April 2016

AIDA Interview

Pallav Barah, Founder & CEO of AIDA, shares his insights on event technology and consumer engagement in an interview with T Radhakrishna of Elets News Network (ENN). The interview is featured in the eGov magazine’s April 2016 edition.

Read the complete interview here: http://egov.eletsonline.com/2016/04/m-powering-mice-industry/

After the successful launch of its first product ‘Carrot’ – a native mobile app for events, conferences, concerts, exhibitions, weddings and corporate events, AIDA has seen a keen interest from brands who want to continue conversations with their audience long after the event, and in creating memorable in-venue experiences. Pallav Barah, Director & Co-founder of AIDA, shares the company’s plans and technology products, apart from why consumer engagement is more than just marketing, in an interview with T Radhakrishna of Elets News Network (ENN)

How did the concept of Carrot evolve and what went into the making of the product?

Carrot is an idea that was born in a conference. We at AIDAIO observed a significant lack of digital connect at some of the conferences we attended. We spent three months speaking to event industry managers, attendees and sponsors to understand the dynamics, pain points and needs of the Indian event industry. We created Carrot keeping in mind the challenges in the event industry, including the lack of / minimal wi-fi connectivity at events, as well as the last-minute updates required to be made. The first Carrot app was sold even before the company was set up, and within six months of launch, Carrot was shortlisted under the Best Event Technology category at MICE – Asia Pacific Awards 2015.

When did it go live? What are the unique features of Carrot?

Carrot was launched in Novmber 2014 with a vision to bring the focus back on attendee engagement, and nurturing private social communities at events. The core value proposition of Carrot is the ability for event managers to design, theme and publish on their apps within one hour. Carrot is powered by a cloud-based backend that provides great flexibility and agility to event managers to manage last-minute changes, turn on/ off features, and even access content when there is no internet. Due to this flexibility, Carrot app can be used for any kind of event – business or technical conferences, medical conferences, networking events, exhibitions, trade shows and even weddings.

The backend also provides powerful real time analytics for event managers to monitor and react to the pulse of the event. Recently, Carrot launched some multilingual apps to empower event managers to publish content in more than 25 languages – Indian and Global. Its various interactive features increase audience engagement through polls, surveys, games, private chat, etc. We also have smart integrations with EventBrite to manage ticketing and registrations and with Uber to create a seamless channel for attendees to not just find the event venue but also book their ride to the venue.

What are your expectations from Carrot?

We expect Carrot to democratise event technology and enable every event big or small to adapt event technology solutions. Today, the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) industry in India is growing fast. More and more events have started to place the right emphasis on audience engagement, and to create an experience that converts passive attendees into brand ambassadors and influencers. This change is not possible without creating an interactive, conversational channel that can help the event brands hear what the consumer has to say, and react to it quickly. AIDA’s vision is to lead this change, and create the right technology that can complete the high touchpoint human interactions, without compromising on ease of use and consumer experience.

What is the roadmap for growth of AIDAIO?

We at AIDA have launched three products in the event technology and attendee engagement space within a span of 15 months. Carrot – native white-labeled event app; Ice – interactive digital games for product activations; and Hashout – live projected slideshows and social walls, are all geared towards creating a wow experience for attendees at events, and providing flexibility and real-time insights to event organisers. The road ahead for AIDAIO is to continue to provide end-to-end solutions, which can seamlessly cover the end-to-end experience of an attendee right from the time an event concept is created too much after the event.

Attendee engagement is a journey. Brands strive to build an emotional connect with a consumer. It begins with powerful messaging. But brands can sustain this only by creating amazing experiences, and building a community.

Events are a high touch point channel for brand to connect with a highly activated audience.

The journey of a brand’s connect with its attendees begins with Brand visibility, and progresses towards Brand activation, then engagement and finally creating Brand Ambassadors.

Technology is a great enabler for consumer engagement whether it is in events or elsewhere. Social media and cross-channel marketing strategies are quite powerful in reaching out to potential consumers. But, often brand connect and social communities stay out of sync.   It is important to have solutions that create a unified persona of the consumer across the different channels.

Also important, is the need to understand the consumer’s context, and target relevant content based on her location, interests and preferences.

At AIDA, we see this connect between brand and consumer evolve through 5 stages.

Introducing the Attendee Engagement Funnel

Guidance:  When a brand initiates it’s connect with consumers, it is crucial to guide, educate and inform them.

This is the first step towards understanding what a brand stands for, and what the consumer can gain from the brand.

In the case of events, the program schedule, speaker list, venue etc. serve the purpose of guidance.

But, bringing in an interactive aspect to this information can change the way a consumer receives this. Structuring content such that it leads a consumer on a journey of discovery, can help make Guidance a fun way to connect to the consumer.

Simple interactions, such as RSVP on agenda, guided maps; chat to speakers etc. can go a long way in establishing the ground for the next stage of Engagement.

