Game mechanics and a reward system were incorporated into China Mobile Global Partner Conference's online platform to incentivise attendance and hold the audience's attention.
Event brief
The China Mobile Global Partner Conference was transformed into a hybrid event for the first time in 2020, held virtually as well as on the ground in Guangzhou.
The theme was “5G integration into all industries, digital intelligence leading the future”, widely regarded as a starting point for commercialised 5G service construction and development in China.
The event attracted hundreds of senior executives from well-known local and overseas companies as they explored the potential of commercialised 5G service and promoted its construction, application, integration and innovation.
Pico+ was appointed by China Mobile’s Migu to create the event’s H5 webpage, an online virtual city, and multi-themed online virtual exhibition halls with 360-degree panoramic view function to display brand information from nearly 150 companies.
Event highlights
The team used Web3D technology to create a 360-degree panoramic 3D virtual city platform that would provide an optimal mobile phone experience. Users opened the H5 webpage on their phone to interact with the virtual city – rotating, dragging, zooming and panning by touching the screen.
The virtual city’s multi-themed virtual panoramic exhibition halls were equipped with dual interactive technology, allowing content to be displayed either via mobile phone or VR headset. Visitors could also use the automated photo generation function, which enabled them to select their preferred scene, choose the frame colour, portrait location and size, to generate a personalised photo for saving and sharing.
This resulted in a virtual world that delegates could interact with smoothly, and was also eye-catching, which boosted engagement among visitors and achieved a high engagement rate.
Cherry Ye, general manager, business operation of Pico+ China, shared: “Virtual character animation was another online event highlight. The virtual characters guided and interacted with participants through vivid body movements, mimicking the experience of offline events.”
Challenges
Audiences have become fatigued by online events that now seem too predictable and impersonal. Keeping the virtual audiences engaged was a major challenge.
To encourage their virtual audience to connect and stay engaged with the content over the three-day event period, the team turned the whole programme into a game.
Users were given incentive points to interact with the virtual city, and points were given when they did registration and sign-up, logged in daily, checked into virtual scenes, browsed content, and created photos in the exhibition halls. Points could be redeemed for gifts once certain totals had been reached.
Event China Mobile Global Partner Conference 2020
Organiser China Mobile
Dates November 19-21, 2020
Attendance During the three-day event, more than 100 million engagements and 50 million unique visitors were recorded on the online platform
