Timed product challenge
A 60-second clock, four stations built around the products already in your booth, a staff tablet to mark each one complete, and a big physical button to start and stop. The format that turns a product display into a line.
Custom Trade Show Games · Built In House · Ships in Road Cases
Custom Trade Show Games That Pull a Crowd to the Booth
A timed challenge built around your products, a big illuminated button, a live leaderboard on the booth's TV, and a name on every play. Built from a blank page and your brand guidelines by our in-house developers, scenario-tested, shipped in road cases, and live in days for proven formats.
- Runs offline
- Show-floor internet cannot stop it
- Live leaderboard
- 65 to 75 inch screen, resets in seconds
- Lead capture
- Name or badge on every play, clean export
- Live in days
- Proven formats; new mechanics in weeks
Formats we build most for booths
Every one is custom to the client's products and brand. These are the mechanics that have proven to stop traffic on a show floor.
Button and reaction walls
Illuminated buttons on a fabricated wall, scored by speed or sequence. Hard-panel builds that unfold, lock, and plug in, designed for a booth crew to run.
Throw, pitch, and sensor games
Radar pitch cages, football throw walls, and sensor targets. Chevrolet's pitch game and the Army-Navy throw walls were built on this platform.
Trivia and product quizzes
Touchscreen trivia on your product line with a timer and a leaderboard. The fastest way to make a booth staffer's talking points into a game.
Live leaderboards
A branded leaderboard on the booth TV, iPad entry, ranking rules, prize windows, and an export. Works with any of the games above or on its own.
Prediction and spin-to-win
Pick'em, spin-to-win, and instant-win engines with official rules support when the prize needs them, synced to the same entrant pool as your microsite.
What ships in the cases
- The game computer, preloaded, booting straight into the game and resetting itself for the next player
- The screen interface sized for your booth TV (we can supply the 65 to 75 inch display or run on yours)
- The physical controller: an illuminated push button, a sensor rig, or a touch screen, fabricated for the mechanic
- A staff tablet to start rounds, mark challenges complete, and reset
- Live leaderboard, player name or badge capture, and a CSV export or CRM push
- Branded graphics and animations built to your art specs, never from a template
- Printed setup guide, setup video, remote diagnostics, and a support line for show hours
Need the booth online too? Pair it with trade show booth internet so the leaderboard can go live and the captures sync as they happen.
How a build goes
1. Send the brief
Booth size, the products in it, show dates, and the number the client will judge it by: plays, captures, or dwell.
2. Line-item estimate, same day
With a mockup of the screen in your brand when the kit allows. Enough to win the room.
3. Build and test
Proven formats go live in days once art arrives. New mechanics get a prototype first, then fabrication and scenario testing.
4. Ship or staff
Cases ship to the advance warehouse with a guide and a video, or a PivotXP tech runs the first show and hands off.
5. Redeploy
Next show, new products and prizes on the same build. A redeploy line, not a new build.
No templates. Ever.
Every deployment is a custom build for your company.
Your brand guidelines, not ours.
Nothing we ship is a product with your logo dropped on it. Each program is designed and built from scratch for the brand running it, by our in-house developers and fabricators, to the brand guidelines your marketing team already enforces. Your typefaces, your colors, your motion, your tone, your legal lines. Ours never appear.
Bring the brand guidelines to the kickoff call. No formal guidelines yet? We work from your logo files and website and send a style sheet for sign-off before the build starts.
Your typography and color system
We build to the brand book: approved typefaces, exact color values, logo clear space, and lockups. No near-miss colors, no fallback fonts.
Your voice on every screen
Start screens, prompts, consent language, share pages, and texts are written in your tone, then approved by your team before anything ships.
Your motion and sound
Transitions, idle loops, win states, and audio follow your motion and sound rules, or stay quiet if the brand says so.
Your legal and compliance lines
Official rules, disclaimers, age gates, and opt-in copy placed where your counsel wants them, word for word.
Your look on the hardware
Wraps, enclosures, and fabrication finished in the brand palette and materials. Nothing on the floor says PivotXP.
Your sign-off before it ships
You review a working build, not a mockup, and approve it against your guidelines before it goes on a truck.
Proof, not promises
Games we built that pulled the crowd
A radar pitch game against a machine, Army-versus-Navy throw walls with 1,739 footballs on a joint leaderboard, and a live DJ-app leaderboard at CMA Fest. Same platform, built to each client's brand.
