How can you use AR/VR to showcase your products at trade shows?

1 Benefits of AR/VR

AR/VR can offer several benefits for trade show exhibitors, such as attracting more visitors to your booth, engaging your audience with interactive and personalized content, demonstrating your product in action, providing a memorable and emotional connection with your brand and story, and differentiating yourself from competitors. By creating a buzz and a wow factor, you can showcase product features and benefits, especially if it is complex, large, or not physically available. This will help you position yourself as an innovator and stand out from the competition.

2 Types of AR/VR

There are different types of AR/VR that you can use at trade shows, depending on your goals, budget, and audience. For instance, mobile AR is the simplest and most accessible form of AR; users can view digital content on their smartphones or tablets by scanning a QR code, a marker, or using image recognition. You can use mobile AR to provide additional information, videos, animations, or 3D models of your products, or to create gamified experiences that reward users for interacting with your booth. Additionally, headset AR is a more immersive form of AR; this technology projects digital content onto the user's field of vision. You can use headset AR to create realistic and engaging simulations of your product, or to provide virtual assistance or guidance for users. Lastly, VR is the most immersive form of AR/VR; users wear a headset that blocks out the real world and transports them to a virtual environment. You can use VR to create stunning and immersive experiences that showcase your product in different scenarios, locations, or perspectives, or to tell a compelling story about your brand and vision.

3 Best practices for AR/VR

To make the most of AR/VR at trade shows, it is important to define objectives and target audience, choose the right technology and platform, design content and experience, and test and iterate. You should consider how your AR/VR content can align with your marketing message and value proposition, as well as ensure compatibility, usability, and accessibility for users. Additionally, you should create engaging and relevant content that balances realism with creativity, simplicity with interactivity, education with entertainment. It is also important to optimize your content for performance and quality. Finally, you should test your AR/VR content before the trade show, collect feedback from users, measure results, and improve or update your content based on learnings.

4 Challenges and solutions for AR/VR

Using AR/VR at trade shows can also pose some challenges such as cost and complexity, space and safety, and user adoption and awareness. To reduce the cost and complexity, you can use existing platforms, tools, and templates or partner with AR/VR providers or agencies. To minimize the space and safety issues, choose a suitable location and layout for your booth, provide clear instructions and guidance for your users, and ensure adequate supervision and sanitation. To increase user adoption and awareness, promote your AR/VR content and experience before and during the trade show, provide incentives and rewards for users to try it, and make it easy and fun for them to use it.

5 Examples of AR/VR at trade shows

If you are looking for some inspiration, here are some examples of how other exhibitors have used AR/VR to showcase their products at trade shows. A car manufacturer used VR to let users explore and customize their latest models in a virtual showroom, while a furniture retailer utilized AR to allow users to visualize how their products would look and fit in their homes. A medical device company employed VR to let users experience how their products work inside the human body, and a travel agency utilized VR to let users travel to different destinations and attractions. All of these exhibitors provided customers with product information, recommendations, training, education, booking and planning options.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?