorable.

5 key things you need to consider when choosing an event partner

5 key things you need to consider when choosing an event partner

 

Are they innovative?
Experimenting with lighting, sound and screens, electronical presentations and digital displays are all integral for an engaging stand.

Partnering with somebody who is knowledgeable in all areas of tech trends will mean your brand will be reflected in that way too. There are some great new technologies on the market at the moment that can really make you stand out from the crowd, at i3 Global Design we are well aware that Virtual Reality is here to stay and is going to revolutionise the event experience.

Read more on our immersive VR blog here.

Are they experts in experiential marketing?
Providing the consumer with a memorable experience will open the door to brand loyalty and increased customer lifetime value.

Customers are far more likely to remember a positive and immersive experience compared to a glossy leaflet they picked up from your stall. Experiential marketing is a strategy that directly engages consumers and invitees by encouraging them to participate in the evolution of a brand.

We have some further tips for delivering a brilliant experiential stand here.

Giveaways
Although a goody bag full of treats will draw the crowds for a short period of time, experiences deliver longer lasting happiness and recall than material things for your customers.

A partner that ensures your giveaways focus less on goods and more on experiences and personalisation will reap dividends in customer retention.

We have compiled a list of tips to help make your event giveaways more memorable here.

Remember, a giveaway should be enticing, but more integrally, memorable.

Will they engage your audience?
Hearing the words ‘trade show promotion’, doesn’t always fill consumers with excitement. Most will associate the experience with giveaways – from free mugs to ballpoint pens.

Although these customers will visit your booth to grab these semi-useful corporate items, they are more than likely going to disappear without leaving anything of value for you.

A far more effective way to attract people to your exhibition stand and generate and retain high quality leads is by engaging with these customers once they arrive. Running a contest, raffles or quizzes will mean consumers will spend longer time at your stall, and leave their information for a chance at the prize.

It’s important to choose a partner that can deliver this marketing strategy for your brand, creating a challenge for attendees with a fun quiz will mean you’ll have no problem attracting prospects to your exhibition stand.

Post-event follow up
However you decide to attract and engage visitors to your stand, it’s integral to follow up with your new leads within a few days of the exhibition.

If you have the resources, or the service of a good partner – make this contact personal. A personalised message will be much more memorable and will do wonders for the perception of you and your brand.

Exhibitions are a big investment – but done the right way with the right help they can deliver huge rewards. By considering all of these areas at the planning stage you can expect to considerably increase your return on investment.

A Guide to Social Media at Trade Shows

Integrating social media into your trade show marketing plan is an almost necessity in this digital age.

 

Any business not integrating social media marketing into their trade show presence could be losing business to their competitors, and social media is an essential marketing channel for both event marketers and for your company strategy.

Here we have prepared a chronological guide to trade show social media to help newbies and experts alike extract maximum value:

The Aperitif/Pre-Show Social

  • Follow the trade show’s social media accounts, approximately 2-4 weeks’ pre-show, on Facebook and Twitter. In a very “You scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours”, spirit, you should like and share the show’s posts.
  • Use the official show hashtags to share news and events with attendees.
  • Connect with media people in your niche via Twitter or LinkedIn, and if you have LinkedIn connections, invite them to connect with you at the event, and check out your booth.
  • Create an event specific landing page on your website. This page will serve as the base for all things related to the upcoming show — videos you’ve created, articles written about your company and other special announcements. It’s a place to direct potential booth visitors to get all the information they want, and you’ll gain valuable website metrics and potential leads as they sign up for an event.
  • If you have a new product or service that you are revealing at the show, create a 30-second teaser video, which is a great way to quickly generate interest and can be shared on any social platform, with the event hashtag attached to it!
  • A great way to engage people prior to the show is to have special events, like contests, or a VIP party.

The Main Course

  • The easiest, and yet the most underused method of engagement, is pictures! Pictures of special events, guest speakers, or whatever else is taking place at the show keep your company in the social stream of consciousness. You can even ask customers to take their photo, and share a brief story, or feeling that they have.
  • Keep people up to date about the contest you may be holding, and keep people excited about the prize!
  • Remember how busy you can be at a trade show, and unless you have someone who is on social media the entire time, it could be helpful to schedule a few tweets/posts beforehand, especially if you are presenting at a given time!
  • Make sure to film your presentation, or anyone else’s who you think is of importance/interest. You can share this on social media later for those who could not attend!
  • Do not overuse social media at the event! Keep people updated on things that are going on of interest, but do not post any old thing that pops into your head! You want quality over quantity when possible!

Desert!

  • The most obvious are do not chuck the business cards away! Store them somewhere in a database for later use! Connect with them on LinkedIn, or follow people on twitter who were of interest, and make sure to message people you met personally, and begin making genuine connections.
  • A great way to recap the events is to write a brief blog about it, how it went, the cool things that happened, and be sure to keep a positive twist to it!
  • Thank everyone who came to the show, on Facebook and Twitter!
  • If you had a signup sheet, be sure to follow up with an email. Include links to all of your social media outposts encouraging them to engage with you there.

Have Fun!

  • Whether you are having a VIP party at the end or not, get involved in the social side of the events afterwards. It rewards your more sociable and outgoing team and will add value to the experience, as well as give staff a change of scenery and a new and diverse set of challenges to meet! Some of the most crucial networking happens post tradeshow!
  • As the last point, remember that images, pictures and videos are more engaging that just text, and will always attract more attention and views, just like this image is now.

Image source: http://www.newincite.com/implement-marketing/8-social-media-marketing-ideas-for-your-trade-show-exhibit/

The rise of Haptic Technology and its Applications in Trade Shows

“Haptics” is not a common household word, however haptic technology is a phenomenon that 6 billion people will feel on an almost daily basis.

