D – It took place on January 8, 2024, on the eve of the PSI Show: The opening of the Museum of Promotional Articles, MoPA for short. The initiator of this unique show for haptic advertising is the director of cyber-Wear, Steven Baumgaertner, who together with his team meticulously collected over 200 exhibits within a preparation time of one year, which informatively record the history of the promotional product and aim to do justice to the significance of this unique form of advertising.
Baumgaertner and his team had invited selected industry celebrities from all over the world to the opening of the exhibition, which was presented to a wide trade audience for the first time in Hall 10 of the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre over the following three days of the PSI Show. Many industry VIPs followed his invitation.
After an opening speech by Michael Köhler, CSO of the owner of the PSI, RX Austria & Germany, and PSI Director Petra Lassahn, Baumgaertner thanked the supporters and sponsors of his project as well as his team, before the Lord Mayor of the City of Düsseldorf, Dr. Stephan Keller, festively inaugurated the MoPA.
Subsequently Baumgaertner personally showed numerous guests around the pop-up exhibition in small groups, visibly proud of the collection of items that had been compiled. Quite rightly too: The collection that had been sought together from all over the globe was spread over 170 m² in different rooms and gave an insight into how promotional products evolved, outlined the “career” of certain promotional products classics like lanyards, baseball caps or cuddly bears and dared to take a look into the future, where haptic and digital media are merging closer and closer together.
Not only the diversity of the exhibits was impressive – from a pocket knife from Solingen, through to the BIC crystal pen – but also the many stories linked to haptic advertising media: For instance the women’s rights advocates known as suffragettes from the 1920s, who printed their demands on bags and umbrellas or the “terrible towel” of the American Football Club Pittsburgh Steelers, that the clubs’ fans wave during the games and which has already collected millions of dollars for good causes.
The form of the presentation was very successful. Elaborate details in the staging allowed one to become totally engrossed in the exhibition, especially if listening to the accompanying texts that could be called up via an app. Visiting the MoPA is an absolute must for people interested in haptic advertising or anyone who wants to get to know this field in future. The exhibition is to be presented at other platforms in the future as well.
A detailed follow-up report will be printed in the next issue of eppi magazine, No. 151 (February 21, 2024).
// Mischa Delbrouck
Fotos: Mischa Delbrouck, © WA Media
