Find MUCI! – Most Useful Creative Innovations

The Trade Marketing Club has been organizing the “My Love is Trade Marketing” conference for almost 20 years in connection with Valentine’s Day. At the event, domestic experts meet to discuss current events in the industry. POPAI Hungary usually invites foreign speakers. And for the fourth time this year, the winners of the POPAI Student Design Awards have been announced here. Nearly 140 people registered for the event.

Zsuzsanna Hermann, one of the founders of TMK, the owner-editor-in-chief of Trade magazin, greeted those gathered at the MS Teams video conferencing interface. The other two founders of the Club, Ildikó Kátai, Secretary General of POPAI Hungary, and Ágnes Csiby, Managing Director of the In-Store Team, moderated the morning and afternoon blocks.

Domestic and foreign innovations

In the first part of the conference, participants were able to see digital and instore tools and approaches that resonate with the expectations of current, postcovid consumers through Hungarian and European examples. Typical consumer behavior groups were presented by Kriszta Bodnár, Business Development Manager of GfK FMCG. She also covered how different merchants are responding to changing customer needs.

Smart plaza in Kelenföld

Szabolcs Márton, the creative director of the Republic Group, the creative manager of the Etele Pláza project, presented with pictures and before and after illustrations what makes a smart shopping center, which was opened in September 2021, in the covid situation, different. In addition to its spectacular digital interfaces, the country’s third-largest mall awaits its customers with many other forward-looking initiatives.

Sustain, the measurable sustainability

Martin Kingdon, Head of POPAI UK & Ireland, presented for the first time in Hungary and the region the method and software used to measure, compare and calculate the effects of the production and placement of instore tools. They have licensing partners in 10 countries that have provided guidelines based on data audited by independent organizations for millions of displays from more than 350 brands.

“Why” instead of “What”

Bence Balogh, trade marketing manager at Nestlé Purina, has been working on the spectacular in-store implementation of the new category strategy for 3 years. They responded immediately to covid trends, provided a special opportunity for independent pet food stores, and used a novel approach in the chains as well.

FMCG consumption and media selection

László Karácsony, Director of Strategy and Marketing at the Atmedia Group, compared the spending data of the GfK household panel with their own online questionnaire and presented the correlations between the purchase volume and the TV, radio and online habits of the main customers. He highlighted the strengthening of the online, its inevitability during the covid period.

Multifunction instore communication

Zoltán Tóth, co-owner and manager of DigInStore Zrt., one of the inventors of Trafik Tv, an expert in the tobacco products market, presented the opportunities and novelties inherent in this channel. He also pointed out that this medium has outgrown the function of point-of-sale advertising, and its role in informing, raising awareness, educating and building a brand is also significant.

‘Higher Purpose’ in innovation and communication

Zsuzsanna Szak, Director of Henkel Beauty Care, said that consumers expect large companies and brands to be active in the environment protection and society. And to support the higher purpose, shoppers are happy to come together, whether it’s collecting bottles, calculating their personal carbon footprint, or just organizing a charity about Christmas packages.

Winners on the stage

In the afternoon block, the 3 category winners of the StarStore – Dealer of the Year 2021 competition presented their award-winning concept.

Anita Kozma, CBA Grand Gourmet’s head of marketing, presented the department store in the central part of Buda targetting gourmet customers with it’s premium surfaces and interior design solutions, special offers and services.

Katalin Nock-Vető, marketing manager of Pek-Snack, invited the participants to a virtual cake. Their new strategy is based on increasing the consumer experience, strengthening branding, cooperating with big brands, which is also reflected in the new image.

Ildikó Varga-Futó, Auchan’s director of corporate communications, listed the innovations of the Auchan store in Budaörs. Their goal is to provide a wide, constantly renewable and high quality product range. Uniqueness is also characteristic in the design of private label, counters, seasonal and Culture zone and free services, programs, sustainability ideas.

The closing chord of the conference was MUCI at the University, the award ceremony of the POPAI Student Design Awards 2021 and the introduction of the winners. Krisztián Király, the business development manager of PICK Szeged, as the theme sponsor of the competition, presented the published tasks and gave his personal impressions.

Károly Németh, Marketing Manager of SPAR, as the main sponsor of the competition, highlighted the role of young talent in the future of the industry and stressed that this year’s competitors dazzled the jury with their innovative ideas. A total of 9 awards were presented, 2 third, 1 second, 3 first place winners and 3 special prize winners were able to enjoy the prestigious recognition and present their design to the professional audience. You can read more about the awarded entries in the digital and print issues of Trade magazine 2-3 in POPAI news and on popai.hu.

The professional partner of the conference: