Driving customer success with digital innovation

Live events are evolving fast, and RX is leading the way. From personalised fan apps and AI-powered exhibitor tools to digital scavenger hunts and smart lead generation, discover how we’re using technology to make every event more engaging for attendees and more valuable for exhibitors.

Elevating fan experiences with personalised event apps

At ReedPop, fandom comes first. From comics and anime to film, gaming, and literature, our events – including NYCC, C2E2, PAX and Star Wars Celebration ̶ bring passionate communities together in unforgettable ways. To make those experiences even more rewarding, we've developed personalised fan apps that help attendees get the most out of their time on the show floor, whilst giving exhibitors smarter ways to reach their audiences.

“The journey begins the moment fans open the app,” said Milton Montaque, Senior Director of Innovation and Development for RX Americas. “Users choose their interests ̶ anime, comics, movies, and more ̶ and the app instantly creates personalised ‘interest screens.’ An anime fan, for example, will see recommended sessions, exhibitor highlights, and exclusive offers right at the top of their screen. It makes curating the perfect CON experience easier than ever.”

Finding your way around has also become simpler thanks to interactive maps. Fans can explore the full show floor, jump straight to an exhibitor’s profile or panel, and get turn-by-turn directions to their next stop. “These maps make big convention spaces feel more manageable, so fans spend less time searching and more time enjoying what they love,” Milton explained.

Exhibitors benefit too. New reporting tools let ReedPop’s customer success teams track how much content exhibitors upload, spot gaps, and encourage more complete profiles. The fuller the profile, the easier it is for fans to discover exhibitors through search, maps, and interest screens, maximising visibility and engagement.

Even bigger innovations are coming for New York Comic Con 2025 at the Javits Center (9–12 October). “Fans will soon be able to use maps and wayfinding offline, without needing a signal ̶ crucial in a packed convention hall,” Milton shared. “And for the first time, they’ll be able to buy official show merchandise directly in the app for on-site pickup, skipping long lines and shopping whenever it suits them.”

Delivering year-round value with digital guides

JCK is the most important jewelry buying experience globally, taking place every June in Las Vegas, and supported by the Spring print edition of JCK Magazine. In 2024, the small but mighty JCK Online team ̶ led by Ad Sales Director, Randi Gewertz ̶ saw an opportunity to innovate for the end-of-year holiday season. They created The JCK 2024 Holiday Guide, a new digital product designed to connect brands and retailers at this business-critical time of year.

Drawing on her industry knowledge, Randi knew that just before the holiday season, retailers are looking for inspiration, fresh products, and easy ways to connect with trusted partners. “The Holiday Guide delivers exactly that,” she explained. “It combines the elegance of print with the flexibility of digital ̶ featuring rich multimedia, clickable links to products, and easy sharing across social media. This makes it simple for retailers to discover innovative ideas, while giving exhibitors greater reach and visibility.”

The results speak volumes with readers of the 2024 edition spending over five minutes per session and engaging through hundreds of direct clicks. The Guide’s success underscores how digital formats can deliver both inspiration and action, helping exhibitors and advertisers build stronger connections with retailers. Exhibitor, Hearts on Fire shared: “Well, these results are fabulous. Obviously, digital is the way to go.”

Sarin Bachmann, Group Vice President, praised the innovation: “This reflects a true growth mindset coming from the sales team ̶ listening to customer needs and turning them into value. Randi took the initiative to conceive, create, and successfully sell our new digital holiday guide, a testament to her creativity and drive."

30,000 industry professionals, including over 17,000 attending buyers, decision-makers, store owners, media and went on to attend JCK Las Vegas 2025 in June. Work on the digital 2025 Holiday Guide is already underway!

Highlighting deals, discounts, and demos with Lead Booster

At busy trade shows, grabbing visitor attention can be tough. That is why RX created Lead Booster, a powerful digital tool that boosts exhibitor visibility by highlighting exclusive offers ̶ generating more leads, and ensuring attendees can easily take advantage of the best event deals, demos, downloads and giveaways.

Lead Booster promotes selected exhibitor activations directly to all registered attendees before the show begins. This gives exhibitors a valuable head start on lead generation and helps attendees plan their visit.

During the event, visitors can browse and redeem offers via the ‘Offers’ icon in the event app or by scanning QR codes around the venue. When an offer is redeemed, attendee contact details are instantly shared with the exhibitor for seamless follow-up. With limited slots allocated on a first-come-first-served basis, participating companies enjoy prime visibility across the entire attendee base.