Chevy Activation Tour
963
Pitches Thrown
Chevrolet — via Jack Morton
Chevy Pitch Against The Machine
When global experiential agency Jack Morton needed a wow-worthy activation for Chevrolet, they turned to PivotXP to deliver something unforgettable. We created a fully automated, high-imp…
- Radar Speed Tracking
- RFID
- 120fps Capture
1739
Footballs Thrown
Built for Competition: Chevy's Game-Day Challenge at the Army–Navy Football Game
Baltimore, MD | Large-Scale Gamification At the Army–Navy Football Game, Chevy raised the stakes with one of the most ambitious gamified fan experiences PivotXP has ever produced. Designe…
Read case study →
Nashville, TN — CMA Fest 2024
10,000
Boxes Loaded
Chevrolet — Equinox
Dynamic Leaderboard for Chevrolet at CMA Fest 2024
In June 2024, Chevrolet participated in the CMA Fest in Nashville, TN, aiming to highlight the cargo capacity of their Equinox model through a unique and interactive timed competition. Pa…
- Live Leaderboard
- Custom Software
- Timed Competition
What’s on the quote
What's on a trade show game quote.
No mystery line items. Every estimate is built from this list, so the client sees what the build covers and what is optional.
Every estimate is built from these same lines, so nothing shows up on the quote that you have not seen here. Send dates, city, and what you need and you will have a line-item estimate the same business day.
Live custom leaderboard
Branded TV or LED view, iPad entry, ranking rules, prize windows, exports.
Sweepstakes / spin-to-win microsite
Official rules support, PII capture, admin export, and hosting for the program term.
Custom kiosk software
Trivia, quizzes, configurators: touchscreen app, admin panel, analytics. Hardware listed separately.
Sensor games + button walls
Touring builds including fabrication, road cases, and testing.
Software redeploy for a returning program
New creative, new dates, same proven build.
PivotXP tech on site
Optional, priced per day. Hard-panel builds are designed to run with your tour manager.
Travel
Billed at cost, with a typical range quoted before you commit.
Lead times
How much runway each kind of project needs.
Kiosk or Starlink rental
Ships the next business day after the contract is signed, timed to arrive before your setup date.
Brand an existing kiosk
Days once your art arrives. Wrap art, overlays, share page, and AI creative. Art specs sent at kickoff.
Custom software build
Days for a proven format, a few weeks for something new. In-house developers, scenario-tested before it ships.
Hardware + software concept
Weeks, not months. Fabrication, sensors, cases, and software built together under one roof.
Clickable prototype for a pitch
Days. Enough to win the room before anything is built.
Tight timeline? Say so on the form. Rentals and returning programs move in days; we will tell you honestly what a new build can hit.
Trade show game FAQ
What does a custom trade show game include?+
The game software with your products and rules built in, the screen interface for a 65 to 75 inch TV, the controller or physical button, a tablet for staff to run it, a live leaderboard, player name or badge capture with an export, branded graphics and animations, the computer that runs it, and road cases. It resets for the next player in seconds and runs offline, so the show floor's internet cannot stop it.
How long does a custom game take to build?+
Proven formats, such as a timed challenge with a leaderboard, go live in days once we have your brand assets and product list. A new mechanic with custom fabrication, like a sensor wall or a throw cage, takes weeks, not months, because our developers and fabricators are in house. Every build is scenario-tested before it ships, and a clickable prototype for your pitch takes days.
Can the game use our actual products on the booth?+
Yes. The most effective booth games send the player to the physical products already in the booth: complete a task at station one, hit the button, move to station two. The game times it, scores it, and puts them on the board. Staff mark each step complete on a tablet so nothing depends on a sensor that might misread.
Does it need internet?+
No. Booth games run locally on their own computer, with the leaderboard and the captures stored on the machine and exported at the end of each day. If you want the leaderboard online or the captures pushed to your CRM live, we add a bonded cellular kit and sync in the background.
Can it capture leads?+
Yes. Players enter a name, scan a show badge, or register on the tablet before they play, with the consent language you need. Every play lands on that record, and you get a clean export, or a direct push to your CRM, at the end of the show.
Who runs it at the show?+
Your booth staff can. The game is built for a tablet-holding staffer to start a round, mark challenges complete, and reset. We ship a printed guide and a setup video, and we can see the machine remotely. A PivotXP tech on site is a per-day option for the first show of a new build.
Can we reuse it at the next show?+
Yes. The build is yours to redeploy. New products, new prizes, new dates on the same proven game is a software redeploy line, not a new build, and the hardware ships in the same cases.
What does it cost?+
Every quote is built from the lines on this page: the game build, the hardware, the physical button or sensor fabrication, the leaderboard and capture layer, shipping, and optional staffing. Send the booth size, the products, and the show dates and you will have a line-item estimate the same business day.
Show in January? Send the booth plan now.
Booth size, products, and dates. You will have a line-item estimate and a screen mockup to put in front of the client.