We’re a fickle lot, us consumers. A shiny substrate or an interestingly shaped box and we’ll be drawn trance-like to the supermarket shelf, the item we’d actually popped in for lying sad and forgotten a couple of shelves away.
It’s no surprise, then, that brand owners and packaging engineers are on a constant quest to discover ever-more eye-catching ways of presenting their products. What is surprising is that they are among the 82% of print buyers who reported, in a Canon survey released last Drupa, that they’re dissatisfied with how proactively their printer makes them aware of new developments or
possibilities.
Fortunately for printers – who really should know better – and the buyers who are being short-changed on information, this month sees the return of the Packaging Innovations show, held on the 27-28 February. Now in its eighth year, the show comprises six separate strands: Contract Pack, Print Innovations, Packtech, Ecotech, Packaging Innovations and – new for this year – Labelling Innovations. The show not only gives printers the chance to have the necessary conversations with high-rolling buyers, but also allows buyers and printers to check out the latest exciting packaging options.
"The primary reason people come to the show is to get inspiration for what new things they can do," says event director Alison Church. "We did a survey of what our exhibitors will be showcasing at the show and 63% will launch new products or new versions of products."
Of course, some of those exhibitors are from the print fraternity; many more printers, though, will be eager visitors on the other side of the table. The benefits of being either, to a printer, are multiple, says Church.
"On the whole, our audience is usually very senior. We get brand directors and heads of departments," she explains. "But it does go all the way down to packaging engineers and technologists – people who are bit more at the grass routes level. So you’ve got all the elements of the packaging supply chain and decision-making process in attendance."
Mercian Labels managing director Adrian Steele confirms that this was his experience of exhibiting last year. "The show delivers what the brand owners want and that’s why it’s the right sort of people attending," says Steele. "Last year, we found it a very good place to showcase our new carton prototype products and this year we’re taking digitally printed peel-and-reveal labels, digital cartons, and digital flexible packaging. It’s very much about raising our profile and bringing in new business."
Packaging Innovations’ stripped-down format my be unfamiliar to veterans of other shows, adds Church, but it is intended to give businesses of all sizes the opportunity to exhibit, through lower costs and by ensuring the show is not dominated by the big manufacturers.
"Our core launch concept was to make exhibiting there a level playing field, with all stands 12sqm," she says. "It was designed to keep costs and time spent down for exhibitors, so they were purchasing the whole stand package and could turn up on the day of the show and only have one night away."
Give it a blast
Printed Polythene director Steve Bryan confirms that exhibiting at this show for the first time this year hasn’t required an onerous commitment and can be approached in a slightly more trial-and-error way.
"We’ll be showing our shrink and stretch films including our newly developed higher strength stretch films," he reports. "It’s just putting ourselves out there and seeing what response we get. We’re just giving it a blast to see what happens."
Church does concede, however, that while trying to stay true to its original aim of giving smaller firms the chance to get noticed, Packaging Innovations has strived to stay true to its other remit: providing print buyers with as much information on packaging creation as possible.
"We wanted to cling to those core values while enhancing the visitor experience," says Church. "So we do now have more feature areas within the show for seminars and workshops, and more production demo areas, which is a bit of a departure from the 12m2 unit concept."
Enhancing the visitor experience this year will be a programme of seminars, including two Question Time-style Big Debates, newly introduced for 2013. The packaging debate, exploring how important sustainability issues are in consumers’ buying decisions, will certainly pique the interest of brand owners and packaging printers alike. As, too, will the print debate, on the growth of digital printing in the packaging sector.
With all the seminar programme, the case for dropping in on the show at some point, even for those printers not exhibiting, should be all the easier to make. With the Labelling Innovations strand added this year to join last year’s addition of a Print Innovations strand, the focus now strongly incorporates the printing stage of packaging production. In the past, the more general slant of the show might have meant printers either exhibited or stayed away, but some may now feel that looking around will be time well spent.
"Packaging printers should certainly come and have a look around," says Steve Chappell, business manager for packaging, proofing and industrial labelling at Roland DG, which is exhibiting a VersaUV LEC-540 and VersaCAMM VS-420 inkjet printer and cutter at this year’s show. "It will give them a broader outlook on the industry, rather than just doing the same thing they’ve always done," he says. "And I would definitely advise people to attend a few seminars if they have time. They will give you a heads-up on what to take a closer look at."
