Verizon Business promoted its latest telecommunications offerings via mobile at an international tradeshow, generating a 20 percent opt-in amongst attendees.

Verizon captured nearly three times as many Avaya show attendees and their contact details via the mobile campaign compared to traditional tradeshow capture mechanisms. Briabe Media furnished Verizon Business with the mobile marketing service.

Mobile Marketer?s Giselle Tsirulnik interviewed Richard Dyer, vice president of operations at Briabe Media, Venice, CA. Here is what he said.
 
What was the strategy for Verizon?
Verizon Business? strategy for this event was twofold ? positioning and generating sales leads. 

First, it wanted to stake out a unique position for itself by setting itself apart from the other telecommunications vendors at the conference. 

The company would cut through the normal conference marketing tactics and clutter of booth signage and promotional item give a ways to gain the attention of the conference attendees. 

The vehicle that created a certain amount of buzz among the attendees for Verizon Business ? the mobile-based Scavenger Hunt game.

The second part of the strategy is centered upon generating qualified sales leads for Verizon Business. 

In order to be eligible to play the game and win the prizes, contestants had to register. 

Once they registered, Verizon had access to the database that contained their contact information and well as how they responded to the questions, the number they responded to, and whether they attended presentations sponsored by telecommunication partners affiliated with Verizon for the conference. 

Taking that information in total, Verizon possessed the identity of people who had a strong interest in Verizon's products and services. 

An interesting byproduct arose in this area of qualified sales leads. 

On several occasions, contestants would engage in conversations with Verizon Business personnel about the game, creating additional venues to have discussions about the services of the company.

Why was mobile ideal to fulfill this strategy?
The mobile application uniquely complements Verizon Business' strategy in many ways. 

The mobile application allowed Verizon to maintain a direct uninterrupted connection with the conference attendees throughout the show via a device they were intimately familiar with, their cell phone.

Further, the clear selection of opting into the marketing campaign, the participants did not feel there was a level of intrusiveness despite the fact the campaign lasted for four days. 

This point was been validated by the extremely low number of contestants who opted to exit the game.

By sending the basic questions to their cell phones, the contestants were able to interact with the campaign wherever they were at the trade show site.

Furthermore, if they were busy at the time the question was sent, they could opt to answer the question at a time of their convenience. 

By providing flexibility in terms of space and time gave the contestants to a way to play the game on terms that met their requirements and needs.

With questions being sent to an individual's phone, the responses are only known to the individual contestant and the administrator of the system, and the ability to answer the questions at a time of their convenience all create a personal way to interact and engage with the brand, in this case Verizon Business.

You say, ?This was an event program used to capture tradeshow attendees and drive them to Verizon engagements throughout the show.? Can you go into more detail about what you mean by this?

Once a person registered to become a contestant in the Scavenger Hunt game and became eligible to win the prizes, there were two ways for them to gain points for answering questions correctly. 

One set of basic questions tested their knowledge about Verizon Business services. In addition to the basic questions, there were a set of bonus questions that, if answered correctly, would add to a contestant's total score. 

These bonus questions were administered at the end of a presentation of a partner vendor. 

This increased the awareness of Verizon's business partners? service offerings and their capabilities.

What role did Briabe Media play here?
Briabe Media provided the end-to-end service for the client. 

This included working with Verizon?s representatives to identify the best mobile solution given its goals and objectives; developing, executing and managing the SMS Scavenger Hunt; developing and hosting the mobile Web site; Creating marketing communications materials to promote the scavenger hunt at the event; and managing the prize administration.

Why is mobile ideal at trade shows?
Unlike consumers, business professionals must stay connected to their communications devices for business updates, time-sensitive decision making and to maintain productive while attending events like tradeshows.

In fact, researcher PhoCusWright recently found that 71 percent of frequent business travellers own a smartphone, compared to 25 percent ownership for the entire market. 

Additionally, a great deal of the activity at trade shows take place in unstructured ways. 

For example, many attendees explore the aisles of the convention to discover new product offering. 

Others want to capture competitive information by visiting a rival's booth to listen to their presentation.

Yet others take advantage of career networking opportunities. 

Finally, some attendees patrol the venue in the hopes of bumping into a former colleague.

Often times, a single person undertakes all of these activities during the course of a trade show. 

The common element of these occurrences is that they take place while the person is not tethered to a LAN cord or even a fixed WiFi connection, rather they take place while a person is walking the tradeshow space. 

This physical flexibility while still remaining connected creates an ideal platform for mobile applications.

Here is one campaign creative: