Events are an extremely powerful marketing lever for capturing attention and building connections. In fact, 80.4% of organizers declare that in person events are their most impactful marketing channel.

For a brand, the challenge goes beyond on site entertainment. You need to turn visitors into active participants, then extend engagement beyond the event to turn them into loyal customers. Event games are among the best tools to achieve this: they generate opt ins, increase time spent with the brand and drive word of mouth.

This article presents five simple to deploy interactive game ideas to make a trade show, pop up or brand activation unforgettable.

Event games encompass all playful activities integrated into an event marketing strategy. Their role goes beyond simply entertaining participants. They make it possible to actively involve visitors and turn a one time presence into a true brand experience.

Where traditional speaking stays top down, a game establishes a two way interaction. The audience experiences a memorable moment with the brand and potentially wins attractive rewards, which strengthens engagement and loyalty. These mechanics also create opportunities for exchange between participants. They thus encourage the building of a brand community, united by a shared experience.

5 concrete benefits of event games

Event games generate tangible results, both on visitor experience and brand marketing performance.

• Stronger engagement : an animated booth captures more visitors than a booth without interaction. The game creates a fun moment and encourages people to stay longer.
• Better recall: 74% of participants remember a brand more easily after a playful experience. An event activity therefore increases the likelihood of conversion and recommendation.
• Qualified data collection : the game registration form, opt in sharing and even interactions with playful mechanics allow you to enrich the brand CRM database. The game is therefore transformed into a tool for collecting useful information such as age, gender or visitor product preferences.
• Increased traffic to a booth or website: the game acts as a crowd puller, attracting passersby and directing them to a specific marketing channel (a website via a QR code, checkout thanks to an e-coupon, etc.).
• An amplifying effect via social media: original activites are often shared online, amplifying campaign reach beyond its physical footprint.

Example: at the Salon de l’Agriculture, Lidl offered a slot machine to increase brand awareness and collect leads. Result: over 7,000 social shares and a strong drive toward its Lidl Plus app, combining on site engagement and extended customer relationship.

The choice of mechanic determines the effectiveness of an event game. A suitable mechanic attracts more participants, captures their attention and directly serves the brand marketing goals.

• The Wheel of Fortune is ideal for distributing discount coupons or instant gifts. It is therefore an excellent choice to attract and instantly convert visitors.
• The Quiz highlights products or brand history while collecting valuable data on customer preferences.
• Digital Treasure Hunt is perfect for encouraging visitors to explore a point of sale, a booth or a pop up store in a fun way.
• The interactive Photobooth generates UGC (authentic content created by users), boosts social media sharing and amplifies brand visibility.

These mechanics adapt to all event contexts: trade shows, internal seminars, public events, retail or festivals. Their strength lies in their flexibility and their ability to respond equally well to awareness, entertainment or data collection challenges.

A successful event activity does not rely solely on creativity. It requires precise planning, from choosing the mechanic to tracking performance. Well designed, it attracts visitors, fosters engagement and directly serves marketing goals. Here are four best practices along with contest game ideas for an event to maximize their impact.

1. Clearly identify your marketing objectives

Before designing a game mechanic, you must define the expected role of the activation. Objectives can vary: driving traffic, increasing awareness, building community loyalty, boosting sales.

However, event games are primarily a powerful lever for collecting qualified data and enriching CRM. Form registrations, game participation or choice of rewards make it possible to gather precise information on customer preferences and behavior. This data then feeds CRM campaigns and facilitates the personalization of future marketing actions, which strengthens the relevance and effectiveness of brand communications.

Example: Galeries Lafayette

To celebrate its 130th anniversary, the brand installed a digital Piñata on kiosks in 10 stores. An exceptional prize reinforced the game appeal. Result: high store participation and the collection of qualified opt ins, later reused for CRM activation.

2. Adapt the mechanic and the game journey to the event and the target audience

Every event has its audience and its codes. The journey must be designed according to the context: a fast, intuitive experience for a trade show booth, more immersive for an inauguration or an internal seminar. A seamless journey will limit friction and increase the participation rate.

Connection with seasonal highlights: Christmas, back to school, sales or brand anniversaries offer the opportunity to adapt the event activity design as well as the prizes at stake. Visual and thematic consistency strengthens player immersion and message recall.

3. Implement an omnichannel strategy for your event games

An event game lives beyond the physical location. Integrating a phygital logic makes it possible to extend the experience and reach a broader audience. QR codes, tablets or interactive kiosks easily connect the physical event to digital. On site, the game captures attention; online, it extends the relationship.

Example: Valrhona at the Sirha trade show

The brand deployed a slot machine designed as a traffic generator for its e commerce website. Participants discovered the game on site and were then encouraged to place an order online. An effective omnichannel strategy to transform event visibility into measurable conversions.

4. Facilitate tracking with the right tools

Performance tracking is often underestimated. Yet, it determines the real value of an event game. Using a SaaS platform simplifies the design, deployment and especially KPI tracking of a playful activity (such as the number of participants, conversion rate or collected opt ins). Combined with interactive kiosks or tablets, it enables rapid setup of the interactive game and reduces the logistical burdens organizers typically face.

Event games transform your events into real marketing levers: they capture attention, build connection and generate useful data. At Adictiz, we help you design impactful activities thanks to our large catalog of interactive mechanics, our connected kiosks and our SaaS platform integrated with your CRM.

