VeriFone launched its first mobile event app in 2014 for its Petroleum and Convenience Store Solutions Customer Forum. The planning team wanted to find an innovative way to create a fresh experience and keep engagement high. The mobile event app delivered that and more. VeriFone saw increased engagement, reduced its printings costs and the return on investment was so strong it covered the cost of the app plus tablets for each and every attendee.
VeriFone Systems, Inc. is the global leader in secure electronic payment solutions. VeriFone provides expertise, solutions and services that add value to the point of sale with merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems for the financial, retail, hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare vertical markets. VeriFone solutions are designed to meet the needs of merchants, processors and acquirers in developed and emerging economies worldwide.
sheets of paper saved
ROI
app adoption rate
After 14 years, the invite-only three day VeriFone Customer Forum had become a bit formulaic. It was always successful and continued to provide value to attendees but the planning team felt the same conversations were taking place year after year. They were eager to shake things up by incorporating a mobile event app. They also began thinking about how to reduce the amount of printed materials, to avoid clutter and ensure a smoother onsite experience for the team. “We’re a technology company, and the fact that we were still spending time compiling handouts and three-ring binders for the event just seemed ridiculous. It was time to try something new,” said Nick Overmann, Marketing Communications Manager at VeriFone.
For nearly a decade, VeriFone had been leveraging the Cvent platform for online event management and registration. With such a longstanding, successful relationship, VeriFone’s team was thrilled to learn that CrowdCompass by Cvent offered cutting edge mobile event apps. "Once we knew Cvent had a mobile app solution, we stopped our research on other mobile app providers right then and there. CrowdCompass integrated data with our Cvent events, which was the ultimate selling point for us," Brian Hurd, Events Marketing Manager at VeriFone.
With a dozen presentations daily, each about 20 pages long, VeriFone estimated it was using upwards of 10,000 pieces of paper each year for the Customer Forum. The CrowdCompass mobile event app made it easy to provide access to content from within the app—significantly reducing the cost of and need for printed materials. The team also benefited from the increased control they had over the content. When it became clear that a competitor’s event was set to begin just after the forum ended, they used CrowdCompass’ privacy features to manage content access.
VeriFone leveraged its longstanding relationships with partners, and additional advertising benefits the CrowdCompass mobile event app offered, to secure more than 22 sponsors for the event. Sponsors were able to advertise through banner ads within the app, as well as logo placement on different app pages—a huge appeal to VeriFone’s partners. As a result, the team more than recovered the cost of the mobile app with a 140% return on investment. This made it possible to provide Samsung Galaxy tablets for its nearly 300 attendees (with the app preloaded), to ensure full adoption of the app. "Our internal stakeholders were completely on board with incorporating an app. We did have push back on providing tablets to each attendee, but once it was clear the return the app would bring, the tablet giveaway became a non issue," Brian Hurd, Events Marketing Manager at VeriFone.
"Our internal stakeholders were completely on board with incorporating an app. We did have push back on providing tablets to each attendee, but once it was clear the return the app would bring, the tablet giveaway became a non issue,"
– Brian Hurd, Events Marketing Manager at VeriFone.
VeriFone was committed to getting its customers to use the app. The preloaded tablets contributed to its 100% adoption rate, but the planning team took things a step further. By setting up an onsite mobile support desk, the team ensured attendees learned how to use the app and had the opportunity to ask questions. The attendees loved this and shared feedback about their favorite features with the planning team. "Attendees really liked having the hotel map listed right at their fingertips to navigate to the different session locations. Personalized schedules were also a favorite. People knew exactly what the session topic was, where the session was located, and at what time," said Overmann.
With complete mobile app adoption, an excited and engaged attendee base, and significant paper savings, the team knew they’d made the right decision in going mobile. That sentiment was echoed by the VeriFone management team—they were so pleased with the success they secured mobile apps for additional upcoming events. VeriFone is excited by the prospect of seeing deeper attendee engagement and the direct benefits of ongoing app enhancements.
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