 

Haptic is from the Greek “haptesthai,” meaning to touch, and as a noun, haptics usually means the science and physiology of the sense of touch.
For most of us, haptic technology is experienced as a buzz in our pockets when a phone message arrives, or “force feedback” on gaming joysticks and steering wheels. However, by 2022, the haptic technology market is expected to be valued at USD 19.55 Billion, at a compound annual growth rate of 16.20% between 2016 and 2022.

The key drivers contributing to the growth of the market primarily includes the increasing adoption of haptics in consumer electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets, the growing demand for haptics in gaming consoles (more specifically VR), and the potential market for haptics in medical and automotive sectors.

This is leading to the development of haptics to tailor to our everyday lives. There are several novel concepts in markets you would not expect; for example, yoga tights that by increasing the frequency and intensity of the vibrations tell you how far off you are from the ideal positions as illustrated in an accompanying app. Phone giants like Nokia and Novint are using small piezoelectric sensor pads under their touchscreens and designing the screen so it could move slightly when pressed so that when a user presses the button, he or she feels movement in and movement out, and they also hear an audible click. This would be especially useful for car manufacturers, so that drivers could adjust the settings on their car with one hand, without having to look away from the road, reducing the risk of accidents.

At the moment the most sophisticated touch technology is found in industrial, military and medical applications, as training with haptics is becoming more and more common. For example, medical students can now perfect delicate surgical techniques on the computer, actually feeling the hearts vessels as they perform a virtual coronary heart bypass surgery, adding a deeper level of training before moving on to real life scenarios.

With this technology becoming more readily available, and more importantly less expensive, we can look at its future uses in exhibitions and tradeshows. Already smart shoes are under development, which is embedded with haptic sensors that are connected via Bluetooth to your phone’s navigation app. The shoes vibrate, telling you whether to turn left, right or carry straight on. This has possible applications at exhibitions. Having the map of a huge exhibition (the world expo for example), or a trade show downloaded on your phone, visitors could have highlighted their preferences/what they wanted to see. The shoes would help guide visitors through everything, without having to look at phones for directions, and potentially miss something cool along the way. They could even register how many people were queuing up outside of a certain stand, to guide visitors around crowds, or towards a talk that started at 16:00. The same shoes could be used for the visually impaired, where you could create a three-dimensional grid of force fields for each structure to enable them to walk through the entire exhibition unaided, except for the haptic vibrations in their feet.

Similarly, the potential use for haptics in exhibitor’s products themselves is vast and picking up pace. Imagine going to an auto show, putting on a VR headset, and actually being able to feel the steering wheel, gearstick and revving engine as you test drive an audio R8 virtually. You could try on a t-shirt, that would seemingly expand or retract with electromagnetic pulses, so you could feel what size to wear, and which could be expanded to all clothing. You could turn the music up and down, or switch songs without touching anything but the air, however, your hand would feel like its touching actual buttons.

The applications for haptic technology is limitless, not just showcasing products that are difficult to place, or that are a limited number. Development in haptics is happening at a quickening pace, and we would not be surprised to see it everything from schools and supermarkets to exhibitions and roadshows in the coming years.

5 ways to use VR in your campaign

Virtual Reality is helping event marketers to reimagine the event experience.

 

Totally immersive, completely cutting-edge, and totally transforming the customer experience. Here we take a look at a few examples of how brands are using this incredible technology to engage audiences, attract headlines, and boost sales:

Marketing
Drinks firm Red Bull created a stunning 360-degree VR experience for the Red Bull Air Race 2015 at Ascot. Viewers were invited on a virtual flight around the course, piloting an aeroplane at high speed and rotating the aircraft to dramatic effect. From the view in the cockpit, flight paths were visible in high resolution, crafted from genuine telemetry data – for complete accuracy of the experience

Hospitality
Marriott Hotels promises to transport you from London to Maui in 90 seconds, using an Oculus Rift headset. Its virtual travel experience lets customers don a headset and enjoy a Marriott “VR postcard”. Three different 360-degree 3D videos were shot: in Chile, Rwanda and Beijing. “A lot of people have never thought of virtual reality outside of gaming, so to put it inside a trip, what does it feel like to take a virtual trip?” says Marriott’s VP of global brand marketing, Michael Dail.

Automotive
Toyota used VR headsets to offer a “distracted driving simulator” at the New York International Auto Show. Part of the Japanese carmakers’s TeenDrive 365 safety initiative, visitors were invited to “virtually” drive a vehicle at the event. There was one catch – there would be a series of distractions, designed to test a driver’s ability to stay focused on the road. See how it engaged audiences: https://youtu.be/3WuZnjU2VoE

Sports
FOX Sports has linked up with Next VR to offer live streaming of sporting events in VR. Viewers will be able to immerse themselves in the action via the Samsung Gear VR headset, with the choice to view from multiple camera angles. The partnership has already resulted in VR broadcasting of the Daytona 500 NASCAR race, and NBA matches. Audio is set to be a key part of the service, making it truly immersive: with options to listen to commentary, cheers from the crowd, or even the “squeak” of trainers on court.

Food
Here’s something different, and maybe an idea for brands who don’t have the budgets to build VR apps or give away expensive headsets. In March 2016, McDonald’s sold limited-edition Happy Meals in boxes that could be turned into VR headsets, just by tearing along perforated lines and adding lenses. This tactic appears to have been inspired by Google cardboard – the cost-effective way to get your hands on a fully functioning VR headset. The “happy Goggles” program was limited to 3,500 headsets in Sweden, and was supported by ad agency DDB Stockholm.

We’re still only at the very start of the VR revolution. However, it’s clear the technology offers great opportunities for engagement – whatever the size of your brand, and whatever the type of industry you’re in. If you’d like to explore how VR could work for your event, talk to us today!