POPAI 2003-13: one decade of in-store marketing in Hungary

POPAI, the Chicago-seated global association for Marketing at Retail was founded 77 years ago. Its Hungarian branch, the POPAI Hungary Association is 10 years old. Founder-president Miklós Bonyár informed members in 2003 that the Pest County Court registered the association. He had first learned about POPAI at the EuroShop trade fair in Düsseldorf and started exchanging letters with POPAI UK&Ireland to find out more about in-store marketing, which was hardly known in Hungary back then. POPAI fully supported the idea of establishing the Hungarian POPAI association.

Conferences were organised with international presenters and magazines such as Instore and Sign were published. In 2004 Tímea Pesti, managing director of HL Display Kft. became POPAI Hungary’s president. A difficult period commenced as the formerly closely connected magazines distanced from the organisation and many members were involved in the work of POPAI through Miklós Bonyár. Tímea Pesti counted on international support but in this period other POPAI countries were busy solving their own problems. The initial enthusiasm died down and when the number of members went below 10 founding members the POPAI Hungary Association ceased to exist. A friendly chat with Zsuzsanna Hermann, editor-in-chief of the newly launched Trade magazin led to relaunching the organisation in 2007 with In-Store Team managing director Ágnes Csiby and trade marketing expert Ildikó Kátai. Since 2009 Ágnes Csiby has been the president of the POPAI Hungary association. She thought it was a good idea to have a trade organisation with international connections as it gives members the chance to exchange ideas and experiences with members from other countries. The association keeps inviting prestigious brand manufacturers, retailers, market researchers, POP manufacturers, representatives of the media and advertising agencies to meetings, conferences and workshops. At these events participants can learn a lot from each other – actually one of the association’s mottos is ‘We learn from one another while teaching each other’. The POPAI Awards POP competition was first organised in 2010 as part of the FMCG trade’s biggest event, the Business Days conference. Winners of the competition represent Hungary at the POPAI Global Awards. The series of conferences organised with Trade Marketing Club is another successful initiative and every year international POPAI presenters come to take part. Ágnes Csiby told our magazine that she is proud to see how the number of members is growing. Other POPAI countries also acknowledge the work of the Hungarian association, for instance at the February events POPAI Global president Richard Winter himself will represent the international POPAI community.