SIAL International Food Week, organized by Comexposium, the China General Chamber of Commerce and Comexposium-Sial Exhibition Co. Ltd., kicked off on May 16 and came to a successful conclusion on May 20. With a feast integrating “summit, exhibition and business dovetailing”, SIAL Shanghai pooled its superior resources in the hope that a new online food trade environment would boost the confidence of food practitioners amid the pandemic as well as industry transactions and exchanges. The first food week witnessed SIAL’s complete procurement strategy, including the online product promotion meeting JUSTORDER, the SIAL online matching day, the online dovetailing meeting KEEP-GO and the online SIAL Global Food Industry Summit. These have allowed the food and beverage industry to seek cooperation, promote trade and develop new opportunities. Together, they attracted 100,000 professionals and facilitated nearly 1,000 online B2B trade negotiations and deals. More than 600 media platforms were actively present, with nearly 12 million news and advertising exposures and 1,000,000 views, including live broadcasts and replays.
Various trade services empower exhibitors to access quality buyers
One of SIAL Shanghai’s core philosophies is to do everything possible to serve exhibitors, create business opportunities and enhance the value of the exhibition. Due to the impact of the pandemic, SIAL Shanghai was postponed to between December 7 and 9. In order to help exhibitors maintain stable brand exposure and seize the opportunity for market recovery, organizers have launched a series of beneficial programs for exhibitors. SIAL International Food Week features three major events, providing exhibitors with opportunities for product displays and promotions, dovetailing between supply and demand and boosts to trade bases.
On May 16, the first online product promotion meeting on the official SIAL Shanghai video account on WeChat officially lifted the curtain to SIAL International Food Week. Four well-known food companies participated in the live broadcast with their star products: Jiaxiang’s Shredded Crab Sticks, A+ Cod Sausage and Crispy Bone Sausage; Shizu Energy’s Hot and Sour Noodles with Peas and Hot Tripe Noodles; Longcui Tang’s Lanbowang Beef Noodles; and Beiwei 47°’s Three-Hour Fresh Sweet Corn, Black Pearl Corn and Chewy Corn. During the live broadcast, the companies and their products were shared to SIAL’s official community in real time, effectively connecting both ends of supply and demand. Driven by the live broadcast and the brand, countless queries were made on the featured products.
The second activity, SIAL online matching day, was held from May 17 to 20 based on the two SIAL Shanghai platforms, namely the Online Marketplace on the official website and the related applet on WeChat. Exhibitors logged in through either avenue to display corporate information and products to their fullest extent. They also made online appointments, communicated with buyers and reached cooperative deals by virtue of these digital tools. During the food week, the two platforms welcomed more than 2,000 companies, and they will remain open, providing services for food companies and buyers all year round.
As the climax of the event, KEEP-GO offered two one-on-one matching sessions on May 18 and 20, one for offline retail channels and the other for online ones. A total of more than 200 precise trade negotiations between food companies and large buyers have been made. More than 30 food brands were engaged in the matching process, including Dazhuangyuan, Ryukakusan, Genwang, Qiao Nuo Fan and Xinnuo. In terms of buyers, offline retailers included Beijing Lianhua Supermarket, Changchun Eurasia Supermarket, Meishilin Group Supermarket, Daily Supermarket, 7-Eleven, Jingkelong, Ito Yokado and Dalian Hualian Supermarket. Online retailers served include Gome, Tmall, Caifeng, Meione, Xinxuan, Alibaba, JD.com and Dingdong Maicai.
In addition to the activities mentioned above, SIAL will continue to diversify its trade services, including online dovetailing meetings, online product promotion meetings, the SIAL THINK THANK, the official WeChat video account and the Douyin marketing account, with omni-channel digital marketing services meant to help exhibitors achieve fruitful results.
SIAL Global Food Industry Summit brings global insights to food industry
The SIAL Global Food Industry Summit, the finale of SIAL International Food Week, was held online as scheduled from May 18 to 20. With the theme “Win-Win Collaboration under the Global Wisdom Chain”, the summit was broadcast live in two languages. A total of 43 guests from home and abroad delivered speeches at the three-day event, attracting professional viewers from 15 countries and regions, including France, the United States, Canada, Indonesia and Thailand. The number of live viewers on the official website and video account hit 57,050, with more than 106,731 online interactions.
Yao Jingyuan, a famous economist and a contract research fellow of the Counselors’ Office of the State Council; Fan Gang, famous economist and vice president of the China Society of Economic Reform; Christopher Pissarides, famous economist and Nobel Laureate in Economics; Jiang Ming, president of the China General Chamber of Commerce; and Elaine Chia, CEO of Comexposium Asia Pacific delivered keynote speeches. “The sharing of many internationally renowned economists, world-class entrepreneurs and representatives of international organizations at the summit fully demonstrates that SIAL Shanghai is playing an increasingly important role in the world food trade,” commented Ms. Chia.
As a world-renowned exhibition organizer, Comexposium is headquartered in Paris, France, and bears profound insights into the global food market. The SIAL series of international food and beverage exhibitions are held every year in Shanghai, Paris, Las Vegas, Montreal, Toronto, Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, Jakarta and other places around the world. It has become a major platform for many food companies worldwide to speak for themselves and demonstrate their value. Relying on the SIAL series’ global network and its own experiences in China over the past 22 years, SIAL Shanghai has attracted nearly 40,000 exhibitors and millions of professionals from all four corners of the world.
SIAL offers excellent publicity-focused platform for food companies to maintain brand exposure
Given the effects of the pandemic, it is crucial for enterprises to maintain a stable presence in the market. For better exhibiting, SIAL Shanghai pulled both resources and advantages together and presented a series of activities to increase trade opportunities for exhibitors during its food week. At the same time, the publicity for SIAL International Food Week drove and enhanced every angle of the brand exposure rate of exhibitors. On the one hand, exhibitors had the opportunity to gain additional market shares and win in the current market. On the other hand, they were able to maintain a stable and strong image, helping them secure a better chance of becoming the first choice for customers when the market recovers.
SIAL International Food Week was promoted through SIAL Shanghai’s official website, WeChat accounts, Weibo and Douyin as well as nearly a million industry databases developed over its 22 years in the Chinese market. In addition, the event was covered by over 600 media outlets, including mainstream media such as People’s Daily, Xinhuanet, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, CDC, Global.com, China Business Network, Tencent.com, Sohu.com, iFeng Finance, Sina Finance and China News Service; industry media like China Food Newspaper, 21food.cn, importfood.net, Science and Technology of Food Industry, Food Science and Technology, Chinese Cuisine and foodmate.net; and new media platforms such as watcn.com, Bilibili, xueqiu.com and Douyin. News feed ads have been placed on Douyin, Baidu, Toutiao, Tencent, etc. and have reached millions of users. The number of exposures is currently approaching 12,000,000.
SIAL International Food Week is another brand event created by SIAL in China. As one of the top three food and beverage professional showcases worldwide and an annual global food and beverage industry chain conference, SIAL Shanghai will continue to play its role and fulfil its mission as an international food trade and exchange platform, continuously bringing the industry global insights and creating new opportunities for exchanges in international foods.
“At a time of economic downturn, it’s even more pertinent for SIAL, an authoritative and professional global media outlet for food and beverage trade services, to stand up and build new trade and communication platforms to effectively serve enterprises,” highlighted the director of an organizer for SIAL Shanghai. The SIAL China series, namely SIAL Shenzhen and SIAL Shanghai, will be held at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center (Futian) from October 31 to November 2 and in the Shanghai New International Expo Center (Pudong) from December 7 to 9.
