Product launches are unique opportunities to showcase your offerings and create lasting impressions with potential customers. When introducing a new product or highlighting an existing portfolio with a fresh lens, your approach dramatically impacts your success. Audiences crave experiences that engage, educate, and inspire. In this guide, we discuss four product launch strategies proven to drive engagement across trade shows, exhibits, pop-up events, and more.
1. Create a Complete Experience
When launching a new product, think beyond a straightforward showcase to create a lasting impact. What smells, tastes, sounds, and visual elements would create the ideal context for audiences to fully appreciate your offerings? Consider how your product fits into customers' lives and recreate the ideal environment. An immersive experience helps attendees understand your product's value firsthand and creates stronger memory associations with your product and brand.
For NAFEM 2023, Glastender partnered with Hamilton to create an authentic hospitality experience rather than simply displaying their bar equipment. Glastender allowed potential customers to experience their products in context, making the benefits tangible and immediate. The exhibit featured a large, curved central bar where attendees participated in expert-led demonstrations. The approach proved successful, drawing consistent foot traffic and creating memorable impressions with all attendees.
2. Integrate a Web-Based App
Web-based applications elevate product launch experiences by creating interactive touchpoints before, during, and after the event. A custom app allows attendees to engage more deeply with your products while providing valuable data collection opportunities for your team. For trade shows and exhibits, apps guide visitors through your space, facilitate product demonstrations, and capture leads in real time.
Hamilton inSIGHT® turns experience marketing efforts into qualified leads ready for CRM integration. The platform provides instant lead scoring, sends VIP alerts, and offers customizable qualifiers to help sales teams prioritize follow-ups. The system also delivers targeted content to attendees based on their demonstrated interests, extending the impact of your product launch beyond the physical event.
ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions leveraged this strategy at IMTS 2024 with Hamilton's help. They implemented a web-based app optimized for mobile devices that guided attendees through seven distinct zones within their exhibit. Visitors used the app to scan QR codes, answer zone-specific questions, request product literature, and schedule follow-up meetings. The journey culminated in a hospitality area where participants received prizes based on their level of engagement. The strategy generated 791 qualified leads beyond traditional badge scanning, demonstrating the effectiveness of digital integration.
3. Gamify the Product Experience
By incorporating game mechanics like challenges, rewards, and achievements, you transform passive product browsing into an interactive adventure. Gamification works exceptionally well at trade shows, pop-up events, and brand activations where capturing attention is crucial. It increases dwell time and improves information retention as participants actively engage with product features and benefits through enjoyable activities.
The key to effective gamification is aligning game elements with your product's core value proposition. Digital leaderboards, scavenger hunts, trivia challenges, and interactive demonstrations can all be customized to highlight specific product attributes while creating a sense of fun and accomplishment for participants.
Elanco's presence at the Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) 2024 showcases this approach perfectly. The animal pharmaceutical company had five learning stations positioned along the perimeter of their exhibit. Attendees were guided through the space counterclockwise, participating in unique digital and tactile games at each station. These included a matching game and a "Tick Tock" speed challenge (a modern take on "Whack a Mole,") where interactions with physical panels triggered digital content about Elanco's products.
The results were impressive—beacon technology placed throughout the exhibit tracked engagement metrics, revealing that attendees' dwell time nearly doubled from the previous year, with a conversion rate 20% higher than average. Once engaged, visitors spent an average of almost 11 minutes interacting with the activation stations, providing ample opportunity for meaningful product education and brand connection.
4. Support Local Charities
Incorporating charitable initiatives into your product launch creates meaningful connections that extend beyond the features and benefits of your offering. By partnering with local charities relevant to your brand values, you demonstrate corporate social responsibility while creating emotional resonance with your audience. Charity partnerships take many forms—from donation-matching programs tied to social media activations to interactive elements at trade shows or cause-related email campaigns supporting your launch.
In addition to their successful gamification strategy at VMX 2024, Elanco integrated a charitable component. Their "I Save Puppies" engagement invited attendees to take photos and add personal pledges to a display wall. Each activation participation earned points that Elanco converted into donations to a local charity on behalf of participants. By creating a meaningful value exchange, Elanco transformed a standard product showcase into a purpose-driven experience that resonated deeply with their veterinary audience.
Partner with Hamilton to Create a Winning Product Launch Plan
The most successful product introductions combine multiple elements tailored to your specific audience, products, and objectives. By thinking beyond traditional displays and presentations, you create meaningful connections that drive engagement, generate leads, and build lasting brand loyalty. Looking for guidance? Hamilton is here to help!
Hamilton is a full-service experiential and event marketing agency with a 75-year legacy creating immersive brand experiences for companies worldwide. We design, produce, and execute integrated experiences – exhibits, events, environments, and digital solutions – that drive meaningful connections between brands and their audiences.
Contact Hamilton to create a successful product launch!