Topping this debate list undoubtedly will be digital – specifically how digital print technology has already changed, and will continue to radically change, the way brands interact with and attract customers.
This debate – the focus in fact of the now annual Big Print debate seminar – is what makes the print arm of the show, co-located with Contract Pack, Packtech, Ecotech, Packaging Innovations, Labelling Innovations and, new for 2014, Converting Innovations, so exciting, says event director Alison Church.
“The printing and labelling area is a major area for focusing a lot of our themes because it’s a particularly exciting area for doing new things for packaging,” she says of Print Innovations, launched as Print for Packaging in 2011, and renamed in 2012. “That’s grown fantastically and we’re investing so it continues to do so.”
She adds: “In our theatre dedicated to the print sector, we focus on everything from flexo to offset, but what’s particularly exciting at the moment is looking at increasing use of digital for much longer runs than perhaps we’ve been used to before.”
Clearly ‘personalisation’ is likely to be one word on everybody’s lips come the 26 and 27 February. Hot on its heels, no doubt, will be ‘Coke’.
“For those already in the print for packaging sector digital is being talked about not only in terms of shelf stand-out, but also customer engagement,” says Church. “What was particularly innovative about the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign was that they weren’t just driving this so the pack is more noticeable on the shelves. It was much more about engaging people, not just when they’re buying the product, but when they’re taking it back home.”
With the advent of this and similar campaigns by the likes of Heineken and Heinz, the debate has now very much moved on, then, from what digital packaging printers can do, to how to most effectively deploy this.
“I’ve seen a few examples of print where you think ‘well that’s great, but why?’ So that’s where attending an exhibition where you can see real examples working for brands is so helpful. You can explore not just what it can do, but why it does it,” says Church
Not that printers not yet printing packaging should feel intimidated by the fact the debate has now sped on to a real drilling down into the most effective use of personalisation. Although many printers present will in fact be exhibiting their well-established expertise to brand owners, there will still be plenty for those on the other side of the stand to see.
“You’ve got commercial printers starting to take their first steps into packaging who come on a fact-finding mission,” reports Church, explaining that the show has been very much geared around this.
She explains that the show’s newly expanded show features line-up (see next page) is designed not only to engage curious visitors in seminars and presentations, but facilitate more one-to-ones too.
“We’ve got a great line-up of seminars, but some people will want to actually ask questions and find out about one specific thing,” says Church. “So a lot of the features are interactive, which allows people to get much more personalised advice. So there are lots of clinics and things like that.”
One-stop shop
The exhibitor line-up and predicted mix of visitors will also hopefully make this year’s Packaging Innovations something of a handy one-stop shop for those printers on research missions. The show is on track, reports Church, to grow from 5,093 visitors in 2013 to 5,500 this year, with pre-registration currently up 15% on last year. This growth reflects the show now becoming “the place to be” for those in printed packaging, claims Church.
“The way the show’s really changed in the past two years is it’s become the main place where people from the packaging and print for packaging sector come together,” says Church. “People know if they’re looking to meet someone they’re going to be at the show. It’s the meeting place for the whole supply chain now. It’s a big step forwards as it perhaps wasn’t as much a couple of years ago.”
Also fuelling growth has been organiser Easyfairs’ push to get more and more retail sectors involved. “We’re really attracting the main brands and retailers now and we’re consistently looking for new ways to target particular sectors; we did a big push in London on the cosmetics side for example,” says Church.
Growth is also in evidence in exhibitor numbers, up to a predicted 350-plus from 320 last year. High up on visitors hit lists, will of course be big-hitters HP and Fujifilm.
In fact, HP’s stand will be particularly hard to miss, sporting a mock supermarket with entirely digitally printed packaging. “The idea is it’s going to help people understand what’s possible. It shows you some of the stuff that’s already been done, then gives you a chance to talk about future possibilities,” says Church.
Meanwhile Fujifilm is partnering with FFEI on stands G5 and F6 to showcase Fujifilm’s Acuity LED 1600, FFEI’s Graphium digital UV inkjet press and FFEI’s RealPro Toolkit.
It won’t all be about print of course. On the finishing side, visitors may well want to swing by the AG/CAD stand to see the new DYSS X5 digital cutter in action, and to see Intelligent Finishing Systems on J14, which will be exhibiting the Foliant Gemini laminator.
On the pre-media front, Esko will no doubt be creating something of a stir with a first glimpse of its Automation Engine Suite 14, due for launch in the second quarter of 2014. Visitors will see how the software now incorporates automated weather forecast programming, designed to alert users if good weather is likely to cause a run on strawberry packaging, for example.
