The Top Ways to Make Your Sponsored Events More Interactive

Before you dive in, if you are interested in event sponsorship, check out these titles in our “sponsorship for events” series:

• Resource Page for Festival and Event Sponsorship
• The Ultimate Guide to Sponsorship Prospecting: How to Find the Perfect Sponsor for Your Event
• The Essential Guide To RFID For Events And Festival Planners
• How to Build Sponsor Relationships and Find Sponsors for Events
• Creative Sponsorship Ideas for Your Next Event
• How to Get Event Sponsors with Compelling Sponsorship Proposal

A good interactive event pays back so many dividends. For starters, you create a more immersive and memorable experience for your audience, be those attendees, donors, or customers. They’ll be clambering for your event when the tix go on sale next year. 

Your audience will be happier, and their opinion of your brand will likely go up. You might find you get more referrals, and if you try to renew with your existing sponsors, more of them may say yes. 

Additionally, sponsors get a more meaningful moment with your target market. The interactivity between company and attendee forges a stronger bond that may increase the chances of conversions. 

It all sounds pretty great, so how do you get started? Here are my favorite interactive elements to incorporate into a sponsored event. 

Build an Event Hashtag

How often do you check the trending hashtags on Twitter or Instagram? If you do so as often as I do, then I’m sure you’ve seen a specially branded hashtag a time or two, right? And just as quickly as it gains momentum, it disappears. That’s the nature of social media tags, after all.

Most of those branded hashtags are centered around events, I would bet. And what better place for your own special hash than your upcoming event?

You can send emails and make social media posts reminding people to share all their favorite event moments using the special hashtag.

Then, you have many ways to make the experience interactive. For example, you can put up a digital wall showcasing all the tagged posts as they come in. You could collect your favorites and share them later in your newsletter or on social media. 

This is an easy, inexpensive way to instantly increase the interactivity of your events. 

Raffles or Giveaways

Another way to get people into your sponsored event is to give them the opportunity to win free stuff. Giveaways, goodies at the door, and raffles are a surefire way to encourage more audience participation if yours has been lacking in past events.

It goes back to what I said. People love the chance to win free stuff. Sure, most won’t win, but you never know, so people think it’s worth entering. 

That said, the way to make giveaways or raffles successful is lowering your barrier to entry. The easier it is to sign up, the more engagement you’ll get out of your attendees. 

Funneling that engagement toward the sponsor is as easy as giving away one of their products or services as a prize. 

Onsite Contests 

Although contests are in a similar enough vein, I think they should be categorized differently, especially if you offer yours onsite.

There are about a million types of contests at your disposal, so let’s take a look:

• Spinner wheels where the winner gets a prize if they land on a specific segment of the wheel. These are low-cost to pull off and lots of fun. Your attendees will want to spin all day!
• A selfie contest where the person who takes the best selfie at your event wins. Combine this with the branded event hashtag and you’ve got social media gold!
• A contest where the participants are asked to look at two pictures and spot as many differences as they can. Make it a timed competition and award runner-up prizes so everyone leaves feeling good.

• A tag-a-friend contest on social media that also involves your event hashtag. This is a great way to spread the hash before your event and get people talking and buying last-minute tickets.
• Carnival-themed games (if you can swing it financially) complete with fun prizes like you’d see at a carnival or theme park. 
• A guessing game, such as guessing how many jellybeans are in a jar. Attendees can submit their guesses all day, and you can announce the right one at the end of your event. 
• If you have an adult audience, you could consider a sports betting contest. I especially recommend this if your event is sports-related. Betting on who will win is a great chance to get everyone invested in the game.
• A check-in contest where attendees make themselves eligible to win a prize simply for checking into your event. This type of contest couldn’t be any simpler to enter.

Scavenger Hunts

Get your audience up out of their seats and onto their feet with a scavenger hunt. What I love about this interactive idea is that it’s so flexible. If yours is an exclusively in-person event, you can set up clues all over the event hall. If you’re having a digital event, you can make your scavenger hunt even more expansive. 

