Nine miles of Mobile World Congress later…
We’ve been to many a tech trade show at Atomic, but there’s no doubt that Mobile World Congress is a beast of a show in comparison. For the first time in the events 20-year history it surpassed 100,000 attendees. With just shy of 101,000 visitors from 204 countries flocking to the Fira Gran Via and Fira Montjuïc venues in Barcelona over the four day show.
As two of the attendees for the last day of the show we’re going to share with you the highs, the lows and the awesome ideas that stood out at MWC 2016. But forget sleek new phone designs, mobile mirroring technology or networking upgrades, you can read about that from the many news articles and TV spots which dominated the week. Instead we want to share the big stand trends and some of the marketing do’s and do not’s which became apparent as we trawled all 8 halls.
Standing out in the crowd
At a show like MWC trying to stand out amongst the crowd isn’t easy. With some of the biggest stands costing millions of dollars to produce and thousands of smaller stands competing for attention it’s crucial that any investment pays off with plenty of relevant visitors. But with so much amazing technology on display it’s no longer just the cool devices which drive stand traffic, exhibitors at all ends of the technology spectrum are having to be smarter about how they get attendees involved and interested in what they have to say.
Giving attendees an experience on the stand is something which was certainly achieving that for a whole host of this year’s most interesting stands. We saw everything from giant partying androids giving out ice pops and artificial intelligence powered robots, to plastic accessory making, purpose built chill out areas and a whole range of connected cars for people to climb in and try out and it wasn’t just from the big name vendors with big budgets.
Drawing people in
Virtual reality experiences were by far the most popular on-stand attraction at the show. We saw long winding queues filling the pathways at every stand with VR on offer. The breadth of experiences on offer ranged from flying airplanes to deep sea diving in submarines to hurtling along rollercoasters. It also proved to be a great conversation point as no matter where you walked in the show we caught snatches of conversation discussing people’s experiences of VR and suggestions for which stands to visit to try it out. A big idea like this isn’t only limited to the big name brands, with a little bit of forethought it’s possible to implement ideas like this on a much smaller budget. After identifying earlier in 2015 that VR was going to be a big trend for MWC 16 this is exactly what we did with our client Teleplan, on a scale which worked for them, with a VR rollercoaster experience. We tried out the finished experience on the Teleplan stand which was great fun and produced many smiles. With positive reactions all round to virtual reality at the show there’s no doubt it’s a trend we’re going to see greater adoption of over the rest of this year.
Sometimes it’s the simple things
Competitions and giveaways always go down a treat at any conference too, especially if they are offering something outside of the norm. However utilising simple but clever ideas at a show, which correlate with the product or service you are providing, can also be a great way of improving footfall and email sign ups.
Stands leveraging the selfie culture is a great example of this from MWC, by providing dress up boxes and selfie sticks, a number of handset manufactures where using the selfie booths as a way of getting people to try out the devices they had on offer.
Another simple but effective promotion comes from the android team, who produce a wide variety of android pins dressed as different characters. Every year android partners stock the different android pins on their stands and these small, amusing little fellows become so popular they could pass for MWC currency amongst a huge swathe of attendees. This year’s multitude of characters decorated many a lanyard and frantic collectors tried to sweep up any missing from their collection. If you partner with android, stocking these is a sure fire was to get plenty of visitors as many stands used the pins as a way of collecting visitor details and email signups
Mysterious ways
One trend that we noted amongst MWC exhibitors this year that we weren’t fully convinced by was fully closed off stands, leaving only one small entrance for attendees to trickle through. From our point of view, we weren’t sure how successful this approach to stand design could be in terms of attracting passing trade. Most of the stands using this design, had little more than a logo and a vague statement on the outside to tell you what was inside, so unless you were in the know, you would have no idea what the exhibitor was exhibiting.
We also noted that many exhibitors fall foul of, failing to describe what they do succinctly on their stand at MWC. There was an abundance of companies stating that they are innovating faster and delivering gains, without stating what they actually do. If there’s one learning smaller companies looking to exhibit at the show could take on board, making it easy for people to see/know what you do, would be our number one recommendation.
Five tips for a successful show
If you’re planning on exhibiting at the Spanish conference next year here’s a few tips from us to have a successful show as an exhibitor:
Think about your stand messaging. Does it convey the intended meaning to visitors who have no prior knowledge of what you do?
How are you going to attract people to your stand? Are experiences relatable to your business that you could offer? Can you predict what the hot topic/trends are going to be at MWC 2017 and provide a relevant attraction? If you’re struggling to come up with the big idea why not get in touch with the team here.
If you need internet at your stand don’t rely on the show wi-fi arrange to have your own internet connection on stand with wi-fi access for the team and avoid slow refresh/buffering issues for any web based demos.
If you want to walk the halls, go early in the morning before the masses descend otherwise you’ll be battling crowds.
Wear appropriate clothing. Pack comfortable shoes, my activity tracker clocked up almost 9 miles of walking during our day at MWC, and there were plenty of people who looked like they were struggling in their footwear choices, and if your stand is positioned near a door, bring warm clothing!