Cosmoprof North America has attained record-breaking exhibitor attendance and ticket sales for its 2016 event. The business-to-business beauty trade show was held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, covering 280,991 square feet (10% larger than last year’s space). The show saw 33,750 attendees (a 12.5% increase over 2015) and 1,154 exhibitors, representing 38 countries (a 12% increase over 2015). In addition to some of its most-popular show attractions—including Discover Beauty, Tones of Beauty and Discover Scent—the show introduced attendees to brand-new sections, such as Discover Green and Glamour Me.
CPNA 2016 also hosted some of the most influential beauty influencers in the business, giving exhibitors a chance to be covered on their social-media channels. The beauty influencers together represented more than 23 million impressions and 400 posts. Their diversity comprised ethnic, multicultural, television, vlogger and blogger varieties.
Attendees enjoyed the following, amidst an array of programs throughout the show floor:
Discover Green—The special area was curated with input from Insiders Guide to Spas and was dedicated to eco-friendly, clean, organic and/or natural beauty products. It mimicked the high-end, exclusive feel of Discover Beauty, Spotlights, Discover Scent and Tones of Beauty.
Glamour Me—The new beauty lounge allowed attendees to experience participating exhibitor products first-hand. It saw nearly 200 appointments booked, exceeding expectations. Attendee appointments included hair, nails, skin and makeup. The 30-minute appointments were performed by select exhibitors.
Tones of Beauty—Returning for its second year at the show, showcased a select group of coveted and innovative multicultural brands across every major sector: skin, hair and color. To ensure successful program implementation and brand selection, CPNA repeated its collaboration with renowned global beauty media group love, Aunt Bonnie and added a dedicated educational conference to learn about market specifics.
Discover Beauty—This section presented a lineup of startup beauty brands. The high-end, curated section combined the best of both worlds: pre-arranged face-to-face meetings with key retail buyers, such as Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, Barneys New York, HSN and Kohl’s, along with a traditional exhibition presentation, where all attendees were invited to visit and discover the selected brands. Chaleur Beauty was this year’s winner of the official Discover Beauty 2016 Award.
Discover Beauty Spotlights—This was an exclusive initiative within the Discover Beauty program. This department-store type presentation served as a showcase for companies viewed as big on creativity, yet small in size, yet also prime for high-end retail stores, boutiques, salons and spas.
IBFE—Returning for the second year, International Business Forum & Exhibition focused on the beauty supply chain business platform for companies specializing in contract manufacturing, packaging, machinery, OEM and raw materials. The program benefited from key strategic placement on the show floor and a full package that included buyer meetings.
TV Shopping Channel Auditions—This section also returned for 2016, offering live auditions for major U.S. TV shopping channels, QVC, HSN and Evine Live, whereby exhibitors were able to pitch products live to the merchants. New this year, exhibitors were able to audition with international TV shopping channels, including The Shopping Channel (Canada), HSE (Germany) and GS Shop (Korea). Also new this year, CPNA created a new collaboration with EVINE Live, an ominichannel retail experience whereby the organizers provided the opportunity for key buyers from the network to meet with exhibitors inside a dedicated space on the show floor.
BOUTIQUE—This attendee favorite was buzzing with activity. It was presented as a sampling bar, showcasing deluxe premium-size samples from 20 exhibiting brands. For a $10 donation, attendees were able to chose seven samples out of 20 featured products. This year’s show raised more than $13,000 to be given to Look Good, Feel Better.
Discover Scent—Air Aroma, a leading scent-branding agency that designs custom fragrances for luxury brands around the world, returned this year to scent main show areas through its patented diffusion technology. It also custom-formulated a signature CPNA fragrance this year. This show floor area was dedicated exclusively to fragrance, featuring 13 niche fragrance brands curated with the assistance of Sniffapalooza.
CPNA hosted PBA Beauty Week, which presented the second-annual Beauty Pitch, which was co-hosted by PBA on Saturday, July 23. The one-of-a-kind beauty competition showcased six innovative beauty companies in two separate categories: Startup and Established. More than 1,000 attendees gathered to watch the participating companies pitch their products to a panel of celebrity judges, including John Paul DeJoria; Kevin Harrington; ELLE
beauty director Emily Dougherty; executive editor at InStyle
Digital Innovation of Time Inc. Deanne Kaczerski; and Mark Spinks, president of BSG CosmoProf and Armstrong McCall, Sally Beauty Holdings.
The winners of the esteemed event included: Sunlights Balayage Inc., P3 Pure, both recipients of cash prizes; and O.R.G Skincare, chosen by the merchants of BSG to gain distribution into all 1,200 nationwide stores and online. Additionally, all semi-finalists received an invitation to be featured in an online exclusive boutique on Amazon Launchpad.
The 2016 North American Hairstyling Award winners were recognized during a star-studded awards ceremony on July 24, during PBA Beauty Week. It was hosted by Alan Cumming, Tony award-winning actor, author and activist. This year’s Hairstylist of the Year was presented to Matt Swinney of Evolution in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The event drew more than 3,000 attendees, while thousands tuned in to watch PBA’s live streaming broadcast online at Nahalive.com.
Cosmoprof North America will return to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center July 9-11, 2017.
[Image courtesy of Cosmoprof North America]