Packaging Innovations and, crucially, Print Innovations look set, then, to be even more informative and useful than ever. Product launches, equipment clinics, seminars and interactive features: printers should find more than a few answers to their burning questions here.
Packaging Innovations essentials
Date 26-27 February 2014
Venue NEC, Birmingham
Price Free, register at: www.easyfairs.com
Opening times 26 February, 10.00-17.00; 27 February, 10.00-16.00
Exhibitors Over 350
Key attractions
- New for 2014, the 3D Print Feature will showcase the innovative ways this technology is starting to be used in the medical, academic and aerospace sectors. The aim of the feature is to demonstrate how designers and engineers will be able to test and perfect their work with 3D modelling.
- The Recoup Clinic, also new, will be helping visitors understand recycling plastic packaging, covering topics including introducing recycled content to packaging, recyclability by design and effective solutions for delivering zero waste onsite.
- Another new feature, the Eye-Tracking Technology Feature, run by Campden BRI, will demonstrate how this technology can help brands better understand the drivers behind consumer spending behaviour and store navigation. Visitors can try out eye-tracking software for themselves.
- The Big Print Debate - The latest print technologies: gimmick or ROI?
- The Big Packaging Debate – Packaging: designed for the consumer or designed for the supply chain?
- Ideas for pioneering packaging products will be pitched live to a panel of industry experts in a Dragons’ Den-inspired Lions’ Lair.
- The Captain Packaging Party, held at the show’s close on the first day, will feature a live 50s band, and provide the chance to network over a few drinks.
SEMINAR PROGRAMME
Packaging News Theatre
Day 1
11.00-11.30 Peter Singleton, Procter & Gamble
12.00-12.30 Global retail innovations: themes and drivers for 2014
13.00-13.30 Shane Monkman, Head of Packaging, Asda
14.00-14.30 Collaboration for innovation: Tesco’s view of the packaging supply chain
Day 2
11.00-11.30 Innovation in action: highlights from the UK Packaging Awards 2013
12.00-12.30 Global retail innovations: themes and drivers for 2014
13.00-13.30 Innovate, don’t imitate: pay less tax and avoid prison
14.00-14.30 How we made a million, Phil Huggett, Wilkinson
15.00-15.30 Packaging buying trends
International Brand Summit Theatre
Day 1
10.30-11.00 Packaging in 2050: A scenario study
11.30-12.00 Twenty ideas how to be more efficient – information is good but communication is better!
12.30-13.00 ‘Innovating normal to premium’ the Neal’s Yard Remedies way
13.30-14.00 Felicity Murray, The Drinks Report
14.30-15.00 Is Oloves a love brand?
15.30-16.30 Big Packaging Debate – Packaging: designed for the consumer or for the supply chain?
Day 2
10.30-11.00 When good isn’t good enough; moving beyond packaging
11.30-12.00 Packaging challenges for retail
12.30-13.00 Heinz, RPC
14.00-15.00 Lions’ Lair
Packaging Innovations Theatre
Day 1
10.45-11.15 Promens
11.45-12.15 Twenty ideas how to be more efficient – information is good but communication is better!
12.45-13.15 Print technologies – new brand and marketing opportunities
13.45-14.15 Packaging design in the retail space; flexible, agile and cost-effective – are they mutually compatible?
14.45-15.15 The philosophy of packaging
Day 2
10.45-11.15 Promens
11.45-12.15 Active & intelligent packaging
12.45-13.15 The future of corrugated packaging
13.45-14.15 The essentials of effective packaging
14.45-15.15 Do you know what consumers really think about your packaging?
EcoPack Theatre
Day 1
11.15-11.45 The imperative of doing the right thing - a business philosophy
12.15-13.00 Ecopack Challenge
13.15-14.45 The plastics recycling agenda – 2014
Day 2
11.15-11.45 Saving waste via packaging - does the consumer get it?
12.15-12.45 Latest thinking on vegetable based packaging
13.30-14.00 Bioplastics in packaging-where do they fit best and how do we measure the benefits?
14.45-15.15 Plastic recycling – what happens to your packaging
Print Innovations Theatre
Day 1
10.30-11.00 Trends in flexo panel discussion
11.30-12.00 The art of colour management: how SBS and Mondelez made it work
12.30-13.00 Trends in offset
13.30-14.00 Digital labels
14.30-15.00 Corrugated on demand
Day 2
10.30-11.00 How brands can get upfront and personal
11.30-12.00 Web-to-print (folding cartons)
12.30-13.00 Smart printed packaging solutions
13.30-14.30 Big Print Debate - The latest print technologies: gimmick or ROI?
15.00-15.30 New trends in digital finishing
