Migros@SwissSkills 2018

The starting point was a stand space of 400 m2 and the client’s desire to present the Migros brand in a unique, playful and very diverse way at SwissSkills. The client wanted to offer its stand visitors more than boring standard conversations and brochures which end up in the bin upon leaving the exhibition. Young people and their parents should perceive an apprenticeship at Migros as an experience for life.

Migros likes you. And also the individual strengths of each young person. Migros should be positioned as an attractive, modern and versatile employer, offering young people many opportunities and possibilities for their future. For parents and future apprentices, the company should be in first place as a potential employer.

The central message “Migros likes you” was developed through several workshops and later implemented in an exhibition stand concept. The basic idea of addressing young people about their interests and not categorising them based on a boring consultation was implemented with four experience worlds: a creative, an analytical, a communicative and a physical experience world. These four areas made up the inner part of the stand and presented the career opportunities suitable for the corresponding talent using fun games and tricky tasks.

Each young person intuitively decided which way they wanted to reach the inner part of the Migros stand. Creative talents chose the path via a staircase with splashes of colour and were able to make imaginative creations within their experience world using various Migros packaging materials. They then left the experience world via a slide. Analytically-minded visitors entered their experience world via a geometric shape, a triangle, and solved a puzzle which led them through a labyrinth. Sporty people climbed into their experience world to compete in the M-Budget challenge and awaiting the communicative people was the M-Taboo game and a virtual advice world, among other things.

In a 360° video, visitors were also able to watch existing trainees and see them working in the crèche, gym, lorries, workshop and many other learning environments.

For adults, the Migros journey, which was constructed as a 14 metre long walkway, provided interesting information about the cooperatives, industrial, logistics and service companies, business units and apprenticeships.

The stand included 250 elements, 800 kg of steel and approx. 22 kg of screws. Reusable OSB boards in various sizes and thicknesses were used to build this massive structure. Due to the extremely short construction period, which we were faced with, the team decided to design all the elements in 3D in advance so that everything would fit together perfectly on site. For installation, the elements were almost exclusively carried and assembled by hand. We were thus able to avoid complex machinery and logistics and work quickly.

Thanks to the modular design, the stand was able to be set up in a very short space of time. This also ensured the reusability of the wood. An environmentally sound project that achieved an even greater goal after the fair.

When SwissSkills 2018 visitors stopped at the Migros stand to take a look at the huge wooden structure, they had no idea what was to become of it a few months later. That same wood is now part of an orphanage in Moldova. After the fair, we decided to donate the valuable raw material to a charity which transported the wood to the East. The exhibition stand now forms the basis for the future of many children and young people there. Migros likes everyone.