Following our work with Samsung on several other initiatives, including their Benelux HQ showroom, Selfridges London concession and shop-in-shop concepts across Europe, Samsung Germany approached us with a brief to design their 2013 corporate roadshow, which took place in March.

The event landed in seven German cities in one month, showing off latest products, design and technology across all categories. This is the key trade show for Samsung Germany and Europe,
used to reinforce the brand’s market-leading position with all of its key accounts and set the tone for the coming year. Retailers from all parts of Germany are invited to attend this event. Our brief was to create a sense of discovery, to help people navigate the space and products and ensure that they discover all the features and benefits from the new 2013 range.

The key challenge in creating this exhibition was logistics. In order to move the exhibition to so many cities in such a short time, a modular concept was required. Everything, from smaller
more intimate experiences, to larger high-impact areas like the central ‘Hub’, could be assembled and constructed using the same components.

The hub area acts as the heart of the exhibition and holds the newest and most advanced products, demonstrating how they connect and control each other. The modular structure here stands at 4.5m high and creates a blue saturated area both in colour and light. It is visible from all areas of the show and connects each category to the latest product showcase. The individual category areas work off large monolithic modular tables, where people are encouraged to discover the products and new technologies. Other key areas include training rooms and a fully working kitchen area.

As well as creating the environment, we were asked to brand the event and create a consistent brand language that could be applied across all key touch-points. We developed key elements such as invitations, postcard giveaways, carrier bags and product communications. We wanted to create an identity that was flexible, repeatable and scalable, to ensure a consistent look and feel, while also making each area feel individual. We developed a palette using Samsung’s new ‘Interstate’ font, a light grey, sky blue and touches of the brand colour. The approach is bold and fresh, giving the roadshow a distinctive and ownable look.

The identity was inspired by the shape of the hub and the tagline, “Mehr Moglich Machen”, which translates as “Make More Possible”. This was used all around the show to reinforce the message of discovery within Samsung’s product. Taking product silhouettes supplied by Samsung, we created a repeatable pattern to be fret-cut into the hub walls, together with the large fret-cut statement: Innovation, Inspiration, Emotion. The fret-cut technique was a perfect device to keep the discovery theme of the show integrated with the main feature.

For the show, we created large navigational totems, with strong bold typography and imagery, which helped break up the space and created controlled views from one product category to another. Each product category was supported with a communication hierarchy, category navigation, statements explaining top-line product features and a more detailed A4/A5 information ticket, which was held in a groove on the minimal tabletop.

This roadshow has been the most successful Samsung show to date, both in terms of the number of visitors and orders, and in terms of reinforcing Samsung’s dominant market position in Germany. The bar has been raised and expectations for next year’s show are high.

Contact:
David Wright
Group Marketing Director
d.wright@dalziel-pow.com
+44(0)20 7837 7117
www.dalziel-pow.com