By seamlessly combining architecture, interactive storytelling, modern collaboration spaces, and hands-on testing facilities, Mondi’s FlexStudios has established a new benchmark for B2B brand experiences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60JvOqdUkwE

Customer experience center – a space for innovation

The packaging industry stands at a critical crossroads: It must navigate international sustainability guidelines and its customers’ ambitious sustainability targets and also deliver technical innovations and differentiated product qualities, all while managing cost constraints and rising consumer expectations that demand creative solutions. For Mondi, conventional approaches and presentation methods no longer seemed adequate to communicate the importance and potential of modern packaging solutions. The company recognized the need to find a way to actively engage customers in the innovation process, forge deeper long-term partnerships, and solidify its position as an industry thought leader.

To truly impress customers and justify them spending their valuable time visiting the center, it has to go far beyond traditional product exhibits. Instead of simply displaying a collection of objects and a few standard digital presentations, Mondi envisioned a comprehensive destination that would unite diverse capabilities under one roof to demonstrate the company’s full spectrum of expertise in a central location.

The perfect opportunity emerged with the construction of a new facility at Mondi’s Steinfeld site near Osnabrück. This purpose-built space perfectly met all requirements: The R&D center with its scientific laboratories, modern production facilities for test runs, expansive open spaces designed as inspiring themed environments, and a dynamic coworking space as a meeting venue. A further benefit of the center is the adjacent production facility, which serves as an ideal example of Mondi’s quality standards and commitment to safe and reliable industrial series production.

The FlexStudios – a deep dive into the world of packaging

The FlexStudios center goes far beyond a traditional showroom. It embodies a revolutionary approach to actively shaping the future of the packaging industry. Spanning 2,300 square meters across three levels, this immersive environment blends inspiration, factual knowledge, creative collaboration, and technical expertise, much like a large film studio where specialists from diverse disciplines come together:

The central element on this floor is the “Flexperience” – a groundbreaking interactive exhibition that offers exhaustive perspectives on sustainable packaging development, value chains, circular material flows, and production technologies. This experience space features hands-on elements that invite customers and visitors to take an immersive deep dive, exploring everything from sustainable materials and unusual branding solutions to technical innovations and cost optimization opportunities. In addition to the exhibition, the top floor of the three-story building offers the “Makerspace” for actively working on packaging solutions and the “Gour.mondi” lounge as a setting for informal discussions.

The floor below houses laboratories and testing facilities dedicated to the continuous development of sustainable packaging. Here, new materials undergo evaluation, and packaging designs are tested for recyclability.

On the ground floor, the spacious reception area is adjoined by a state-of-the-art production floor equipped with cutting-edge machinery, where customers can witness first-hand how new or modified products perform before progressing to full industrial-scale testing.

The advantage of this combination: By integrating the processes from brainstorming to the pilot phase, coordination and development times are significantly shortened.

The customer experience center as the foundation for future success

Establishing showrooms presents a significant financial challenge – the substantial investment required for permanent, multimedia, and architectural staging rivals that of modern art exhibitions or flagship stores of prestigious luxury brands. Companies must also account for ongoing operational costs and continuous content updates.

However, if we take the customer experience a step further, entirely new possibilities emerge that deliver tangible returns and justify the investment:

1. Customer centricity: By offering a clever and inviting program throughout the visit, a company demonstrates deep appreciation for its customers and while significantly elevating the much-vaunted brand experience, even in the B2B environment.
2. Collaboration: Environments that enable direct collaboration with experts in a protected setting like the Makerspace, for example, make it possible to search for truly groundbreaking approaches and solutions free from everyday constraints.
3. Long-term commitment: Face-to-face collaboration with customers and partners creates trust and strengthens relationships in the long term, which has a tangible impact on the success of the company.
4. Brand positioning: Multi-sensory experience spaces create an impressive premium atmosphere for events and special occasions which, in conjunction with public relations activities, strengthens the company’s position as a thought and industry leader.

Sustainability as a spatial concept

The architects at 3deluxe created a flexible and dynamic environment that embodies Mondi’s innovative spirit while providing a platform for creative exchange and co-creation.

The space encompasses different zones, each offering unique visitor experiences:

This modular architecture enables Mondi to reconfigure the entire space as needed to accommodate diverse audiences and event formats.

Mondi’s guiding principle, “Sustainable by Design”, permeates every element of the FlexStudios experience. The design philosophy prioritizes natural materials that simultaneously emphasize Mondi’s key areas of expertise and its commitment to sustainability. The prominent use of wood and paper creates visual connections to the packaging industry while illustrating the circular lifecycle thinking that characterizes the company.

Storytelling: The perfect story for every visitor

At the heart of the exhibition lies a networked pool of data and topics whose modular architecture delivers truly personalized experiences for each visitor interaction.

This adaptive approach is essential because the space serves diverse visitor groups, including teams of brand and category managers, production managers, packaging engineers, sustainability managers, and even buyers, managing directors, and board members, all of whom have different expectations and information needs. A wide variety of aspects relating to the manufacture and use of packaging, ranging from branding and design, materials and production processes, consumer journeys and supply chains, sustainability information and circular economy systems to case studies and technical specifications, had to be produced to provide comprehensive insights for all visitor types. The resulting concept gives visitors the space to explore the topics individually based on their specific interests without getting bogged down by a tedious one-size-fits-all presentation. The transformative power of this “personalized storytelling” approach lies in its visitor-centric philosophy – not focusing on promoting individual products, but on addressing the needs of the viewer.

