Back in 2014, Brightbox was in its second year of being one of the pioneers and innovators in the field of secure mobile-phone charging. It had one of the most advanced lockers on the market, starting with the M2 model. As a result of his extensive background in sales and brand development, Joel Mar-tin was recruited to help establish the company’s entry into the tradeshow and meetings arena and has been instru-mental in growing the events division for the company.

The International Technology Rental Association recently announced Martin has been elected to its board of directors, and with so much happening at Bright-box, Exhibit City News wanted to follow up and see how the company has pro-gressed since we first reported on them back in 2014.

What was your first impression of Brightbox?

It’s funny you ask that. During my job interview, our CEO Billy Gridley asked what I saw in the product. My response was, “I see an experience.” I wanted to

push Brightbox beyond its limits. For example, I wanted to be able to grab a Coca-Cola can and hold it up to the camera, have the Brightbox scan it, and then thank the customer for choosing Coca-Cola. Basically, we needed to be

60 MARCH 2016 Exhibit City News

CAREER TRACKING

Catching Up With Brightbox VP Joel MartinBY EXHIBIT CITY NEWS

Catching Up With Brightbox VP Joel MartinBY EXHIBIT CITY NEWS

@ExhibitCityNEws ExhibitCityNews.com MARCH 2016 61

CAREER TRACKING

more than a cell phone charger. This was the first machine that I had seen that had the potential to do that. It had the best industrial design and interface, but I wanted Brightbox to be more at events. It had to become a delivery method of the brand experience.

Since that day my primary goal has been to build new brand relationships starting with Intel, HBO, Panasonic, TD Bank, Citi, Microsoft, Square, and, thankfully, my lifelong desire to one day work with Coca-Cola also came true.

Has Brightbox become the experience you envisioned?

Yes, it has and so much more. I am fortunate to work with an amazing team at Brightbox that loves to drive innova-tion. Our operations and programming teams are some of the best in the in-dustry. Likewise, my contribution with building the events platform has facil-itated adding new features. From the M2 to the M3 model, so many exciting things have transformed the product of-ferings. We have added the ability to do surveys, polling, contests and video. We even have the ability to send a coupon or special offer to your phone. Brightbox just keeps improving the experience, allowing us to stay ahead of the curve and expanding the capabilities beyond just charging.

We have done over 250 shows in the last year where many destination man-agement companies and ad agencies have joined with us as technology partners to bring the Brightbox experience to major events such as the Calle Ocho Festival in Miami, the NFL Experience at Super Bowl 49, the HBO premiere of Game of Thrones, and the X Games with Xfinity, just to name a few.

How have these events shaped the future for Brightbox?

The exposure we received in the last year as a result of connections we have made have really set things in mo-tion. As a member of the executive lead-

ership team at Brightbox, I am proud to say that my division has led to the com-pany’s highest revenue growth segment in 2014–15. The future for Brightbox looks bright (no pun intended).

Thanks to partnerships we formed, we were able to really get to know our clients, and saw the need for new tech-nology. This helped push forward the need for iBeacons, QR codes, brochure or newsletter sign-up on our touch-screen, and RFID readers to be part of

our offerings. It was also essential in creating new domestic partnerships with Fish Is Data, PDC Solutions and others. Our push into the meetings industry also helped establish and bring to market our European events team with ITM Mobile, a leading event app and beacon company. We just did our first event in Rome last month and it was a hit.

What’s next for Brightbox?I am excited to say that we will be

offering a new feature: BrightEyeQ™, our new camera audience-measurement software module. Using the Bright-EyeQ™ module, clients can access detailed reporting metrics—average charging time, repeat customers, usage heat maps and more—for consumer engagement on Brightbox charging stations, as well as accurately measure consumer views and attention times, and receive estimates of audience gen-der distributions. The data is captured

in real time and instantly analyzed to deliver an anonymous set of metrics to help retailers, brands and sponsors understand consumer engagement for each Brightbox location. The quality and depth of the reporting enables clients to maximize the effectiveness of the Brightbox value proposition and under-stand the impact of their marketing and tradeshow advertising efforts.

We strongly believe that Bright-EyeQ™ fills a gap missing in event

digital signage by delivering real accountability. It is clear to us that our platform can produce better event display results via this new module, and eliminate some of the inconsisten-cies inherent in traditional tradeshow planning. Knowing the exact number of people that came to your booth—male-female ratios, how long they looked at a video—is a game-changer for tradeshow managers having to justi-fy their budgets.

This is not science fiction; it is an affordable solution available now at any show, big or small, anywhere in the coun-try. From a one-day to a one-year rental, we are here to bring innovation to the tradeshow field.

2016 is going to be a great year! I see no limits to what we could end up doing in the industry. We have only scratched the surface of the tradeshow business. I can’t wait to sit down with you guys next year and tell you about our new products.

Knowing the exact number of people that came to your booth—male-female ratios, how long they looked at a video—is a game-changer for tradeshow managers having to justify their budgets.

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