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Fine art, gummy bears and B2B tradeshows

 
Curiosity by
Dieter Jaspers
Director of Business
Fine art, gummy bears and B2B tradeshows
A curiosity by Dieter Jaspers
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When, in 1639, Rembrandt van Rijn completed his masterpiece, The Night Watch, he perhaps didn’t fully appreciate its future impact on confectionery production in Europe.

But the worlds of fine art and modern-day food production collided at Interpack 2026 in Düsseldorf last week, when one exhibitor unveiled a colossal 30m2 mosaic of the painting made out of gummy bears.

Yep, that’s right – gummy bears.

It was created by Tanis, a company that makes confectionery production equipment. It was not only the centrepiece of the Tanis stand, it was confirmed as the new world record for the largest mosaic made out of confectionery. Impressive, if rather niche.

It begs the question why they did it – to which I have three possible answers:

  1. They really like gummy bears

  2. They really like Rembrandt
  3. They really wanted to stand out creatively at the show.

1 and 2 are possible. Who doesn’t like fine art and candy? But I think you know where I’m going with this. The real answer is 3.

They wanted people to come and see them, talk to them, remember them.

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Bloody hell, it’s enormous

This is pretty tough at an event the size of Interpack. Spread over 18 different halls, it welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors. It’s massive. They tell me that to visit every exhibitor would involve walking 20km. It’s hard to get attention when there is so much else going on.

But physical events like this are more important than ever. B2B brands know they need to be real. They need to win trust. They need to meet people and connect on a human level.

And that’s why hundreds of thousands of people flock to Interpack every three years. Customers want to actually see people, have conversations, find out what’s going on in the world of packaging. And it’s why almost 3,000 companies pay to have a presence. And it’s also why it takes something pretty special to stand out.

In this case it took millions of bear-shaped candies. But I would argue that brands don’t always have to be big, or loud, or worthy of a world record.

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Back off, buddy

They simply need to be true to themselves and distinctive from everyone else. Tanis claim to be “crazy about candy production”. So a stunt like this is bang on-brand for them. But whatever your industry or your positioning, you should not be afraid to do something different to make your brand stand out.

But it doesn’t always help to approach every passer-by with a sales pitch as soon as they appear. If you have something interesting to show them, (like the virtual city we built for Thermo King, for example) they will be pleased to spend a couple of minutes discovering for themselves. And then they’re more likely to want to talk about it.

So I have two simple takeaways from Interpack. First, relating to people in a human, creative, interesting way is more important than ever. Second is that you don’t have to be an artist (or set a world record for that matter), you just have to be brave and truthful about it.

And if you would like help delivering a brave and truthful trade show experience for your brand, why not get in touch?

Hope to speak soon!

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