Engagement: As consumers embark on their journey of content discovery, they find more and more reasons to engage with the brands. Even asking for more information or expressing an opinion about the brand’s content can be gratifying.

This engagement sets the grounds for brands to initiate 2 way conversations with their consumers.

In events, many of these conversations are primarily face-to-face. Can technology complement these face-to-face conversations? The answer is a resounding Yes.

Polls, surveys, event activity walls, 1 on 1 chat with organizers/ event partners etc. are easy to use technology complements. Games such as Treasure Hunts are an effective way to activate your audience. They can have a great time while discovering brand content!

Community: When people have a good time, they tell others about it. They create their own communities, and share their experiences. This is a key social behavior that brands can leverage. Social media is a space where most of a brand’s community building happens today. But, social media is an open forum. A consumer needs to sift through a lot of noise before they can find relevant content.

There is a need today to create a channel that can seamlessly combine social media advantages with the private social context of a brand.  White labeled mobile apps serve as a context aware channel for brands to achieve this.

Providing a space for attendees to connect to other delegates, share, like and comment on event activities, creating a social buzz in the context of the event, creating multi lingual content etc. can nudge even the passive attendee into being part of the larger event community.

Achievement: Sustaining the community connect, conversations is equally essential. Recognizing the influencers in the community, responding actively to the pulse of the community, identifying trending topics is a good way to begin. But, unless there is a sense of achievement that your consumer can realize from her engagement, this buzz is likely to die down.

Gamification is a great way to push the community engagement to the nest stage. Can you reward the active participants or even promote a healthy competition among the peers? Combine social conversations with in-venue gratification by launching in-venue gamified social walls.  Plan a crowd sourced social activity that can result in a larger achievement or reward for the entire community. For instance, if 50 photos are posted under the event hashtag in the next 1 hour, everyone gets a free coupon!

Brands no more need to worry about creating content, since the community has started co-creating content for them.

Influence: When the community is so highly activated, everyone is a brand ambassador. Even the passive consumer, is now an active influencer for the brand.

In the case of events, this translates into extending these conversations over and beyond the event. Turning them into a year long conversation channel, and as a lead up to the next edition.

So, what are you waiting for? Start your journey with AIDA today. Activate your passive consumer into passionate brand ambassadors.

We bet your events are informative, engaging, and fun. But do you continue to rely on printed material for distributing event information? Do you still use outdated technology for communicating with your attendees?

Attendees today have high engagement needs but low attention spans. They are smart, and are eager to converse. They carry smart phones and embrace technology with ease.

Why then are your events still in the era of printed-paper?

It is indeed time for you to consider an app for your next event. There are many benefits of rolling out a mobile app for your event. We have listed a few of these below.

1. Go Green, Go Paperless

Every event needs to distribute information about the program, venue layout, partners and promotional material, banners etc.  Printing may not be the most important item on your cost cutting list. Yet they have a larger impact on your responsibility to environmental sustainability. Besides, no one ever wants to go through a conference carrying a load of papers. Go Green. Now.

Putting up event information on a website isn’t good enough. Especially given the flaky nature of Internet in-venue. Mobile apps can easily be the channel for your event information. Go for the ones where you can publish last minute changes with ease. Your attendees must be able to access event information even when offline.

2. Stay tuned to Event schedule

Every event manager has had last minute changes to make in the program. Speakers cancel at the last minute. Partners may need changes to their promotional material.  Why go through the hassle of re-printing event material, when you can make changes in a few seconds?

Moreover, digital content is interactive and real time. You can push notifications and announcements through the app. You can even integrate your social channels with your app for a seamless end to end engagement experience.

3. Why start your event with a long queue ?

Every event begins with a really long queue. Your attendees wait in frustration, while your registration desk tries to sort through piles of registration badges, and lanyards.  Why start a great event with frustration ?

Mobile apps can create digital badges through QR codes. You can even issue your food coupons or limit access to sessions through these digital badges. Offer special treatment to your prominent guests or key speakers. Be notified of their arrival, and check-them in automatically.

4.    A digital emcee 

Let your attendees take complete control of their schedules. Attendees can create their own schedule by choosing lectures of their interest and get reminders for the sessions chosen.

Sitting in hall A, an attendee can now know what lectures are running in other halls.

They can also take notes in session. They can download presentation material. They can post questions too. Your event app can become a digital emcee.

5. Create an Event Community

Networking is a big part of every event. People attend events just to find the right people to meet, network and socially engage with.

Why not help your attendees network, setup meetings, reach out to your partners, and even reach out to you with ease ?

Event apps have created a new way of engagement that was previously non-existent in traditional events. Attendees can discover fellow delegates, chat, post comments & photos. They can respond to live polling, participate in games, and engage in conversations. As your attendees engage and network, you can glean powerful insights into their likes and dislikes, and trending topics. You can use these insights to respond and react fast.

6. More value for your Event Partners

Your event partners can get a themed digital booth in your event app. Attendees can view digital promotional content, sponsored notifications, product brochures, videos and much more. They can also reach out to your partners through the app. This is a great way for your partners to capture leads. What better way to show your event partners a great event ROI?

