The Paris Trade Fair did not show many technological innovations. Its creativity consisted primarily in original design and material combinations.

The Marketing Point de Vente (MPV) Trade Fair has traditionally “did” with one pavilion in the Paris Porte de Versailles with hundreds of expositions all over its area mainly representing P.O.P. communication. Specialized just on the P.O.P. communication, it represents, together with Euroshop and Globalshop, one of the three world´s largest shows in this industry. So the DAGO team could not miss this this year´s event again.

But the expositions themselves as well as this year´s POPAI Euro Awards competition, which was a part of the Trade Fair, did not bring many innovations or anything significantly attractive compared to what we can see on the Czech market. While the last year´s Trade Fair was full of robots, face recognition technologies, digital imagers or new hologram concept, the adoration for hi-tech significantly cooled down this year. Larger space was gained primarily by analogue realizations. “This year´s Trade Fair proved that today it is very difficult to come with a new meaningful technological or manufacturing innovation. We can commonly produce and provide everything we saw. The only limit is budget – if a client demands a premium and luxuriously-looking display and we do not have enough money for it, we must look for cheaper alternatives,” says Anna Brůžková, the Project Manager.

We think that the most innovative realization at MPV was a LED application system by the company PixLum. It has created a sandwich panel with a conductive system, into which it is possible to “stick” a LED on a special spike and thus create various light figures very easily. The lighting mode can be managed by conventional control units. Another interesting exposition was a realization with 3D projection, which did not require special glasses, or domestication of holograms within P.O.P. application. For analogue realizations, manufacturers focus on details. “Up to a third of P.O.P media, gloss may fade out during their way from 3D design to production. In many cases, it was evident in Paris that designs were quite trivial, manufacturers did not slacken in details and so they showed a lot,” says Milan Marek, Designer.

Projects made of cardboard, which have worked with original shapes, cuts and layers, and even using overhead projections on their top communication had traditionally shined with creativity. Among the cardboard realizations, visitors were attracted also by a realization from the brands of famous salty snacks Cheetos and Doritos, which made visitors to evoke an appetite and stimulate them to touch nontraditional surface of product enlargements. Realization of the sparkling wine Moët & Chandon played with a beach atmosphere.

Another frequently used material was plywood that was used, for example, for a pasta display and was decently supplemented with black screen printing. “How simple and effective! Very nice details on this display were price tag pockets also made of plywood. Often, there happens that we must “spoil” well-done P.O.P. exposure adding not matching price tag bars spoiling the overall impression,” says Anna Brůžková, who further appreciated, for example, the combination of light-colored wood with black lacquered metal giving clean and natural effect at MPV.

Most companies stick to the slogans “simple means beautiful” or “sometimes less is more”, especially companies from the cosmetics and beauty segment. “Simple, clean, less decorated displays in combination of black and gold or with transparent materials on shelves still give luxurious and premium impression” says Anna Brůžková.

Also Milan Marek mentioned the unique combinations of materials, which mutually complement each other for the purpose of great authenticity, for example, at the exposition of the Rio Mare brand: “Actually, I would say that the classic display is being replaced by a kind of “relaxed” scenography, which strengthens the ability to interrupt and draw into a product story.”

Miloslav Obrátil, the Project Manager, refers to the unusual use of simply available materials: “Cheap material looks really premium and more expensive from some distance than it really is.” For example the brand Rémy Martin used this effect playing with a typical combination of conventional plastic materials and achieved an effect of stone mosaic or glued glass.
Fig. No. 13 – The Rémy Martin brand used cheap plastic materials for its exposition looking as a stone mosaic or glued glass from some distance, Photo: Miroslav Obrátil.

In addition, great emphasis was placed on natural materials and ecological realizations to an extent we can´t yet see much on the Czech market. Milan Marek was surprised by the lack of modern technologies. “In the era when autonomous cars are getting onto roads, I would expect more digital or hi-tech applications. Except the moving lighthouse on a metal platform, I did not notice much in Paris,” he adds.

Miroslav Obrátil positively evaluated working with 2D data playing an important role in the final form of a P.O.P. medium, for example, in the case of a display of the Guerlain brand: “Simple display with one interesting element and perfectly tuned by 2D data deserves a nomination in its category “Fragrance, Care, Beauty – Floor” in the competition POPAI Euro Awards.”

In general, P.O.P. materials at the Trade Fair were much more generous in size than it is common on the Czech market. “As for most of the exhibits, their height was not really thought out. In Czech, we often have very strictly set height limits, that we must keep, which often limits their possibilities and resulting appearance. On its graphic proposal, it can look monumental, but with a height of 150 cm, its real impression is degraded and it can easily “disappear” in a store,” explains Anna Brůžková. For example special P.O.P. media around freezers attracted attention with their atypical dimensions. “In the Czech Republic, such dimensions could not be used, however, it could be realized with a necessary adaptation,” adds Miroslav Obrátil.

Compared to the Trade Fair Globalshop that took place in Chicago, Asian production was represented only scarcely in Paris. Asian companies exhibiting at MPV mostly offered only technologies, for example smart camera systems. MPV proved that also on the Czech market, there exists P.O.P. leading edge and the difference between Czech realizations and world-class realizations is not as great as in the past.

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