The first step was to centrally collect and systematically structure all available data and content from a wide variety of sources. At Mondi, this encompassed reviewing extensive website materials, PowerPoint presentations, and company documents, all with varying levels of information quality, density, and depth. We were faced with the complex challenge of standardizing the data architecture for a product catalogue containing several thousand individual items while simultaneously completing the visual materials.

Patterns and structures to reduce complexity

Complexity is generally inherent in B2B environments and presents a seemingly formidable hurdle to structuring and interconnecting data. Enabling both presenters and visitors to understand the connections and navigate the experience necessitated the development of a coherent data and UX concept that would define pathways for intuitive content access and interaction.

Working with MESO’s information and data strategists, who contributed their extensive experience in exhibition didactics, we developed an approach that can be adapted across virtually any B2B organization and product portfolio. Upon closer examination, you can recognize typical patterns that significantly reduce complexity:

• Products can be systematically categorized using recurring attributes such as descriptions, materials, properties, functions, and areas of application. They can be linked to case studies and thematic content and then transferred into a standardized data model.

• The topics relevant for the company, including market segments and market environments, customer journeys and customer insights, manufacturing processes and methods, sustainability goals and initiatives, along with other company information such as corporate history and locations, provide a variety of contextual entry points for engaging discussions.

Connected Contents: Interactive content can be called up on the interlinked screens

This system is integrated into multiple areas throughout the FlexStudios to ensure access to all content in diverse scenarios. In the product area, the monitors are optimized for small groups of 6-10 participants, whereas in the corporate area, larger audiences can be accommodated. In the Makerspace, the system is used as an information tool for workshops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9YA6Qwxju0

A combination of digital and physical elements

This flexible system combines in-depth product expertise with context-oriented topics, enabling presentations for audiences with various levels of knowledge.

Tablet computers give the presenter full control over the presentation, from preparing their digital content to spontaneously responding to questions and suggestions during live discussions.

Another innovation involves the integration of physical objects in the interaction: Every product sample throughout the exhibition features embedded barcodes that can be read using sensors installed in the room, instantly delivering background information and use cases for each product. The exhibition also features a large number of handy A5-sized reference cards that provide comprehensive overviews of all relevant product features, including target markets, materials and properties, recycling options, closure types, and similar aspects. The overarching themes of the Big Picture Tool are also available as physical cards and can be accessed at any time. Prior to each visit, presenters can select objects and cards from the exhibition specific to the intended audience and arrange them in the flexible shelving and furniture systems in a way that optimally supports the objectives of the respective visit. The easy use of real products and physical cards fosters the collaborative development of specific questions within the group and supports the integration of expertise.

The technical foundation is an easy-to-use content management system that manages all content and formats with the simplicity of modern website administration but is much more flexible when it comes to linking content.

One system, multiple synergies

The synergies resulting from consistently uniform content preparation and centralized accessibility of company content are obvious:

• Target group-specific approach: Depending on the visitor group, presenters can vary between high-level presentations or technical topics, as all content is linked in one system and can be combined as desired.
• Complete documentation: The course of a visit can be saved, annotated, and documented for follow-up, enabling personalized information packages to be sent to participants.
• Basis for content marketing: The prepared content, graphics, and media formats can be used to derive and automatically generate a wide range of targeted communication measures, such as creating product catalogues or preparing a future website relaunch.
• Use in other showrooms: The primary investment in such a system centers on the initial system architecture and software development, while hardware costs are relatively low. Numerous elements of the concept can also be employed in other spaces.

• Use at trade shows: The digital system can also be easily integrated into international trade show booths, as all content is always current thanks to the web-based CMS.
• Sales Experience: A future expansion phase will enable sales staff to use the web-based content for targeted customer meetings, both in-person and via video conferencing – a true upgrade from conventional PowerPoint presentations.
• Easy continuous development: New or additional products and content can be very easily integrated without requiring a redesign of the exhibition. All physical elements maintain their flexibility for use, while digital content can be easily updated.

The FlexStudios center is not designed for certain topics or products, addressing instead the social and communicative needs of visitors. This approach represents a long-term investment that will continue delivering value even as business strategies evolve in the future.

Interdisciplinary collaboration drives seamless integration

Creating a truly cohesive overall experience that merged the architecture, exhibits, content, and digital staging required nothing less than letter-perfect interplay between UX concept and storytelling, content production and design development, data architecture and programming, and exhibition technology and architecture. The interdisciplinary expertise and integrated approach of 3deluxe, die firma and MESO Digital Interiors proved instrumental here:

• 3deluxe contributed its international experience in the field of out-of-the-ordinary architecture and interior design projects.
• MESO contributed its expertise in the staging of complex content, drawing from extensive experience developing and implementing digital systems for institutional learning spaces, trade show presentations, and museums.
• die firma, as a brand and content agency, contributed its storytelling expertise alongside in-depth knowledge of Mondi’s product portfolio and thematic universe.

The close collaboration between these partners and Mondi’s internal stakeholders resulted in a comprehensive approach that not only mastered the various challenges of this nearly two-year project but also delivered a groundbreaking sustainable solution that establishes a new benchmark for a modern brand experience in B2B communication.

“This forward-looking center demonstrates the way we work closely with our customers to understand the complexity of materials and experience how packaging impacts the entire product lifecycle. [...] With FlexStudios, we offer our customers a space where they can explore our sustainable packaging and paper solutions. We look forward to working closely with our customers in their transition to more sustainable solutions. FlexStudios is more than just a building, it is an experiential space that will help shape the future of flexible packaging.”

Quote from Thomas Ott, Managing Director Flexible Packaging bei MONDI