BIO International Convention draws 18,000+ biotech executives, pharmaceutical decision-makers, investors, and life sciences procurement professionals to a single venue. For an exhibitor, that concentration of relevant buyers represents an enormous opportunity — and a significant problem.
The company's 10x10 booth cost $14,000 before freight, staffing, and travel. But buyer behavior at large trade shows means most attendees navigate based on pre-planned meeting schedules and familiar aisle patterns. A majority of the 18,000 registered attendees would never walk within sight of their booth.
Their marketing team needed a way to extend booth reach to the full attendee population, not just the buyers who happened to pass by.
Insight Media Labs deployed a Momentum geofence campaign for the full duration of BIO International Convention. Before the show opened, IML mapped a precise digital boundary around the San Diego Convention Center. Any mobile device entering that zone during the four-day event was tagged and served display ads across news apps, social feeds, and browsers.
IML's in-house creative team designed four ad units: two product-focused display banners and two awareness formats, at no additional cost. Ads drove to a dedicated landing page with product specs and a meeting scheduling option.
The campaign ran continuously from show open through close, delivering 312,000 targeted impressions to the full BIO attendee population. By the morning of day two, booth staff reported a noticeable shift: visitors were arriving having already seen the brand and were asking more specific, informed questions.
The company reported 3.4x more qualified booth conversations compared to their prior year at BIO — measured by how many conversations progressed to a scheduled follow-up meeting. Post-show, three conversations converted to active sales opportunities within 60 days.
The marketing team has since expanded their geofencing program across four additional trade shows in the same calendar year, running campaigns at every major show where they exhibit.
"By day two our booth conversations were completely different. People already knew who we were and what we made. The geofencing put us in front of buyers we would never have reached from our booth location."