You invest a lot when exhibiting at a trade show. But, how can you be sure your brand will be seen and your sales message received? Start with a great booth design. It can engage current and future customers and provide a true sales experience. That’s if they find it on a competitive show floor. To maximize your trade show return on investment (ROI), you need to be seen. It’s time to think outside the booth.

Thinking outside the booth (OTB) is a dynamic philosophy that provides exciting opportunities to engage current and future customers. Here are five OTB tactics to consider that can easily extend your communication and sales strategy. Each allows you to connect with customers off the show floor before, during and after the convention.

1. Start with fun and games

To engage customers before they arrive at the conference, consider online gaming. You have several options for including your brand in a game, from advergames to in-game advertising. With an advergame, you can create a brand experience specifically designed around your product or service. It provides a great ROI because it engages potential customers with your brand in a fun, relaxed way. A creative agency can work with you to develop the game’s story and how it works to ensure the player experience is rewarding and authentic. Your agency should work closely with the gaming company that is developing, designing and programming the game.

“The best strategy for a brand manager is to create their own game around the conference or trade show they are attending,” says Max Albert, CEO of Adrenaline Interactive, an in-game advertising software company that helps brands advertise in some of the world’s most popular games. “The game can focus on the actual conference or topics most relevant to the brand. Users can access the game by simply using a QR code.”

With in-game advertising, you can have your brand placed in a popular online game, whether it’s on a billboard or somewhere in the game. While in-game advertising limits the player’s interaction with your brand, it takes less of a creative investment and ensures all players can potentially see your brand. Adrenaline Interactive is working on software to provide another option for placing your brand in video games. The software will enable brands to place three-dimensional models of your brand or logo within a video game. “The platform is highly targeted,” Albert says. “Your brand can be inserted into games played for a specific period of time before and during the conference.”

Airport advertising is a very effective way to catch trade show attendee attention about your booth and your game. Use it to greet customers when they arrive. Create eye-catching airport ads that highlight your booth number and enlist arriving passengers to download your game through a QR code.

2. Put your brand in their hands

Imagine putting your logo in the hands of show attendees as soon as they check into their hotel rooms. You can easily do it by printing your logo and QR code to your product’s site on hotel key cards. Many hotels near large convention centers participate in key-card branding programs.

Your logo, brand colors and QR code are printed on a “drop” of key cards. Participating hotels distribute them to guests when they check in during the convention. Current and prospective customers see your logo every time they enter their rooms.

3. Make it a wrap 

Why not make your brand larger than life for a few days? Communicate your brand identity on the route to and from the convention center by wrapping buses or Uber cars with your logo and sales message. Large, colorful and eye-catching, vehicle wraps capture the attention of everyone on the street. In addition to the visuals, you can build brand relationships by offering free rides in your branded vehicles.

“Vehicle wraps capture attention and everyone loves them,” says Katy Rivera, vice president of client relationships at Wilkins Media. “For example, a medical group wanted to reach doctors where they were staying during a recent convention. We hired a bus and branded it with their logo and sales message. They offered doctors free rides to and from the convention center. It was a big hit. Everyone wanted to get on the bus.”

If a bus doesn’t fit your strategy, you can brand a set of Uber cars. The Uber drivers can be scheduled to arrive together and create a “swarm” of cars with your brand to take convention attendees or select VIP guests around town during the conference. Securing branded Uber cars also allows you to provide additional messaging or “gifts” for your guests in the vehicles.

4. Project your brand after hours

When your brand puts smiles on customer faces, it strengthens its equity. A fantastic way to surprise and delight convention attendees is to project relatable brand images on buildings after convention hours. Many cities with big convention centers have entertainment districts filled with restaurants and bars catering to conference attendees. You can surprise attendees by projecting relatable or creative images that tell a visual story about your brand onto buildings in the entertainment districts. The multi-story images capture attention and create a memorable moment for your audience. For example, after hours at a conference in New Orleans, Olay Skin Care projected an engaging video on the side of a building and created a buzz online and off among convention goers.

5. Augment your brand after the show

You can again make use of airport advertising in departure areas by creating a humorous and sincere “safe travels” message. The ad talks to travelers where they’re at and gives your brand one more opportunity to make a strong, positive impression. And, your message will be seen by travelers who didn’t attend the show, broadening its reach.

In addition, if you want show attendees to continue the buzz around your brand and share an experience with family or office colleagues, you can give them a 3-D augmented reality show that’s projected by their phones. By emailing them a link to a simple website, show attendees can shine their phone at a flat surface and see a 3-D rendering of your product, solution or other illustration. Simple things like your company’s banner can come alive. It’s a fun, exciting experience show attendees can share.

Applying an OTB philosophy can set your brand apart and provide an experience your customers and prospects will remember long after the trade show ends. In addition to the ideas mentioned above, there are a number of other OTB experiences you can create. The best ideas are those that closely align with your brand and your customers. We will be happy to discuss how to best apply OTB thinking to your next trade show and maximize your trade show ROI. Contact me at mjk@verticalincorporated.com