Presentation to Remember at the "Night of the Brands"

There was a funfair feel to this year's "Night of the Brands” in Dusseldorf’s Capitol Music Theatre, as guests were treated to a presentation of a fairground which was a genuine “carnival of the senses”.

As part of the German Brand Awards ceremony,  DS Smith in Germany, one of the sponsors of the event, gave a presentation offering a vision of how the POS will be developed in the future to appeal to all of the customer’s senses.

Some 1,000 guests from management, marketing, media and advertising agencies were invited to this year's German Brand Awards. The marketing magazine “Absatzwirtschaft” and the German Marketing Association selected the winners in the "Best New Brand", "Best Brand Relaunch" and "Best Brand Extension" categories. The evening is always a star-studded event, introduced by high-profile hosts and featuring celebrity award-presenters, and this year did not disappoint, with German TV presenter Claudia Kleinert, the 2009 winner of Germany's Next Top Model Sara Nuru, comedian Vince Ebert and top international high-jumper Ariane Friedrich.

Packaging and display specialist DS Smith, one of the sponsors of the German Brand Awards and the "Night of the Brands", livened up the event further still with a hands-on presentation which caused a real stir. Guests were invited to “roll up” for fairground attractions made entirely out of cardboard, ranging from a “Strongman Striker” to a Ferris wheel and fairground show. Everyone’s senses were tingling, as the sweet smell of gingerbread and music from a barrel organ wafted across the venue, creating the perfect fairground feel.

"You can present products from various manufacturers in thematic installations like this," Carolyn Wagner, Sales & Marketing Director at DS Smith, described the new POS trend. The Ferris wheel gondolas offer an eye-catching way to present sweets and confectionery and toys fitting the theme can be sold in the cardboard booths. By getting people to join in, as demonstrated during the presentation at the German Brand Awards, you can ensure that the brands in question have an even stronger impact on customer awareness and remain firmly embedded in their memory. To avoid overkill DS Smith advises adopting a targeted approach, focusing on specific customer groups and emphasising brand-specific effects. "It is important to make sure that the installation does not jar and is just right for the brand in question. If you get that right then you can allow the customer’s senses to do the rest."

As at last year’s awards, DS Smith turned its presentation at the "Night of the Brands" into a fundraiser. People got well and truly stuck in, hurling softballs at the elk that had to be knocked over in the fairground show and swinging the hammer with all their might on the cardboard “Strongman Striker”. The company chipped in € 5 for each cardboard elk knocked over and each time someone bashed the hammer hard enough to record a "High Powered Lady" or "Muscleman" score on the “Strongman Striker”. At the end of the evening DS Smith rounded the winnings up to € 5,000, which is to be donated to charity. 

An unforgettable fairground: It was all the fun of the fair at the "Night of the Brands" as DS Smith in Germany, one of the sponsors of the German Brand Awards, presented hands-on installations appealing to all the senses, to show how new impulses will be generated for the POS in the future.