Mobile technology will take the stage at the British International Motor Show in July, with the appointment of digital communications agency Glass to handle all mobile activity for the event.
The appointment involves the delivery of a number of mobile initiatives as the events organiser, International Motor Industry Events (IMIE), looks to mobile for the first time to help improve the effectiveness and accountability of its marketing activities.
As well as building a mobile Internet site offering rich content and free downloads, Glass is developing a media response tracking tool that will enable IMIE to calculate the return on investment of its media spend. One of its first applications will be to test the effectiveness of prize competitions.
The Motor Show has over 200 media and promotional partners running competitions and offers across offline and online channels to help publicise the event, which takes place at ExCeL in London from 23 July 3 August.
Because people will be entering the competitions via the media they use, we will be able to track the response rate for each and every media partner and also for individual publications, says Glass Head of Mobile, Craig Massey. It will provide brilliant marketing insight for future events.
Additionally, Glass will be using mobile technology to help IMIE manage traffic flow, and sell unsold ticket inventory just prior to the event. Visitors to the show will be sent instant messages to encourage them to visit less busy areas of the auditorium as well as food, beverage and other retail locations, while personalised promotional ticket offers will be sent to carefully selected groups of individuals outside of IMIEs core customer databases.
IMIE will also use mobile to engage on a one-to-one basis with visitors, to find out what day(s) they are attending the event and then use that information to entice them to attend the live music events running alongside the show, featuring performances from UB40, Status Quo, Squeeze and others.
To be pushing forward with so many innovative mobile projects for the event this year is very exciting, says IMIE Marketing Director, Kirsty Perkinson. For exhibitors and other partners the mobile elements offer incredibly effective ways to engage intimately with visitors, while for visitors, they provide many new ways to experience the event.”