June 1, 2017
Those who work in this industry understand the difference in paperboard, containerboard, kraft paper, and just plain paper—but the average person simply sees the box or package that’s bringing them what they want. To showcase the idea that the paper material at the heart of our industry is essential to modern innovation and entrepreneurial solutions, the Paper and Packaging Board created #PoweredbyPaper, an interactive trade show booth at South by Southwest, the pop-culture film, music, and tech festival held annually in Austin, Texas.
The booth featured a dozen innovative products, all built on the idea that paper-based material was essential to bringing that product to life, chosen by the inventor or maker because it was uniquely able to provide a solution. The goal? To have the influencers and visitors in attendance appreciate, as our industry does, that paper-based materials have endless possibilities to create new, innovative products that keep our lives productive and safe—and that paper-based materials are the “natural choice” for creators and innovators.
Hundreds of visitors stopped by the gallery produced by the Paper & Packaging – How Life Unfolds™ campaign to see how this 2,000-year-old technology powers modern creativity at the intersection of design and digital. Thousands more snapped and shared photos, tweeted and posted across social channels.
The interactive event was the first time the Paper and Packaging Board incorporated experiential outreach into the marketing mix of the consumer-focused Paper & Packaging – How Life Unfolds™ campaign. Currently, advertising can be seen across digital video platforms and, in April, in magazine from Bloomberg Businessweek to Parents, Us Weekly, Forbes, Men’s Journal, Sky, and Hemispheres.
While each use of the material covered by the board’s program was represented, the focus was on how consumers interact with innovations they didn’t know could be made from paper materials—innovations such as the trade show booth itself, a foldable homeless shelter, baby boxes, virtual reality viewers, and more. For a complete list of innovations featured, visit www.howlifeunfolds.com/poweredbypaper.
What can we learn from this? On a trade show floor, literally surrounded by the latest digital doodads and technological advances, the crowd at our booth was elbow-to-elbow as visitors took a moment to appreciate other makers. Our in-booth giveaway was a small field notes paperboard-covered book visitors were able to personalize. A station with paper supplies was provided where show attendees took a quiet, creative moment to become makers themselves. Now, that is the power of paper.
Joan Sahlgren is director of public relations at Paper and Packaging Board.
