The New York Times Travel Show Launches Mobile Show Guide

The mobile show guide offered lots of information about what was happening at The New York Times Travel Show, February 25 to 27, 2011, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, which featured nearly 500 exhibitors representing more than 150 countries. Attendees were able to browse exhibitor lists, seminar schedules, floor plans and show specials on their mobile device, and could also sign up for text alerts to receive additional announcements and special offers.

If you are looking at these type of mobile programs for your show, there are several points here worth noting:

(1) Those of you who are regular readers of my posts know the emphasis I place on promoting new mobile initiatives, and the Travel Show certainly did this. They had two prominent pieces of creative on the home page plus a dedicated page on the show web site which promoted the mobile programs. The mobile show guide was also promoted on the Travel Show’s Facebook Page.

(2) The Travel Show made it very easy to get the mobile show guide and SMS alerts, which could be done during the online registration process or by texting a keyword to a short code.

(3) The Travel Show provided a very clear opt-in message on the mobile sign-up page. Copy in regular sized type states what attendees can expect when they opt-in, including advising that texts will only be sent during show day and no more than 6 per day. As you’ve heard me say many times, following SMS best practices like this is very important because non-compliance can prove costly.

(4) The Travel Show offered an incentive to drive opt-in—anyone who signed up for SMS alerts was entered to win a free iPad.

(5)The Travel Show employed a cross-platform web app rather than a mobile app solution that is specific to just one platform—i.e. iOS, Android, etc.—so the mobile show guide “Works on ANY connected smart phone or PDA” as it stated on the Travel Show’s web site.

Posted on March 17, 2011