QR codes should certainly be part of a marketer’s toolbox today. As with any tool, knowing when to use it is key so watch out for the “shiny object syndrome” here. Mobile barcodes can provide an incremental call-to-action. They can activate a print media campaign, and help exhibitors engage attendees at trade and consumer shows. Audi did a great job integrating QR codes into their … Read the...

Today’s smartphones offer an amazing menu of features to consumers. They also offer exciting new media/technologies to advertisers. As an event marketer, it is hard not to be tempted by the latest mobile ad solutions. However, sometimes it is the older, simpler and lower-tech tool that can provide the best results because of scale and ease-of-use. For example, consider the much richer potential benefits of … Read the...

Email drives an enormous amount of visitors and registration dollars for the tradeshow industry. That is why new data from a study by email certification and monitoring company Return Path should be a wake-up call for event marketers who are not keeping up with the skyrocketing growth of emails being read on mobile devices. “The future of computing is mobile. Our data clearly shows the … Read the...

What better time to share some updates on the fast-growing mobile space, which is creating all sorts of new opportunities for show organizers, than the week before the new version of one of the hottest mobile products in the world, Apple’s iPad, starts shipping. Some 55 million iPads have been sold in the two years since it was launched; 62 million iOS devices (iPads, iPhones, … Read the...

In a new report entitled “Global Digital Communication: Texting, Social Networking Popular Worldwide”, Pew Research indicates “text messaging is a global phenomenon—across the 21 countries surveyed, a median of 75 percent of cell phone owners say they text.” In looking specifically at the U.S., 67 percent of cell phone owners regularly send text messages, according to the report. This usage level is unmatched by any … Read the...

Last Thursday, I presented a session at IAEE’s Expo! Expo!, entitled “Leveraging Mobile Marketing to Drive Attendance, Engagement and Value”. It was great to be part of this major industry event, and hear first-hand all of the different ways show organizers are using mobile marketing. I conducted a mini-survey at the session to find out how many of the participants were actually using mobile … Read the...