Making it Rain

I hear many stories about online events struggling to monetize their virtual exhibit halls to feel like a success for everyone. They’re pouring time and money into a platform to entice not only vendors, but attendees, into the space for interactions. I know from experience, a virtual exhibit hall can benefit the vendor, sponsoring organization, and attendee.

Just like the online event itself, you can’t just turn an in-person exhibit hall into a virtual one (review my blog “4 Tidbits for Online Trade Shows” for more info). It takes some creativity and the ability to think about the process differently. The same is true for the sponsorship opportunities. Here are three ideas to get you started thinking about how to monetize your virtual exhibit hall:

• Add a branded “frame” around the viewer where attendees are watching the event. This is a great, high-exposure opportunity for a session sponsor over something like an in-session video, banner, pop-up ad, or pre- and post-show slides. You have a captive audience for the duration of the session, or at least while they watch, and whether they realize it or not, the message or organization’s information from the frame has made an impact on them.
• Offer exclusive exposure to attendees to those sponsors who purchase the opportunity to participate in a pre-event sale or product preview in the days leading up to your event. (this could be super beneficial to your organization on so many levels-email me for more details). This gets attendees interacting with your event and platform early – ideally getting they psyched up for the event and working out their kinks early, and incentivizes organizations to offer deals to be able to interact with this exclusive group of people before others.
• During the event, host a game for the attendees to drive traffic to the virtual exhibit hall, like Exhibitor or Product Bingo. Offer sponsors the opportunity to provide prizes for various Bingo pattern winners. It’s amazing how many people will visit vendors to cross off a square on their game card for the opportunity to win something as simple as a $100 Amazon card. The opportunity to participate on this card brings in cash to your organization, brings traffic to your vendors, and provides entertainment to your attendees.

If done right, not only will the virtual exhibitors be happy with the leads they will collect and the attendees happy with the selection of vendors and prizes available, but you’ll meet or exceed your intended budget goals.

I would love nothing more than to share an exhaustive list of the ways you can provide sponsorship opportunities to your exhibitors, but we’d be here all day. If you’d like to have a longer conversation, email me and let’s connect.

Have you experienced a successful way to monetize a virtual event?
Share it here or send me an email!

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Visit tracybaer.com to schedule a consultation to talk more about this topic!