At NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show, Adobe partnered with Elevation3D to reimagine the role of the trade show booth. Instead of a static brand experience, the goal was to create a live, measurable environment where every interaction could be captured, analyzed, and translated into actionable insight.
By integrating anonymized facial analysis technology throughout the space, Adobe transformed its booth into a real-time performance marketing platform. This enabled the team to understand how attendees moved through the environment, where they paused, how long they engaged, and how they responded to different content, demos, and presentations.
The Challenge
Creating a Trade Show Experience Built for Results
Traditional trade show metrics don’t tell the full story. Impressions, badge scans, and anecdotal feedback leave gaps in understanding:
- Which experiences truly capture attention
- How long attendees stay and where engagement peaks
- What content drives emotional response and sustained interest
- How different formats (live demos, theater sessions, interactive activations) compare
To move beyond surface-level reporting, Adobe needed a more precise and defensible way to measure impact – one grounded in real behavioral data and capable of clearly demonstrating ROI.
The Solution
Elevation3D designed and deployed a data-driven booth strategy powered by facial analytics.
Sensors were integrated across key zones, including the Coca-Cola activation, demo stations, and Spotlight Theater, to capture anonymized audience data such as:
- Traffic flow and total impressions
- Stop rate and dwell time
- Engagement intensity (“energy”)
- Audience sentiment and response patterns
This approach enabled Adobe to measure not just what happened inside the booth, but how attendees actually experienced it.
From Data to Insight
Following the event, Elevation3D synthesized spatial, behavioral, and emotional data into a comprehensive insights report, enabling Adobe to connect experience design directly to performance outcomes.
Highlights
High Visibility and Strong Conversion
Adobe’s booth generated over 54,000 impressions with a 42% stop rate, exceeding industry benchmarks and demonstrating a strong ability to capture attention in a high-traffic environment.
Engagement That Went Beyond the Aisle
Approximately 5% of impressions converted into extended visits, outperforming typical B2B benchmarks (~3%), with an average dwell time of 6.2 minutes
Content That Held Attention
Energy levels remained high across the booth (averaging ~77%), indicating consistent engagement once attendees entered the space.
Top-Performing Activation
The Coca-Cola Counter emerged as the strongest engagement driver, leading in both extended visits and energy, proving the value of interactive, hands-on experiences in capturing and sustaining audience attention.
Theater as a Traffic Magnet
The Spotlight Theater achieved the highest stop rate (47%) and drove significant
overflow engagement, with attendees continuing to watch from the aisle, doubling typical pass-by dwell time.
Programmed Moments Drove Peaks
Scheduled experiences played a critical role in amplifying performance. Retailer tours increased booth traffic by 23%, while happy hours and scheduled sessions boosted both dwell time and emotional engagement.
The Outcome
1. High-visibility areas captured the most traffic, but deeper engagement happened where interaction was strongest.
2. Hands-on activations outperformed passive content.
3. Sessions performed best when they included built-in audience interaction.
4.Tours and happy hours created engagement spikes that can be strategically leveraged into future programs.
At NRF 2026, Adobe walked away with more than just leads. In partnership with Elevation3D, they gained a clear, data-backed understanding of performance:
- Which stories, demos, and formats resonated most
- Where engagement occurred across the booth footprint
- How audience behavior changed by time, content, and location
Most importantly, they established a repeatable framework for measuring experiential marketing ROI – one that directly connects physical experiences to tangible business impact.
For Adobe, NRF 2026 was more than an event. It was a blueprint for the future of experiential marketing.
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