Top 23 interactive games for your next exhibition show
1 . Introduction
Cultivating sportsmanship is integral to doing right in various aspects of life. Unsurprisingly, the same can help you win hearts at your upcoming exhibition or trade show booth. We bring to you a near-exhaustive list of the best interactive games for your next exhibition show to help spice things up and send the enthusiasm soaring. Gamification makes life interesting. As gamified activities spill into other aspects of our routine from the secluded, even slightly frowned-upon play time, the fruits of gamified experiences are beginning to be reaped. Event gamification is a sprawling realm of possibilities that puts the attendees’ interests first. It promises proportional returns for the time and energy one invests and rewards brand loyalty.2. Benefits of interactive games
Work and play have had a long, intertwined, symbiotic relationship. The former can be broken down into far more achievable modules infused with a competitive spirit by the latter, and the latter has been lent greater authenticity by the former. Interactive games at exhibitions and trade fairs are quite easily the biggest draw for a broad demographic, and offer various benefits:
- Retain the audience, and their interest. The simplest of puzzles, board games or Virtual Reality setups instantly garner attention.
- Interactive games also ensure that your booth isn’t simply a passing point, increasing hover time of attendees.
- Showcase your brand’s approachability and other core values. Gamification eases people into tasks, be it offering information or being receptive to a sales pitch.
- Invite active participation from the crowd. Engagement from interactive games is generous, not only hyping the participants but also drawing more people to share in the competitive zeal.
- Drive social sharability. Participants are highly likely to share their wins and fun experiences of gamified trade show booth activities at your stall online and in person.
- Also acting as lead generation games, they propel the visitors to sign up and offer details.
3. 23 most popular interactive games to guarantee the success of your event
Here we have compiled a list of the most popular marketing games for your exhibition booth that have stood the test of times and can be easily adapted into a digital format for virtual gaming. For greater understanding and ease of selection based on your requirements for the event, these games have been categorized into 8 basic types as follows:
1. Probability games
Perhaps the most commonly sighted are games of chance, where each possible outcome has an equally likely chance and bears no relation to the attributes or capabilities of the player. These are also among the easiest interactive games to design, as you have probably gathered from the number of times you might have spotted a ‘Spin the Wheel’ while on an online shopping spree or browsing through exhibition stands. Depending on your budget and marketing agenda, you can allot prizes for each outcome, ranging from “Oops! Better luck next time” to discounts, free trials of your products, gift hampers, etc. Probability games are highly DIY-able, make for effortless branding and lead generation, without the need for any kind of expertise to man the booth.
1. Rolling the die: You can come up with dozens of highly customized branded games for marketing that can be played with a pair of die. It could be a branded board game such as Snakes & Ladders or even involve a series of activities corresponding with the numbers turned up.
2. Roulette: Level up a simple dice game with a digital roulette and enable players to have fun by raising the stakes with higher bids.
2. Skill or knowledge-based games
Better suited to a particular kind of audience, such as experts or enthusiastic fans at conferences, fairs, and festivals, these are the opposite of games of chance and require the players to exercise particular skills in order to succeed. Now these may be simple motor skills or agility of mind, or, based on the analysis of your target audience and potential interest groups, knowledge of a particular field or topic. Virtual simulations of games such as golf, football, cricket, dodgeball also fall into this category but the novelty of experience offered by Virtual Reality games and digital games in general makes the audiences more receptive to taking up new challenges and trying their hand at the game without paying too much heed to the results.3. Quiz: You can streamline a general quiz by allowing users to shuffle between categories and test their knowledge in an arena more familiar to them. Alternately, the quiz may pertain entirely to the realm of your business, such as those for skincare enthusiasts, sport lovers, bike and car aficionados and the like.
4. Shooting: Acting as both a stress buster and an adrenaline rush, a shooting game definitely turns heads everywhere.
5. Racing: Make your booth attendees feel like kings and queens of the streets as they rev up their engines and shoot for the finish line in branded cars or motorbikes.
6. Sports simulations: From laidback golf to Batak Pro that puts the user’s reflexes to test, you can give your audience a brilliant rush of endorphins with these interactive games.
