Packaging Innovations, Luxury Packaging and ADF London’s returned to London Olympia this September 12-13 for the biggest and busiest edition to date, according to the organsiers. As usual, the events were complemented by a free-to-attend programme of seminars and networking opportunities.

New features

Sustainability was top of the agenda, with leading figures from Coca-Cola, Sainsburys, The Packaging Federation and WRAP all taking to the stage for the launch of the Big Plastics Debate 2.0. This interactive discussion, run in association with The Foodservice Packaging Association and OPRL, brought together a line-up of experts in the packaging supply chain to tackle the issue of plastic waste in packaging.

New for 2018 and with sustainability still in mind, the show hosted the UK’s first ever Plastic-Free Aisle. This was developed in partnership with A Plastic Planet, which also helped Dutch supermarket Ekoplaza deliver the same concept in Amsterdam earlier this year.

In another first, Packaging Innovations London 2018 introduced a new partnership with Aerosol Dispensing Forum (ADF), the world’s premier event for the aerosol and dispensing community. This saw the introduction of a dedicated ADF Zone on the show floor, featuring leading suppliers from within the industry. Further developing the show’s offering for the cosmetic industry, ADF also curated a series of seminars, which proved a hugely popular.

Packaging and social media

Another hot topic emerging from this year’s show was the role that social media has to play in the design of packaging. Steve Honour, Design Leader at Diageo, argued that the impact packaging will have on social media is vital and must be considered during the design process. “The design of packaging is more relevant now that it ever has been before. If someone told you ten years ago that you would see photos of packaging on social media you wouldn’t have believed them, but we now live in a world where people get just as excited about packaging as they do about the product inside. It is important to understand this and be conscious that we are now designing for the consumer. Social media gives people more access to share their opinions, both good and bad, so it is vital that we get it right and design packaging that is truly impactful for these platforms.

Paris Camara, former MD of Glossybox, agreed, illustrating in his talk how important packaging is to beauty brand fans and what that means for a company’s digital strategy: “Looking at the top four fragrance brands and their 2017 activity on Instagram, 32 percent of their posts related to packaging. That’s significant, but what’s more important is the interaction - the likes, shares - the things that get a brand in front of a bigger audience. Packaging was the single biggest driver of interaction. At least 50 percent of the engagement with the fragrance brands on Instagram centred around their packaging! That’s why packaging should play a really big part of a company’s digital plans.

The next Easyfairs packaging event will be Packaging Innovations, Label&Print and Empack 2019, which takes place at Birmingham NEC on 27 & 28 February 2019, while Packaging Innovations 2019 will take place at Olympia London on September 11 & 12.