This week has seen IFE13 and the Vitality Show take place in London and what amazed me is the range of PR effort that went into both exhibitions.
IFE is one of the world’s most important food exhibitions which takes place every two years, yet some stands looked like they’d been thrown together at the last minute (be ashamed WI Foods), press information was conspicuous by its absence in the majority of cases and online promotion was sadly lacking. I couldn’t help but think that for a lot of companies the investment they’d made in the show had been wasted because they hadn’t joined up their sales and marketing dots. It’s just astounding that the press offices weren’t bulging at the seams and that stands weren’t geared to collecting data and engaging customers. Hats off to The Good Whey Company who did a fantastic job at the Vitality Show with sampling, great press information, give-aways and a competition-led research activity geared at getting retailers to stock the new product, Upbeat. It’d be interesting to know if those speciality foods, artisan producers and health & wellbeing exhibitors who had thought about their branding and told their story visually and via a press release got better feedback than those who didn’t: my money’s on a resounding yes!
My eye was caught by some great products at both exhibitions:
Qcumber won the Outstanding New Product Innovation award for its sparkling drink and had a great stand too:
Clearly Scrumptious had a fantastic stand and their fruit snacks were simply delicious:
I tried the original flavour Pure Beef snacks at IFE and then had the Peri Peri flavour at home – wow, what a taste explosion! A great product for athletes and gym bunnies alike:
I loved the gluten and dairy free pizza bases from Venice Bakery: 
Good to see a local company at IFE too – PE Mead of Tring was showing its Chiltern Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil and from the number of people around its gorgeous stand, their oils were going down a treat: 
The new curds from The Pickled Village were wonderful and their stand looked good enough to eat. Well done to Camille for having a range of press material available too – including a great recipe booklet: 
Propercorn is not only a great tasting product, but the company took the trouble to dress their stand in such a way that it drew people like magnets: 
The RAW Health crackers were yummy and I loved the packaging too: 
The next exhibition for me is the Natural & Organic Products Europe in April – see you there!