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Back to school is a crucial time for brands. Everyone wants to capture the attention of consumers, but only those with the right marketing strategy will stand out from the crowd!

With budgets back in hand, new purchasing intentions and the start of the sprint towards the end of the year, the strategic stakes are enormous. Provided you know where to focus your efforts. So how do you get your fourth term off to a good start and maximize the impact of your back to school communications? In this article, we share concrete advice, inspired by examples of campaigns that worked.

September is a key time for brands. After the summer break, it’s a time of renewal, with shoppers returning to their usual patterns of consumption. For companies, it’s also a time to finalise their strategies for the last quarter, as the competition for customer’s attention intensifies.

Here are the main marketing issues that brands need to anticipate to maximize the impact of their back to school sales operation.

1. Boost brand awareness and generate new leads

After the summer, brands need to reconnect with their audience and attract new prospects. This is an ideal time to launch brand awareness campaigns, particularly via social networks, display advertising and influencer partnerships.

The statistic to remember: Nearly 4 out of 5 French people (79 %) are planning to change their shopping habits for the back to school season.

The marketing action to launch: a marketing campaign on social networks with an interactive and engaging format to maximize the brand’s visibility.

An example to follow: For its “Back to School” campaign, SFR relied on the Match 3 mechanic to promote the start of the new school year. This addictive game recruited over 4,200 leads and generated 38 games played per participant. The Adictiz Ads media campaign generated a 98% response rate, an essential factor in the game’s visibility.

2. Refine customer knowledge to improve future marketing campaigns

September is a good time to collect customer data (via Surveys or interactive Quizzes, for example). This enables brands to better understand the needs and expectations of their audience. They can then better target their future marketing campaigns and maximise their return on investment (ROI).

The statistic to remember: 83% of consumers say they are willing to share their preferences with a brand in exchange for a personalised experience. And brands that exploit first-party data generate 2.9 times more revenue.

The marketing action to launch: Brands can, for example, share an interactive Personality Test on their site to better understand their customers’ interests and needs. Customers will then be redirected to relevant product pages or automatically retargeted by email with targeted offers.

An example to learn from: The interactive quiz shared by MaGare+ as part of its back to school game enabled the company to collect valuable data on its audience. For example, it has been able to identify the station services that are most likely to be of interest to its customers.

3. Capitalize on purchase intentions to improve conversion

With the return to school and work, consumers are on a buying spree. Whether for school supplies, clothing, electronics or services, brands have a window of opportunity to convert these intentions into sales or customer account creation.

Key statistic: At the start of the new school year, families spend an average of 304 euros per person.

The marketing action to launch: Consumers are more likely to make a purchase or create a customer account in exchange for a discount or reward. Brands can boost their conversion rate by proposing an attractive welcome offer (a discount on the first order) or by distributing discount coupons via a 100% instant win.

An example to follow: For the back to school season, Kiabi launched a campaign focusing on lead generation and conversion, giving participants the chance to win attractive prizes, including shopping vouchers. Thanks to media coverage via Adictiz Ads, the operation recorded an opt-in rate of 68%, testifying to participants’ commitment to the brand and the effectiveness of the campaign.

4. Building loyalty and preparing for the last quarter of the year

The last quarter of the year (Q4) is crucial, with events such as Black Friday, the autumn sales and the festive season. Building customer loyalty from September onwards maximises sales during this strategic period and considerably reduces the budget for future marketing campaigns.

The statistic to remember: A loyal customer spends on average 67% more than a new customer (Source: Harvard Business Review). Not to mention that attracting a new customer costs five times more than bringing one back.

The marketing action to launch: to boost your retention rate, there’s nothing better than an innovative loyalty programme. This will encourage consumers to buy from the brand by giving them access to more attractive discounts or previews of Black Friday offers.

An example to follow: In 2021, Decathlon has decided to transform its traditional loyalty program into a more inclusive offering, allowing customers to collect points through various actions (in particular their interactions with the brand) and no longer just when they make purchases. The catalogue of rewards has also been expanded, giving program members the opportunity to spend their points at partner stores.

To maximise the impact of back to school communications, brands need to put the right strategy in place. Here are three tips for optimising your sales operation and achieving concrete results.

1. Identify your objectives and your target’s needs

An effective back to school marketing campaign must therefore be perfectly tailored to the expectations of its audience. To achieve this, brands need to collect data upstream. Marketing games will enable them to analyse the preferences and behaviour of consumers in greater detail, so that they can better qualify their leads.

2. Stand out from other advertising campaigns

The back to school period is therefore a time when consumers are very much in demand. Brands therefore need to focus on engaging formats and attractive prizes to capture attention. Playing on emotion and storytelling is also a good way of resonating with the aspirations of their community.

3. Use omnichannel marketing to maximize the impact of your back to school sales campaign

Consumers are constantly switching from one channel to another. They consult a product on mobile, read a review on social networks, then finalize their purchase in-store. A coherent omnichannel strategy can support this journey and multiply points of contact. To achieve this, brands can communicate both online and in their physical outlets, offer drive-to-store operations, and also explore co-branding.

The key to a successful back to school campaign is a strategic approach that combines personalisation, engagement and channel diversification. By targeting your objectives carefully, you can create an effective campaign and maximise your chances of capturing and converting your audience. All you have to do to take action is choose from our range of marketing games!

Adictiz, the platform to reach
your marketing goals