How to Increase Engagement with your Event App by 350% [Case Study]

This is a case study from Florian Courgenouil, Marketing Director, Goomeo. More information about Event Manager Blog’s case studies.

The Event

MAISON&OBJET is the major event for professionals working in the art of living. Held bi-annually in Paris, it has been described as one of the “3 most important European events for interior design”. The lifestyle show brings together a 360° product offering including decoration, design, furniture, accessories, textiles, fragrances, the world of children, tableware…

MAISON&OBJET (M&O) is exported internationally to Singapore and Miami with MAISON&OBJET ASIA and MAISON&OBJET AMERICAS. M&O now offers digital solutions allowing exhibitors to present their collections in a privileged way to buyers, architects, interior designers and product designers alike. By giving interior decoration, design and lifestyle professionals the opportunity to share continuously online, MAISON&OBJET now keeps its worldwide community abuzz all year round.

Quick Facts

• Four events per year held in three continents (2 in Paris, 1 in Singapore and 1 in Miami)
• A huge diversity of valuable content
• An innovator on the digital scene

Why a Mobile App?

Valuable content is key for M&O to gather its community both off- and online. A successful mobile app needed to reinforce a flawless experience around the content of the four shows. It was also important to the organizers to develop a stronger bond to the show all year round, without creating lots of additional work.

The Objectives

In recent years, MAISON&OBJET improved the quality of the offer from its exhibitors, reorganized its two Parisian editions to offer a clearer perspective of the art of living and created two other international shows in Miami and Singapore.

With such important expansion and developments, M&O needed solutions to display its global offer in the best way and to bring its community valuable content all year long. The mobile app was considered a key solution in the digital ecosystem M&O needed to build.

The challenge of the mobile app was not only focussed around content management but also around multi-event management and design. M&O is all about design so the app needed to reflect this focus too for credibility with design-savvy users.

In a nutshell, MAISON&OBJET needed to:

• Reinforce its brand and design focus across multiple events within a stylish single app, without creating too much extra work for the organizers
• Attract the interest of the global design community and engage before, during and after the event
• Emphasize the offer from the exhibitors through all events and put the products at the heart of its offer

How Were the Objectives Achieved?

Goomeo built a multi-event app with a separate app for each show contained within the parent app.  The whole solution was well-designed to give priority to content and to style.

A multi event app

Goomeo provided M&O’s team with a multi-event app that enables them to manage all their events within the same global M&O app, each one with its own branding, content and services.

For the organizers that means an easier way to update data for all events, a better brand consistency giving more power to MAISON&OBJET and the ability to have a perfect balance between each event’s specifics and the global brand’s requirements.

Design

As design is synonymous with M&O, it is also essential when applied to its technology. M&O requires maximum flexibility so that the events meet the market’s high expectations in terms of design. Everything is fully customizable at the event level as well as at the brand level. There is a specific focus on showcasing the products from the exhibitors to inspire and reinforce the beauty of their offering. This is well received by exhibitors at the show.

With 9 halls for MAISON&OBJET PARIS, it is a prerequisite for M&O to help the attendees find their way and optimise their participation at the event. The interactive floor plans from Goomeo let them pinpoint the exact location of trade booths within the 3,000 stands on site. With 3D precision they could plot the best route to reach their destination with an amazing quality of design.

Content

M&O events are all about presenting a very large offer of products to the industry. With Goomeo, they are able to organise a huge amount of content with a specific design touch. One example is the “Miami Experience Guide”. MAISON&OBJET AMERICAS partnered with numerous cultural institutions and galleries, with events taking place all across Miami Beach in order to present and highlight emerging trends visible at numerous local cultural institutions and galleries. The event mobile app was a key solution for them to promote the content of the Miami Experience Guide to the design community as well as all the parallel events in the city. The users could access a dedicated module including a showcase of all points of interests and programme details highlighting specific events.

Exhibitors

Content management is also enabled via onsite interactions. Attendees can flash the app at the QR code of any of the 3,000 stands to receive information and save the contact details of the exhibitors.

The mobile event app creates valuable content to intersect the digital and physical worlds.

The Results

To measure engagement, there is one key indicator for MAISON&OBJET: uses per user. Indeed, as a major digital place for the design community, the mobile app needs to create repetition. What is expected is the creation of a new conditioned response from the users who will open the app and browse it to find information about the design industry and about the products that the four events offer them.
What is interesting here is that we have seen a boom in the use of the app:

• • M&O Paris January 2014: 10 uses per user
  • M&O Paris January 2015: 30 uses per user
  • M&O Paris January 2016: 45 uses per user

Since the multi-event app was launched in 2014, there has been a huge increase in the average engagement from the users (+350% in 2 years). By branding all events together in the same app this has also created a community of loyal users.

In 2016, the product offer from the exhibitors drives over 42% of the uses (vs 21% in 2014). Also, the most important fact is that products lead the statistics. M&O reaches its objective of giving valuable content to the design industry by doubling its traffic in 2 years. The community repeatedly uses the app mainly to look for designers and their offer.

The Miami Experience Guide was the 2nd most used content module in the app during M&O Americas. Thanks to the app, M&O presents a new offer and gives visibility to multiple onsite fringe events. MAISON&OBJET is a solid brand able to engage its community with new content and parallel events for the industry.

Takeaways for Event Planners

1. Content is king. Feed your app with content to gather and retain your community beyond your event.

Even if your event may only last a few days, your attendees will still have your app in their smartphone if you give them a reason to keep it. If you can keep on providing them with smart content, you will be able to maintain a link with your community beyond your event.

2. If you are organising a similar event several times a year, then you need to offer a multi-event app. This is the best way to reinforce your brand in the digital world, provide a seamless user experience and keep your community updated, without extra work.

3. Your event is unique, so your mobile event app should be too! Choose a solution that allows you to deeply customize your app.

In Conclusion

Mobile event apps are not just an extra tool to communicate with your attendees, they can be a core part of your event and the best solution to build lasting relationships with your community. It’s not about just offering an app, it’s about offering content that make it easier to participate and that creates a link between with your community from one event to another. Design it around your industry’s needs and it will make your event even stronger.

Goomeo + Skift Meetings

July 25th, 2016 at 10:00 AM EDT