Nations’ games – POP global competition

Established in 1936, POPAI was a not-for-profit association for the in-store marketing industry. International in scope, its membership was made up of leading retailers, CPGs, brand agencies, producers and educators committed to relevant shopper marketing research and education.

POPAI was best known for its Marketplace tradeshow, which was established in 1946. At Marketplace, P.O.P. producers — most of them small, entrepreneurdriven manufacturing companies from the Northeast and Midwest — would exhibit their products to brand marketers such as Anheuser-Busch, M&M/Mars, and Procter & Gamble. POPAI Marketplace attracted thousands of domestic and international buyers and sellers interested in exploring the latest P.O.P. advertising trends in order to discover new and creative ideas to help drive retail sales. The exhibition is organized annually by the organization under the name GlobalShop.

Best in competition

In 1958 POPAI held the first ever Outstanding Merchandising Awards (OMA) Contest. It was the first of its kind and has continued to grow over the past 62 years becoming one of the most prestigious and iconic images of excellence in marketing at retail. Many local chapters followed the good example. Hungary started the Hungarian POPAI Awards in 2010.

In 2010 POPAI launched the first ever Global Marketing At Retail Awards Contest. Entrant companies from all around the world entered to see who was the best of the best from the marketing at retail industry from around the globe. The Award Ceremony was held on GlobalShop every year.

In October 2015, the Association for Retail Environments (A.R.E.) merged with Point of Purchase Advertising International (POPAI) to become Shop Environments Association. Member affiliates, mainly in Europe kept the POPAI name and with a subscription to Shop! like this: POPAI Hungary – Part of the Shop! Global Network.

To emphasize internationality, the Global Awards ceremony was held every three years at the EuroShop trade fair in Düsseldorf. An exception to this is this year, when the big event will be held online, on Thursday, June 25, at 22:30 Hungarian time.

Preliminary news

It is great to be part of the 70 entries from 17 countries. Who entered the Shop! Awards prooved the love of POP work so he/she gets access the entrant toolkit for a wide variety of tools and resources to use to begin sharing the great work on social media and other communication channels.

Most entries this year went to the “Food, Grocery & Convenience” category. The winner of the Hungarian “Non-permanent installation” category, the Monster Mango Loco pallet decor (Coca-Cola HBC Magyarország Kft.), competed here. The second most populous category is “Alcohol & Tobacco”, in which the Hungarian Display of the Year winner Rézangyal premium counter display family (Coca-Cola HBC Magyarország Kft.) also competed. There is also a Hungarian participant in the “Field & In-Store Promotion” category, the winner of the Hungarian “Non-permanent” category is the Zewa washing machine display (Essity Hungary Kft.). The youngest category that has existed since last year is Student Design, where the 4 gold medalists of the Hungarian POPAI Student Design Awards could also be entered. The fact that such a prestigious competition affects so many Hungarian players already shows that Hungarian creativity is at the forefront of the international POP industry.

Among the countries, Australia was the most successful this year, winning 6 of the 18 world titles, two more than last year. China boasts 4 awards and Brazil 3 awards. The USA, Spain, Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Hungary can welcome 1-1 world champions.