RFID/NFC is a great solution for exhibitors who want to make their trade show exhibit more interactive. Thomson Reuters used this technology at AALL, an event attended by legal librarians, to excite attendees to participate in multiple demos and lengthen their stay in the exhibit.
NFC stands for Near Field Communication—a type of RFID that exchanges data when the chip is placed within close proximity to a reader. Thomson Reuters leveraged NFC chips housed in orange wristbands to facilitate an interactive knowledge quiz that kept attendees coming back to learn—and win—more.
Here's how it worked:
- When attendees arrived at the exhibit, they were checked in and given their NFC wristband. They also scanned their badge and entered their name and other demographic data into the system. This record went into the master database that would track game activity and points—and later be used for measurement and lead data.
- Attendees selected from 17 different education stations—visiting as few or as many as they chose. Topics included: Tax and Accounting, Government, Academic, and Law Firm. Questions were a mixture of product-related questions and trivia questions.
- At each station, visitors tapped their NFC wristband against a scanner. This brought up a screen with their rank in relation to other attendees, the names and numbers of stations they had visited, the number of questions they'd answered correctly and their point score in relation to other participants.
- Attendees then listened to a brief product presentation (delivered by a Thomson Reuters team member) and answered corresponding questions (via iPad)—earning additional points for every correct answer. When visitors had completed the questions, the screen with their rank appeared a second time so they could see how much progress they'd made toward the prize of their choice—or toward overtaking other visitors' scores.
- An additional message on the score screen notified visitors who had earned enough points to earn a prize.
- After visiting as many stations as they chose, visitors moved to a redemption counter where a Thomson Reuters staff member scanned their wristband one final time, delivered a prize corresponding to the visitor's point total and marked that the prize had been delivered on the visitor's electronic record. Prizes for smaller point totals included orange jellybeans and orange gummy bears. Larger prizes for higher point totals included t-shirts and device chargers.
At the close of the show, Thomson Reuters tallied its results. Via NFC data collection, Thomson Reuters collected visitors' names and demographic data—as well as tracked their subject interest through the number and type of stations they chose to visit.
Have you experienced RFID or NFC in an exhibit? The 3D Exhibits team would love to hear about it.
