RAI Amsterdam has won the Best Use of Technology Award at the 25th AEO (Association of Exhibition Organisers) Excellence Awards for its Huishoudbeurs scratch-and-win app. The Excellence Awards are conferred annually on businesses for outstanding contributions to the exhibition industry. The award was collected by the RAI Amsterdam business development team on 14 June.
RAI Amsterdam was shortlisted in the category ‘Best Use of Technology’, going head to head with six other nominees including Reed Exhibitions and Olympia London. In granting the award to the RAI’s scratch-and-win app, the jury commented: “This was a great interactive initiative and a powerful conversion tool for audience attendance. The app is an out-of-the-box solution using technology in a really fun way which was both innovative and engaging.”
Ladies first
The scratch-and-win app was developed for the Huishoudbeurs exhibition, which has been held annually in the RAI since 1955. Traditionally focused on housewives, today the event highlights issues of interest to all women, including design and beauty. The exhibition is visited by over 200,000 women a year who see it as a great day out with their friends, daughters or mother.
Increasing impact
The motivation for developing the scratch-and-win app was to extend and increase the impact of the event on both potential and actual visitors. “We are always looking for ways to engage with consumers and the app did this very well,” explains Maurits van der Sluis, COO at RAI Amsterdam. “It also enabled us to influence the decision-making process and increase visitor numbers. For exhibitors, the app provided a platform to present themselves to visitors prior to the event, creating opportunities for extra exposure and leading to a higher quantity and quality of traffic during the exhibition.”
Low investment, high enthusiasm
Launching an app that allowed people to win prizes generated a considerable buzz prior to the Huishoudbeurs, increasing enthusiasm among visitors and convincing some people to visit the exhibition. Exhibitors only had to make a small investment in order to increase traffic to their stands, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
The app’s success is shown by the number of downloads (64,000) and high percentage of active users (70%). The organisers have already decided to use the app again next year and are even considering developing a version in which the scratch-and-win option runs throughout the year.