Berlin’s Bread && Butter show a roaring success with visitors

By

Christel Divert

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Sep 5, 2018

Last weekend, it was difficult for Berliners to ignore the Bread && Butter trade show: posters for its exhibitor brands festooned the city, and the event was widely reported on local and national media. From Friday August 31 to Sunday September 2, this hybrid mega show dedicated to fashion and music welcomed no less than 35,000 visitors, compared to 30,000 last year. The two halls of the Berlin Arena which hosted the event, and the area around them, were buzzing with groups of young people, couples and even parents with adolescent children, all eager to visit the show’s 40 or so exhibitor stands, the vast majority of them by fashion brands. Cosmetics labels Clinique, M.A.C. and Origins were also present, as German e-tailer Zalando, the owner of Bread && Butter, has featured a beauty section since March.

The most popular exhibitors were those who put their products up for sale, or offered services, entertainment or even the chance to take part in a prize draw, like Mercedes, at whose stand visitors could try their luck at winning a car. Many exhibitors, besides selling their wares, adopted an experiential approach: Nike and Adidas staged concerts, while at Columbia’s stand you could customise t-shirts using paintball equipment in a transparent booth.

About 350 influencers were expected at the show, from Berlin and Germany of course but also from the rest of Europe and the USA, such as New York-based Instagrammer and model Jazzelle Zanaughtti, a.k.a. Uglyworldwide. According to the organisers, only a few influencers were invited by the show itself. Many others were guests of the exhibitors, and the majority came just to “be there.” The goal was to maximise the number of hashtags referring to the event and the exhibitor brands.

It is hard to measure the returns the event generated for the exhibitors. Some labels barely featured the event on their Facebook or Instagram accounts, while Diesel for example used the show as a platform for the launch of its capsule collection in collaboration with cult Berlin kebab diner Mustafa’s Gemüse Kebap. The social media impact was more than acceptable, Diesel’s launch video totting up 552,000 views on Instagram and more than 411,000 views on Facebook.