As we move towards the end of 2022 and a new era of professional events, our industry faces a slew of new challenges. Chief amongst these are improving attendee experience, exhibitor ROI, and event revenue in a challenging economic environment where attendee and exhibitor expectations are higher than they have ever been.
Event app monetization is an important, oft-overlooked, opportunity. Your event needs a mobile app, but event organizers are often leaving value on the table by not taking advantage of monetization opportunities.
Monetization adds value for attendees, exhibitors and you, the event organizer, alike. Let’s talk a little bit about how.
For you, the value is obvious. More revenue is a clear benefit for your event and can offset the cost of your mobile app.
For your exhibitors, the monetization opportunities you provide give them the opportunity to reach more of their target audience, increase the number of meetings and foot traffic to their booth, and ultimately, increase their ROI for attending your event, which is critical in our current economic conditions.
Finally, for your attendees, the monetization opportunities you provide will give your attendees more opportunities to discover content, sessions, and exhibitors who are relevant to them, thereby allowing them to get more out of your event.
Happier exhibitors and attendees make for better events. This allows you, the event organizer, to increase exhibitor and attendee retention, attract new attendees, demonstrate value to new potential exhibitors, and ultimately, grow your events.
Given that event app monetization is a fantastic tool to increase the value of your events, let’s talk about how you can make that happen.
At Sherpa, we created mobile apps for the 2022-2023 US Vet Shows and worked with their team on creating a media kit for sponsorship opportunities on these mobile apps. Some of these opportunities include:
- Title sponsor packages
- Homepage banners
- Rotating banners
- Featured listings
- Push notifications
- Special announcements
- Proximity notifications
While some of these are relatively self-explanatory, some of them are worth exploring in a little more detail. Let’s take a look.
Push Notifications
Push notifications are SMS-like messages received by all users that allow your exhibitors to reach a wider audience with mobile app alerts. These messages also come with calls-to-action (CTAs) that allow your exhibitors to direct attendees to information and offerings such as giveaways and product demos.
It is important to not inundate your attendees with sponsored push notifications. They will eventually tune them out and this will dilute the value delivered to exhibitors. We suggest having no more than five sponsored push notifications per day during your event.
Special Announcements
Special announcements allow your exhibitors to reach attendees’ mobile app inboxes at the time and date of their choosing and can include a photo, description, and a link to the exhibitor’s virtual booth.
Much like with push notifications, we suggest not inundating your attendees with these ad units. We suggest having a maximum of five slots per day during your event.
Proximity Notifications
One creative opportunity enabled by Sherpa’s indoor positioning system is to utilize proximity notifications to drive more foot traffic to exhibitor booths.
These allow exhibitors to send push notifications to attendees once they enter a 30 foot radius of a booth. Exhibitors can use these to catch the attention of attendees and drive more foot traffic.
So, now that you know about new monetization opportunities for your event’s mobile app, it is now a question of how to put those into place.
At Sherpa, we have a few guidelines to help you increase revenue for your mobile apps.
First, it is critical to work with an events mobile app provider that allows you to implement the mobile app ad units listed above.
Second, it is important to empower your teams to sell these ad units to exhibitors. We suggest creating a media kit with all relevant information and making sponsorship opportunities a key part of the exhibitor onboarding and sales process. Get in front of them early and explain to them the value of these additional engagement opportunities.
Third, it is important to demonstrate the value of advertising to your exhibitors. By providing your exhibitors with post event metrics such as number of clicks, meetings, and sales generated by the ads they purchased, you will be able to demonstrate advertising ROI to new and existing advertisers alike.
By implementing these monetization opportunities, you’ll be able to increase your event’s revenue while offering additional value to exhibitors and attendees alike. This will enable you to turn your mobile app into a revenue generator rather than a cost center for your event.
Looking for a mobile app for your next event? Since launching in 2010, the Nomad custom-app development platform has been deployed at over 3,000 of the most demanding professional events worldwide, helping elevate attendee experience and exhibitor ROI. Contact us today to see how Nomad can help enhance your next event.