Neworld, Great relationships build great brands

What’s that old line again – sur’ if we got the weather here in Ireland you would never go abroad! Well, I think this bank holiday no one did, unless you call travelling up from all corners of the country to Dublin for the weekend as ‘going away’. This past weekend the city was hopping with exciting events from Forbidden Fruit to the Ladies Mini Marathon to Bloom. You couldn’t help but love the atmosphere in the capital.

But we forget sometimes that while some of us are enjoying ourselves others are busy working at these events to make them truly special. Some of those hard working people could certainly be seen at Bloom this weekend.

Thousands thronged to Phoenix Park this year, with car parks jam-packed with families and people ready to soak up the joys of the outdoors. The many tents around the event stayed as full as the grassy relaxing spaces outside. Visitors worked their way around hundreds of amazing displays brought to us by some very enthusiastic exhibitors. You have to admire the exhibitor’s tenacity and determination to survive the crowds, the heat and their ability to smile at people as they told their product story with the same passion as they had when telling it the first time. I’m not so sure that I could have held it together for that long.

The gardens and feature designs at this event were really inspiring and at times breathtaking. It makes you think about how fortunate we are to have such an amazing natural environment to find inspiration in. At the outset, the postcard gardens with their innovative and sometimes quirky design features were a great lead up to the main garden showcase event.

The overall winner this year, designer Andrew Christopher Dunne, created something really special. In a ‘sea’ of people at Bloom he created a garden that radiated calm and serenity. His ‘Sustainable Seafood Garden’ created in association with Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) told the story of what they call ‘from tide to table’. What a glorious idea to take the sea to Bloom this year – an amazing way to get people to consider this natural resource of ours, its beauty and the necessity we need to place on preserving and protecting it. An amazing design produced with clever engineering that transported you to another place.

Getting back to some of the other heroes of the weekend at Bloom – our food suppliers!

Before the doors opened to the public on Friday, over 250 food buyers attended Bord Bia’s business breakfast for face to face meetings with the exhibiting food and drink companies. Visitors got to taste some of the best of Irish made produce from farmhouse cheeses, fresh breads and bakes, oils and crisps to confectionary. Ballyhoura Mountain mushrooms even brought some of the mountain with their display of speciality mushrooms, whilst there was also plenty of interesting ‘free from’ products and start-up food businesses. The whole occasion gives us great confidence that Ireland’s food industry is vibrant and going from strength to strength thanks to the support of Bord Bia. Neworld is proud to be associated with some of these brands and food suppliers. Their passion, dedication and hard work deserve great credit.

The Bloom Inn was also a runaway success. This year there were many different distilleries and breweries from all over Ireland. All of these drinks producers were located in one key area of the Food Village. It featured many new craft drink producers – who could have know we had so many to be proud of! The range of new gins on the market certainly suggests there are exciting times ahead for the spirits industry. The heritage and stories associated with some of the brands along the with the production processes and the fascinating flavour innovations will set up these brands for a very exciting future – they certainly made many peoples day!

It usually takes a month to build Bloom and I can understand why with so many areas filled with displays, demonstrations, entertainment and even areas for just relaxing. It’s a mammoth undertaking but one that showcases Ireland at its very best. Congrats to all involved!

MARIE MCGRATH, ACCOUNT MANAGER – BRAND & PACKAGING

Marie has many years’ design and consultancy experience to the team, gained from working alongside many of Ireland’s highly regarded brand heavyweights. She has extensive experience in branding, design and project management and injects a high level of creative and strategic thinking across all projects. Marie is constantly on the look out for new opportunities to enrich the brand experience and build your brand’s strength in the market. The primary communication conduit, she manages the entire process from concept to finishing, ensuring that the project delivers at every stage.