Packaging Innovations London closed its doors, reporting record visitor and exhibitor numbers for the fourth year running, a trend that has continued since its launch in 2010. The show attracted world-class speakers, international exhibitors from all corners of the globe and 3,560 visitors, smashing last year’s record attendance with an increase of 18%.
With visiting companies including the likes of Waitrose, Fabergé, Diageo, Disney, Coca-Cola, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Glaxo Smith Kline, Estée Lauder, Harrods, Ted Baker, Mars, Unilever and Space NK, exhibitors were delighted with the buzz and serious purchasers at the show, 75% of them already having rebooked their stand for 2014. Particularly successful was the expanded Luxury Packaging show, with inspiring prestige packaging on display; many of the exhibitors have already doubled their stand space, with the floorplan expanding for the next year.
Growing each year both in size, but more importantly in importance within the industry, Packaging Innovations London and its co-located shows has filled a vital need for packaging, marketing, branding and design professionals to find innovations to inspire them and make their packaging stand out and delight customers whilst continuing to perform on a functional level.
The show focused on four key areas – Packaging Innovations, Luxury Packaging, Brand & Design Village, and Contract Pack. 80% of the 170 exhibitors used the event to launch or show new products and services. J&J Pont Packaging launched Pont Pack a slimline packaging solution. Mirri and Smurfit Kappa teamed up, and launched a premium board – MirriNor, demonstrating the stunning metallic effects that can be achieve through packaging.
The sell-out show, which took place 1 & 2 October 2013, featured a packed learnShops programme, with speakers from Neal’s Yard Remedies, Miracle-Gro, Marks & Spencer, Kimberly Clark, Bombay Sapphire and many other leading and interesting brands.
The year-long packaging redesign process included drawing on latest sentic thinking from Bradford University to ensure the packaging pushed the right consumer buttons. The resulting redesign – which involved using curves to denote softness and angles to reinforce the product’s strength, plus making the famous Andrex puppy work much harder on the pack – helped deliver an 11.5% volume growth, plus a 32% improvement in brand bonding and a slew of brand extensions.
There was also plenty of show floor ‘theatre’ in the form of The BIG Packaging Debate, where a panel of packaging professionals, including Innocent Drinks, Marks & Spencer, Design Activity and the Faraday Centre for Retail Excellence, discussed the topic ‘Online sales will kill packaging design’.
The show also featured its first ever Beauty Symposium, which was immensely well received and run in association with The Red Tree Consultancy. Stirling Murray, CEO & Founder of The Red Tree, remarked: “With its strong emphasis on design and luxury, the show provided the perfect place to host our second Beauty Symposium. Having speakers such as Helen Miller, former Commercial Director for Beauty at Boots UK, and Judy Deuchar, ex VP of merchandising and planning at QVC UK, meant we could give delegates some real packaging and retail insights for driving their beauty businesses forward. They could then go out into the show, talk to suppliers and who could help them apply that learning.
Packaging Innovations London will be return to the Business Design Centre, on 30 September and 1 October 2014.
The next Packaging Innovations event will take place at the NEC, Birmingham, on 26 and 27 February 2014.
Companies interested in exhibiting at either show can find out more about booking a stand by calling the Packaging Innovations sales team on +44 (0)20 8843 8800 or emailing PackagingUK@easyFairs.com.
Further information on visiting the Birmingham event can be found at www.easyFairs.com/PIUK; the London website has all show details at www.easyFairs.com/PI-London.
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