I like the idea of uniting your scavenger hunt initiative with an event app. If your app is sponsored, then every time attendees log in and use it to further their progress in the scavenger hunt, they’ll remember your sponsor’s name. 

Of course, name recognition only takes you so far. The clues and even the prizes for the winners can come from your sponsor. That will drive up leads, sales, and conversions. 

Another benefit of using an app to launch your scavenger hunt is that you can gather a lot of attendee data from it. For instance, there’s the number of downloads, the average time people spend on the app, and which feature of your app they use the most. 

VR Events

Isn’t technology grand? It’s how we’ve gone from living entirely in the real world to embracing a virtual one. Virtual reality is an entirely 3D landscape. It can be anything you want it to be, from a relaxing beach to a looping roller coaster. 

VR-led events, while not necessarily cheap, are an excellent way to unify audiences if they all can’t be in the same place. Everyone can just put on their headsets, and they all have the same experience no matter their location. 

You can also subtly slide in product placement or have the VR headsets be sponsored. I especially recommend an idea like this for a tech show or event. 

Workshops

Why sit around listening to people talk on stage all day when you can create a more hands-on, interactive event instead? I’m talking about workshops, of course. 

Have your sponsor teach your attendees a new skill or two. The workshop should be related to their products and services or even the broader event as a whole. 

Not only does your audience gain new skills (score!) but they also get a one-of-a-kind souvenir, being whatever it is they made at the workshop. Plus, they’ll always associate said souvenir and skills with the sponsor, making these kinds of events a win-win-win. 

Trivia

It’s time to see what your attendees or customers know by hosting a trivia event! If you’re in charge of a business conference, you can add trivia to the end of the day so everyone can blow off some much-needed steam.

If yours is a sports event or festival, you can have trivia as a sort of an intermission to give people a rest. Well, their bodies a rest, anyway. Their minds will be operating in overdrive. 

You could ask brain-busters or stick to easier questions everybody knows the answer to. It’s all about the vibe of your event and your audience. 

I recommend offering trivia through your event app. Your sponsor’s name can be attached to the trivia event, and they can supply prizes. (Yes, of course there have got to be prizes!). 

Trivia is an excellent way to bring people together and have a great time. It’s inexpensive and easy to implement, making it a perfect strategy to make sponsored events more interactive. 

Sponsored Lounge Areas

Admittedly, the lounge area isn’t the most inventive idea, but then again, it all depends on what you make of it. For example, a branded space with phone chargers and a photo station is okay but a little expected these days.

An actual lounge with refreshments and products to buy? Now that’s a surefire way to get people mingling and chatting with others. 

Games or Game Shows

I’ve talked about trivia and contests, but I have yet to touch on game shows. And boy, do I love a good game show! Or a board game. Or even video games. It’s all on the table for your event. 

The thing about games is people have to get together to play them. I would recommend group games so more of your attendees can participate.

These games can test mental or physical feats. For example, maybe everyone has to accurately name all the countries on a map, or perhaps you play Jenga on teams. Physically, there are challenges like capture the flag, egg drop, and tug of war.

Oh, and don’t forget escape rooms. People go crazy for escape rooms these days. A sponsored escape room would be the perfect way to foster more interactivity and give your audience an unforgettable experience. 

FAQs

Why is interactivity important in sponsored events?

It’s all about making the customer experience as memorable as possible, which interactive events do quite well. The positive associations your audience forms with your sponsor can make them instant customers. 

Can I make my event interactive even with a low budget?

Sure, you can. In fact, you can do it with no budget! Activities from trivia to scavenger hunts are low-cost but still effective. 

Wrapping Up 

The next time you find yourself scrambling for activation ideas that unite your audience with your sponsor, I recommend you check out this list. These interactive ideas will make any ordinary event into a five-star, unforgettable experience.