3. Trivia games
These are low-stakes interactive games that successfully indulge visitors in a fun time and considerably expand their time spent at your booth.7. Digital Hoopla: Hoopla is some good exercise for the body, and digitally doable!
8. Guess the Amount: Simple and effective, you can design a branded game that requires the participants to guess the amount of something that may pertain to your products and services.
9. Connect 4: This mighty popular game of making rows and columns of the same-colored elements can be effectively adapted to incorporate your brand colors, products, etc.
10. Sorting Games: These refer to sorting objects into different containers based on a similarity they share.
4. Puzzle games
From crosswords to escape rooms, everyone loves a good puzzle that works the brain. The reward of seeing the final picture or leveling up is a boisterous “Hurrah!” in the brain.
11. Jigsaw Puzzle: What better way to enable your attendees to interact with your brand than letting them complete a picture puzzle stamped with the most recognizable components of its identity?
12. Maze: Let the users find their way out of an elaborate maze and chart their way to victory!
13. Escape Room: An escape room is essentially a more flamboyant maze, designed creatively with multiple challenges incorporated into it.
14. Tetris game: Originally referring to a 1985-born video game, Tetris retains its popularity in myriad shapes. The players are supposed to match the colors of descending blocks to finish rows. Whether you’ve played it on a switch or a tiny keypad mobile, the nostalgia is a powerful factor in drawing people to another round.
5. Memory games
Memory games test the players’ short-term memory, and have even been incorporated into classroom teaching for young learners.15. Match the pairs: This refers to usually a deck of cards spread out where you have to click on the matching cards and aim to reveal as many pairs as possible in a set period of time. A branding favorite, this interactive game allows for customized cards on both sides, where you can place the company tagline, products, etc.
16. Simon Game: Launched first in 1978, Simon game tests one’s memory by producing a sequence of tunes and lights in different colors, which the players then have to reproduce. It is easily adapted into a digital format and is a sonic and visual treat.
17. Pattern: Pattern games basically follow the same principle as stated above, flashing a sequence of objects, numbers, or anything you wish.
6. Strategy games
With this one, the players are usually in for the long haul. A strategy-based interactive game may require greater dedication of all parties involved, but the stakes are also proportionally high. From board games like Monopoly to globally popular branded games such as Civilization, StarCraft, and Age of Empires, these have a readymade fan following and bring in the most enthusiastic participants.
18. Tic Tac Toe: This is the quickest of strategy games and is widely appealing to all kinds of audiences.
19. Chess: Needing no introduction, this is a board game that many take very seriously, while most would simply love to try their hands on.
8. Platform games
Most of us have a memory of drowning ourselves in another reality accessed through a tiny screen for hours, going on quests as mighty heroes. Platform games refer to these interactive games wherein the layout consists of various hurdles the player’s digital character has to cross, maybe engage in a couple of side quests to collect bonus points or defeat a villain. You might easily recall Super Mario and its multiple versions, Limbo, Sonic Mania, to name only a few. Offering a more immersive experience, platform games can appeal to even the most casual visitors at a trade show.
20. Conga: The digital conga line is a much-adored marketing game for corporate settings, as the platform can be customized to represent any workspace pertaining to a particular business. The players move around and try to have their colleagues hop on in their conga line in-the-making, without bumping into other objects.
9. Tapping games
There are various ways you might look at tapping games – therapeutic, exercise for the fingers, testing your reflexes, and even firing up your competitive streak. Whatever the perspective, they are surely fun, with no hassle of elaborate rules or instructions.
21. Snag & Stash: This branded game is a race to collect falling objects in a container that may be either stationary or mobile.
22. Musical Tiles: With relaxing audio and visuals, this one is a soothing experience that can charm any audience.
Conclusion
The best thing about this list that we’ve compiled is the sheer number of possibilities indicated by mixing game elements and customising visuals. Branded marketing games are essentially that- tapping into people’s competitive spirit and evoking nostalgia to draw them to your exhibition booth. Once you’ve chosen an interactive game for your booth based on budget considerations, it is also important to make them enticing with appropriately placed rewards, whether tangible or intangible. Let your visitors play away and shine on the leaderboard, and get them hooked!
