Competing against tough London opposition, Leicester based Leapfrog Marketing has been awarded the creative design contract for IMHX 2019. The largest event in the UK for the logistics and supply chain industries, IMHX (International Materials Handling Exhibition) is a tri-annual event held at the NEC in Birmingham.
The exhibition attracts over 400 exhibitors and more than 20,000 visitors. It is organised by Informa Exhibitions and co-owned by Informa and BITA (British Industrial Truck Association).
Earlier this year, Informa approached a number of leading marketing and design consultancies with an invitation to pitch for the creative design theme for the 2019 IMHX event. The chosen theme would be used extensively over the next three years for both exhibitor and visitor promotion campaigns. It would also be used for onsite signage at the exhibition.
After carrying out research with influential figures in the industry, including the editors of leading trade publications, Leapfrog developed three strong creative concepts to present to the Informa executives. Each concept was designed not only to be recognisable, memorable and versatile, but also to give the IMHX brand a strong personality.
The first, ‘Arrows’ featured a stylised Union Jack, the second ‘Child’s Play’ was a fun theme with headlines focussing on hot topics and the third was ‘Retro Robot’, an eye-catching, versatile creative theme with ‘legs’. The robot concept proved to be a winner, giving Leapfrog the creative theme contract.
Alan Myers, managing director of the company explains, “We chose to make the robot ‘retro’ because we wanted something that wouldn’t date in the run up to the show. The speed of technological advance is such that if we had used a current robotic model there is a danger it would look out of date by the time the show came around. Our ‘retro’ robot approach overcomes this and will still look fresh and fun in 2019.
“To be awarded the contract was a real coup for Leapfrog Marketing as we were competing against some significant London agencies. Over the next three years we are looking forward to working with Informa’s young, dynamic marketing team and together, our goal is to make the 2019 event bigger, better and more successful than ever before.”
Rob Fisher, Director, Materials Handling Group, Informa Exhibitions Ltd comments, “Leapfrog Marketing has many years’ experience of our industry. They displayed a thorough understanding of the design brief we gave them and any one of their concepts could have worked. Their idea to use a retro robot theme to promote IMHX 2019 was, however, inspirational; it was a concept we all loved right from the start.
“Overall, Leapfrog’s creative campaign proposal ticked all the right boxes – it’s not only eye-catching, imaginative and adaptable, but also it clearly reflects the technology driven industry that our exhibition serves.”