At The London Book Fair 2025, exhibitor, The Reading Agency generated 522 leads from their Lead Booster giveaway. “It has been incredibly helpful that the offer is advertised to all visitors,” said Gemma Jolly, Head of Health and Wellbeing. “We now have over 500 more leads, which will be critical in promoting our latest services.”

German supplier Signum Sattelservice saw a staggering 1,383 attendees respond to their 10% discount offer at Equitana 2025, the world’s leading horse show “This service not only strengthened our digital presence but also brought more customers to our stand for personal consultation,” said Marketing Manager, Ronja Kay-Weber. “We were able to optimise our presence and reach our target group even more effectively.”

Lead Booster is particularly powerful for new and smaller exhibitors competing with big-name brands. It gives every offer equal exposure, allowing them to stand out regardless of their booth size or location.

"It's a great way to maximise your results at the show," explained Product Marketing Manager, Milagros Gamero. " Lead Booster is promoted by the show across multiple channels, amplifying the reach and generating more visitor interest over a longer period. This pre-show promotion helps exhibitors extend their results far beyond the event days. And for attendees, it means simpler access to the exclusive offers and that help make trade shows worth attending.”

Engaging attendees through gamification

MCM Comic Con, the UK’s ultimate celebration of pop culture, is always looking for fresh ways to bring fans closer to the experiences they love. In 2025, to enhance engagement, increase mobile app downloads, and unlock new sponsorship opportunities, the team leveraged interactive lead-gen tech and cloud-based gamification software to launch the MCM Fan Hub ̶ an innovative, gamified visitor experience.

The fan hub features two key digital activations: an expanded Scavenger Hunt, (debuted in 2024), which transformed the show floor into an interactive playground; and a new series of mini games designed to entertain fans before, during, and after the event.

“We identified from data that mobile app adoption directly influences Net Promoter Scores (NPS) – a 17 point rise for app users,” explained Product Marketing Manager, Alice Edwards. “To access the fan hub, visitors had to download the MCM mobile app and register their data, driving a 15% rise in app use to almost 30,000 fans,”

For the scavenger hunt, visitors then explored the event to collect digital trophies by scanning strategically placed QR codes, to guide visitors to greater show floor discovery. The mini games included personality quizzes, matching games, and interactive selfie ops.

Designed to increase app engagement and dwell time, the Fan Hub kept fans entertained while gathering valuable insights into their personalities and preferences that is informing future MCM marketing, content curation, and sponsor partnerships. Meanwhile, major brands like Disney and Pop Mart leveraged the hunt to drive foot traffic to their booths, gain first-party data and expand their brand’s reach to our audience digitally, while attendees enjoyed a fun and immersive experience.

“The Fan Hub is game-changing,” said Alice. “At MCM Comic Con London in May it generated 184,000 sessions and 1.9 m views, with 98k panels saved to schedule by fans. By blending technology, play, and discovery, we are showing how digital innovation can enhance the live event experience, delivering more value for fans, exhibitors, and sponsors alike.”

MCM Comic Con London returns to ExCel from 24-28^th October, where attendees can once again enjoy the full Fan Hub experience.

Transforming the exhibitor experience with AI

RX is continually innovating with digital technology to make event participation easier and more rewarding for our customers. And in France, we’re taking things to the next level with the Smart Exhibitor Companion, an AI-powered tool designed to tackle one of the biggest exhibitor pain points ̶ completing high-quality profiles.

“Over 90% of RX attendees use the exhibitor profiles to search for companies and products of interest and plan their visit,” explained Céline Battestini, Digital Product Director. “Incomplete or poorly filled profiles can negatively impact the number and quality of buyers our exhibitors meet, so we want to do all we can to make it easy for them.”

With the Smart Exhibitor Companion, exhibitors simply enter their website address, and it takes just 30 seconds to provide a complete profile. With better quality profiles and a higher completion rate, exhibitors get more leads and visitors have more compelling reasons to seek out their stand.

“In the past, our customer success teams would manually call exhibitors to help build profiles—an effective but unsustainable solution,” revealed Céline. “Since introducing the Smart Exhibitor Companion not only has our non-completion rate dropped significantly, but the AI completed profiles have more fields filled and a higher word count, indicating deeper, more engaging content.”

Exhibitor feedback at Expoprotection (Paris), where the Smart Exhibition Companion was piloted, was overwhelmingly positive. One said, “It really eased the process ̶ I just entered my website, and everything was there!”

RX France is now busy expanding the use of the tool across other events. They are also refining and improving the offer based on user feedback and data. “Future enhancements may include additional features to allow customer to choose a specific tone of voice or to include product descriptions as well,” revealed Celine. Watch this space!