Innovation abounds in Hamburg

in-­cosmetics is the primary fixture in the C&T industry calender and 2014s event in Hamburg, which ran from 1­3 April, was no exception. Reed Exhibitions Cathy Laporte, Exhibition Manager for in-­cosmetics, toldCosmetics Business: “We had about 7,260 unique visitors, which actually makes this the best attended show outside of Paris. The previous record was 2012 in Barcelona, but this year we were 2% up on Barcelona.

“One of the greatest achievements was the number of local visitors. Each time weve been in Germany in the past, weve struggled to get German visitors. But 30% of this years visitors were German, just over 2,100. This is double the number of Germans weve had at the show ever.”

Laporte attributes this to strong marketing in the run-­up to the event. “We did a lot of good pre­ show promotion targeting individuals on our database. We did a lot of telemarketing for the show and what we tried to do especially was target companies whove never visited the show before. Of course the likes of Henkel and Beiersdorf were there, but we managed to get quite a lot of smaller German brands too, and brands focusing on organic and natural cosmetics. That was really key to the success of the show.”

In addition, there was a uptick in the number of attendees from northern countries including Finland and Denmark. “Having the show in northern Europe enables those people to travel while still keeping costs down,” said Laporte. “While they might not travel to southern Europe, they can drive to Hamburg. It reinforces the reason why in-­cosmetics moves location year by year.”

However, attendance at the Hamburg event was adversely affected by a three ­day Lufthansa pilots strike, from 2­-4 April. “We saw the difference,” admitted Laporte. “We were supposed to be up 10%. We saw it most on the second day with people not being able to travel. It wasnt the most senior people, because they have to find a way to get here. But a lot of pre-­registered attendees in more junior roles didnt come.”

This years in-­cosmetics in­-focus topic was Brazil. The Brazil Country Focus, sponsored by supplier Beraca and supported by Brazilian industry association ABIHPEC, included a Brazil Product Trail, a Networking Zone and a Brazilian Bar. According to Laporte: “One of the key reasons [we selected Brazil for 2014s Country Focus] is it is a booming country, so there is a lot of interest. Of course, one of the underlying reasons is the launch of in-­cosmetics Brasil [in São Paulo, on 9­-10 September 2014]. We launched in-­cosmetics Brasil a month before in-­cosmetics 2013 in Paris and [having a Brazil Country Focus this year] was a good way to continue the story and to involve some of our partners. ABIHPEC, for instance, is one of our partners for in-cosmetics Brasil and having it take care of the first ­time exhibitor pavilion was just perfect.”

Two other firsts for 2014 were the Green Ingredient Award, in association with Organic Monitor, and the Beiersdorf Innovation Pitch. Alban Muller took home the top honour in the new Green Ingredient Award for its Scurvy Grass Extract, while Ashland, Croda and KPT were announced as the winners of the Beiersdorf Innovation Pitch.

Commenting on the new award, Laporte said: “We wanted to cooperate with Beiersdorf, as this years show was in its backyard. This idea of aDragons Dentype competition just came via discussions with them.”

Meanwhile, the gold prize in the returning Innovation Zone Awards went to Gattefossé for Emulium Mellifera, a new­-generation PEG­-free solubiliser that auto­-adapts to skin type and climate.

Following on from a successful 2014 event, the next two years should witness further expansion of the in-­cosmetics brand. In addition to the inaugural in-­cosmetics Brasil, this year saw the announcement of the first in-­cosmetics Korea exhibition, which will run from 15-­16 June 2015 in Seouls COEX Exhibition Centre.

“Weve seen a lot of interest in the last couple of months in Korea and the Country Focus that we had on Korea at in-­cosmetics Asia was very popular. Plus it is a country which is quite hard to enter. We expect the visitors to be mostly Korean. Its very local – well have seminars in Korean, for instance. But weve seen a lot of interest.”

The next in-­cosmetics, meanwhile, takes place in Barcelona from 21-23 April 2015.