Smurfit Kappa demonstrated the impressive capabilities of its ShelfSmart service, including its new packaging solution, Shelf Facer, at its Shopper Marketing event last week.

Shelf Facer is a shelf-ready pack designed to boost product sales and raise brand awareness in-store. Trialed in a UK pilot scheme for premium cereal bar brand Stoats, the Shelf Facer led to an impressive 13.8% uplift in sales.

Smurfit Kappa drew on insights from its ShelfSmart service and replaced Stoats’ existing pack with the Shelf Facer which has an in-built merchandising solution to maintain an attractive on-shelf presence.

The Stoats example was one of many case studies showcasing how ShelfSmart has provided a double-digit growth in sales that were revealed at the two-day event.

One of the guest speakers at the event was world-renowned Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience Fabio Babiloni from the Sapienza University of Rome, who has been working with Smurfit Kappa to implement neuromarketing science insights into its ShelfSmart service.

Neuromarketing is a commercial marketing communication field that applies neuropsychology to marketing research. Combined research of Babiloni and Smurfit Kappa has shown the enormous world of potential that opens up when applying neuromarketing insights to the design of packaging and displays.

ShelfSmart, which combines research from 65,000 shoppers across 26 product categories in 14 countries, has a growing library of unique insights and solutions, including the new Shelf Facer.

Speaking about last week’s event Rene van Bemmel, Smurfit Kappa Shopper Marketing Manager, said: “We were delighted to welcome more than 100 shopper marketing professionals from the world’s biggest brands to this event. They got to see first-hand how packaging and displays can play an instrumental role in brand recognition and sales.

“At Smurfit Kappa, we’re always looking for ways to deliver more for our customers and ShelfSmart is pushing the boundaries in shopper marketing all the time. ”

The Shopper Marketing event took place at Smurfit Kappa’s Global Experience Centre in Amsterdam.