Not only does the mobile event app make it easier for your attendees to navigate and engage with your meeting, it provides you a new channel for sponsorship revenue. Because almost everything in the mobile app can be tracked, you can provide great data to your sponsors. This data can a strong case for the ROI on their investment.
The opportunities for mobile app sponsorships are many – here are four great possibilities.
1. Home Page Sponsorship
The home page is the first page the attendee sees when the app has finished loading – it is the gateway to the event’s mobile experience. EventRebels has found that the home page yields approximately 5-10 impressions per attendee per show.
This makes the home page a very easy sell for a sponsorship. Put the sponsor’s message on the home page and you are looking at thousands of impressions, even for a small event.
2. Rotating Ads
These are ads that scroll at the bottom of selected pages. At its most basic, these ads can show the sponsor’s message. A major improvement is to take the attendee to the sponsor’s web site when the message is touched.
The big advantage of rotating ads is there can be multiple sponsors, thus reducing their buy-in cost. The key to rotating ads is to make sure each sponsor gets adequate attention from the attendee. Ads need to be present long enough to get attention (about 10-15 seconds). You also need to keep a limit to the number of sponsors ads. The more sponsors, the fewer the impressions per sponsor.
If the ads appear on all pages, it is courteous to let the attendee close the rotating ads, even if it reduces the number of impressions.
3. Sponsor Page
Not only does the having a page that lists exhibitors is great, but it is helpful to have a page that highlights sponsors. This page can include a number of elements, some of which you can offer to exhibitors for additional fees:- Profiles, including product descriptions
- Links to their website
- Display company logo
- Company documents to download
- Highlight sponsors with additional colors, ribbons, and so forth.
4. Push Notifications
According to an American Express study, communications is one of the top reasons for purchasing a mobile app for your conference. Push notifications are the best way to communicate with your attendees. Consequently, your sponsors can use this medium with great effectiveness. For example, a sponsor can announce a drawing at their booth in 5 minutes.
Be careful, however! Overuse of sponsor-based push notifications will probably annoy your attendees.