Demanding customers
IFS joint managing director Bryan Godwyn adds that printers should take a look at the B3-plus Foliant Mercury 400SF laminator and Petratto Metro folder-gluer IFS will have on show, along with the other technologies being exhibited, so they can be ahead of the game in knowing what print buyers might soon be demanding.
He says: "We’ll be talking to brand owners who do ask what their printers can do when looking at new ways of making sure their message is properly conveyed."
He adds that it is not only packaging printers but also commercial printers who might benefit from swinging by. In a climate in which printers are being pushed to diversify their offering and technology is being developed to help them do this, the entry-level machinery on show may well get them thinking, he says. "The main attraction of the Petratto Metro is that it allows commercial operations to develop their business through fulfilment of their client’s entire project and packaging printers can get involved in short-run trial projects," he says.
So, if the question is, ‘What’s new with this year’s Packaging Innovations show?’, then the answer – in short – is: hopefully everything. While the new Labelling Innovations facet will give label printers the chance to exhibit and find out what others in their marketplace are doing, and the newly introduced debates will give printers some interesting arguments to mull over, the principle attraction for both brand owners and printers will be the show’s enduring focus on the very latest developments in the world of packaging.
This focus – tipped to attract at least 29% more than last year’s 4,454 brand owners – certainly makes exhibiting at next year’s show an appealing possibility for printers. And they may well want to visit this year to suss this option out. But whether or not they intend to exhibit, printers from all sectors could apparently do worse than taking time out to assess the future of packaging. After all, this may dictate the direction of their own firm’s future.
KEY ATTRACTIONS
- Free to attend, the LearnShop seminars are intended to provide insight into important industry developments. A Q&A session will follow each talk
- As part of the seminar programme, The Big Packaging Debate will examine how important sustainability is in consumers’ buying decisions
- The subject of The Big Print Debate, meanwhile, is: ‘Everything that can become digital will become digital – or will it?’ A topic that’s sure to generate lively discussion among panellists John Charnock (Print Research International), Matt Daniels (Unilever), Karen Graley (Waitrose) and Jo Francis (PrintWeek)Ideas for pioneering packaging products will be pitched to four industry experts in the Dragons’ Den-inspired Lions’ Lair. Even if not pitching, visiting the Lair could provide some highly innovative food for thought
- Experts from the Packaging Society will be on hand at the Packaging Consultancy Clinic for one-to-one discussions. A list of consultants and their areas of specialism is available onlineNetworking drinks will be held at the end of the show on Wednesday
LEARNSHOPS SEMINAR SCHEDULE
27 FEBRUARY
Print Innovations LearnShops Theatre
10.40-11.10am Current and future trends in packaging print
11.45am-12.15pm Extending the retail experience
1.45-2.15pm The job determines the process: folding cartons
2.45-3.15pm John Banbury, chairman, BPIF Labels
3.45-4.15pm Digital finishing for folding cartons; the science behind the magic
Packaging Innovations LearnShops Theatre
10.45-11.15am Plastic packaging: from waste to resource – a new challenge
12.45-1.15pm Nanography - from concept to commercial activity
1.15-1.45pm An interactive look at the recyclability of plastic packaging
3.30-4.30pm The Big Packaging Debate
Packaging News LearnShops Theatre
11-11.30am Innovation in action: UK Packaging Awards 2012
12-12.30pm How we beat the Dragons
1-1.30pm Social media, brands and packaging: make or break?
2-2.15pm Forces for change: how will seemingly opposing trends impact packaging over the next decade?
3-3.30pm Milk bottles - fresh innovation?
International Brand Summit LearnShops Theatre
11.45am-12.15pm Starting up a business from scratch, and packaging pitfalls and successes
28 FEBRUARY
Print Innovations LearnShops Theatre
10.30-11am Ahead in the clouds
11.30am-12pm Extending packaging print to the ultimate
1.30-2.30pm The Big Print Debate
3-3.30pm The foil that came in from the cold
Packaging News LearnShops Theatre
11-11.30am The role of packaging in making consumers’ lives easier
12-12.30pm Food information regulations, packaging and the law: why every food pack needs to change
3-3.30pm Innovation in action: UK Packaging Awards 2012
International Brand Summit LearnShops Theatre
11.45am-12.15pm Placing consumers at the heart of packaging innovation: Learnings from the bakery category
1-1.30pm Nanography - from concept to commercial reality
