Among products debuting during the recent EXHIBITOR2013 show in Las Vegas was the new interactive 3D technology called V-Wave that was developed by Kaon Interactive and is designed to reduce exhibiting costs while enhancing lead quality.
The V-Wave application has proven so popular that it was among new products nominated for awards as part of the New Product Showcase. That popularity has as much to do with cost savings as it does sales enhancement.
“There are two reasons we are successful in tradeshows: shipping and drayage can be very costly, but they don’t account for all costs, such as the cost of building, erecting, loss and damages,” said Gavin Finn, CEO, Kaon Interactive. “The key benefit: You can show them the physical product and are able to take it apart and demonstrate the key benefit to the customer.
“With an interactive display, the customer drives the presentation and can explore it in the ways they use it. They’re looking at it and seeing: ‘What’s interesting to me?’ It helps exhibitors by letting them see what is important to the client. Customers know more about the solution and how it benefits them. They get the opportunity to learn how it is better for them.”
Part of enabling them to better learn is allowing potential clients to get more involved and discover for themselves which solutions exist that are unique to them. And when the client essentially leads the sales presentation, the lead quality increases greatly.
“It is much more intimate,” said Finn. “They get more engaged and are having fun. There’s a degree of emotional involvement and tactile involvement. The knowledge transfer is much more effective, and you can get right to the info that is relevant to them.
“The sales guys say they get a much better quality of lead and dialogue with the customer. Sales people have access to the solution on their laptops and iPads and can continue in another presentation.”
Ease of use is one benefit of using Kaon’s V-Wave technology to continue the discussion beyond the tradeshow floor means there is no time limit for closing a deal.
“It’s very simple and works. You don’t need a bunch of technicians to ensure everything runs. You just plug it in.” “Another key benefit is the continuation of the tradeshow experience beyond the tradeshow itself,” said Finn. “You can continue the dialogue by bringing the laptop or device and use the interactive environment to continue.”
But before a product can be shown in 3D, it has to be photographed and a computer model created. That requires the product be sent to Kaon’s facilities in Maynard, Mass., which is the only time it will be shipped. Rather than paying multiple times to ship the same product to various tradeshows around the nation and world, an exhibitor needs to pay for shipping only once to have a product rendered in 3D for the tradeshow circuit. The more tradeshows planned, the greater the potential savings in shipping, drayage and other costs.
“We have a way of creating 3D interactive models. About 16 HD pictures are stitched together on a 3D model,” said Finn. “You can rotate it and make it an exact representation of the product and can highlight features, why it works, set messaging and can have pop-up messages and side bars to help demonstrate the product and its uses.”
Although there are a multitude of computing platforms from which an exhibitor may choose, Kaon can create a touch-driven 3D presentation for virtually anything that will run on all platforms.
“These are cross-platform solutions. The iPad, Microsoft – it works on all channels. You can reuse exactly the same assets,” said Finn. “These kinds of assets are highly usable, and the tradeshow investment becomes much better. It adds a tremendous amount of value.”
And with the increasingly global nature of the tradeshow industry, the interactive technology enables exhibitors to translate their presentations into other languages, helping to target international business without the encumbrances of a language barrier. With enhanced presentations, better lead quality and the ability to translate into other languages, Kaon’s touch-driven interactive technology helps exhibitors get even more from their tradeshow experiences.