If you need more information about how Carrot apps can help your next event, reach out to us now.

Brands harness the power of consumer influence through captive messaging, emotional connect and interactive audience engagement. At its core, the power of marketing hinges on the relationship between a brand and its consumers. By employing appropriate media platforms, brands can nurture a community of actively engaged consumers.

Brand Visibility can be sustained by Innovative ideas and digital strategies.  Social connect, digital innovation and face-to-face engagement can activate an audience engagement.

Product launches, experiential marketing, brand activations and Promotions thrive on the emotional connect that a brand can make with its audience. To create a successful experiential campaign, brands rely on Brand Visibility, Brand Experience, and Brand-Recall.

Technology plays an important role in complementing these experiences.

Imagine a large physical venue with curated brand content. For instance, a large art gallery, a new corporate campus or even a large exhibition ground. How can a brand make its messaging and content visible to its audience in-venue?  How can the brand enthrall its audience even as they traverse the large venue?

Can fun be induced into this experience?  How to make the audience not just passively consume brand content, but actively engage and discover?

A guided tour or games such as Treasure hunts or scavenger hunt can be a great way to lead your audience across your venue.  Digitizing a guided tour or these games is a real option. A digital treasure hunt can provide clues, quizzes, and trivia based on the audience location. When used in conjunction with beacons and proximity targeting it can also act as a channel to publish relevant information.

Experiencing the brand is a combination of social, digital, and face-to-face interactions. Not all consumers are active on social channels. Yet, brands get a high visibility and marketing leverage on social channels. They are always on the lookout for simple ways to increase social engagement. Gamifying the social engagement through competitive social leaderboards, live social walls or activity points can activate the audience engagement.

It is not new to offer simple giveaways for audiences who are actively engaging with a brand. It creates a unique brand recall value.

Traditionally giveaways involve games, typically lotteries or simple puzzle solving or other activities. Digitizing these games gives a brand not only the flexibility to theme & configure these games but also to capture leads. Virtual reality, Augmented reality, 3D experiences are making a huge wave in the experiential world. But they are a costly affair. There are also simple, affordable, easy to use solutions.

AIDAIO introduces Ice – Interactive Digital Games to increase attendee engagement in exhibitor booths, conferences, activation events, and product launches. Choose from games such as SpinWheel, Treasure Hunt, Quiz, Picture puzzles and more.

Ice games are easy to set up. You can theme your games per your branding. Setup and configure game rules and giveaways. You can customize lead capture forms, go live with your game in an hour, and preview your game setup.

Ice games are phone and tablet friendly, easy to install, and cost-effective. Options for multiplayer, single player, conducted games are available. You can also choose a single game or a basket of games to suit your brand engagement needs. You can also activate it as part of your Event App.

Explore how Ice can make a difference in your brand engagement strategy.

Download the Ice app now and sign up for a free trial.

About Us

The AidaIo platform is focussed on driving engagement and getting you up close and personal with your audience. We have built a suite of features to create interaction and engagement. Visit our website www.aidaio.com to know more or write to us at [email protected]

There are umpteen ways to increase your brand’s market reach, but at its very core, the power of brand marketing hinges on the relationship between your brands and its consumers. Brands have harnessed the power of consumer influence through captive messaging and employed appropriate media platforms to nurture a brand image.

Product launches and activation events are one such place where your brands hold a higher visibility. They play an important role in increasing your audience engagement. These events provide a window for consumers to experience the brand and connect with it. In addition to it, exhibitions and trade shows also allows for a greater scope to showcase brands, capture leads, and build a relationship with consumers.

To accelerate the event experience, brands introduce different type of fun games as a part of their customer engagement programs. It delivers their brand experience with a sense of surprise – an unexpected but a fulfilling encounter.

But many-times, these games are either paper based or bulky to carry around to even consider any customization. Also, they don’t present a quick and easy way to capture leads. What good is an engagement program where the process of capturing valuable insights has not been streamlined?

This is where AIDAIO’s new product, Ice, can complement and elevate the brand experience.

Ice is a collection of interactive digital games, launched by AIDAIO, with the goal of increasing attendee engagement and brand recall in exhibitor booths, conferences, activation events, product launches. Some of the games available are Spin wheel, treasure hunt (with iBeacons), Quiz, PicZle – picture puzzles, Hangman along with many more upcoming games.

Ice is available in Android and the iOS version is coming soon. Ice games are designed for iPads and tablets. Exhibitors and experiential marketers can choose one or more games, design and theme the games with their brand, and even configure the rules of the game!! Games can be now be setup and rolled out within a few hours.

Ice gives complete control of interactive audience engagement at the stalls by digitally capturing leads and providing valuable insights.

Download the Android app here. You can sign up to view demo of the game, and even request for a specific game for your upcoming event.

Our games. Your gains. Give Ice a spin now.