C!Brand · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated September 2026

Key takeaways

• C!Brand is the trade show for marketing solutions dedicated to brand experience: printed communication, packaging, corporate gifts, promotional items, storefront and wayfinding signage, wrapping and events. It targets brands, retail chains, franchises and communication agencies.
• Next edition: the 3rd, from Wednesday 24 to Thursday 25 March 2027, at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, Pavilion 5. Open 9am to 6pm both days.
• Organiser: Infopro Digital Trade Shows, a subsidiary of the Infopro Digital group, which also organises CTCO and C!Print Lyon.
• The trade show is held jointly with SHOP! Le Salon, the retail marketing trade show, which will reach its 38th edition in 2027. C!Brand, launched in 2025, is the more recent of the two: it covers brand experience, while SHOP! Le Salon covers point-of-sale display and store fit-out.
• Annual frequency: 25 to 27 March 2025 for the first edition, 1 and 2 April 2026, then March 2027.
• 2026 report, published for both trade shows combined, over two days: 4,210 visitors, 102 exhibitors, 37 countries represented. The organiser does not publish figures specific to C!Brand alone.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The offer is split into families of solutions: printed communication, packaging and labelling, storefront signage, wayfinding signage and lighting, window graphics and vehicle wrapping, promotional items and textiles, corporate gifts, and events. The neighbouring SHOP! Le Salon adds point-of-sale display, store fit-out and furniture, activation consultancy and digital retail.

Exhibitors include printers and sign makers, suppliers of bespoke boxes and packaging, promotional item resellers, corporate gift specialists and event service providers. Promotional items and corporate gifts are highlighted: according to the organiser, exhibitors of promotional items, textiles and corporate gifts accounted for 16% of exhibitors in 2026.

The breakdown published in the 2026 report, which covers both trade shows, gives a sense of the mix: permanent and temporary point-of-sale display 22%, fit-out and furniture 15%, promotional items 13%, digital and phygital solutions 11%, activation, consultancy and design 9%, packaging 8%, printed communication 7%, events 6%.

Notable exhibitors

The official exhibitor list available is for the 2026 edition, on the exhibitors page of the website. Exaprint, a printer based in Montpellier since 1998, was C!Brand's Gold Sponsor in 2025 and 2026. News items published ahead of the 2026 edition announced swissQprint, whose flatbed printing tables are designed and manufactured in Switzerland, Labo Print, and Manima, an agency specialising in promotional items. No exhibitor had yet been linked to the 2027 edition at the time of writing.

Visitor quality

The trade show is restricted to professionals: advertisers, brands and communication agencies. Each badge request can be checked against a Siret number or a company registration extract, both in advance and on entry. Minors are not admitted. Students over 18 have supervised access on Thursday from 2pm, in small groups accompanied by a teacher.

In the 2026 visitor sample for both trade shows, 42% came from a brand, an advertiser or a retail chain. By function, marketing departments (marketing management, category management, trade marketing, brand activation) accounted for 36% and senior management 17%. No OJS certification or third-party audit is published: these figures come from the organiser's own report.

Programme & community

Conference programme

The conferences are shared between both trade shows and are free to attend. In 2026, the report lists 25 conferences, round tables and workshops, with 100 speakers, spread across two conference areas, the Rive Droite and Rive Gauche rooms. Topics range from activation and merchandising to retail design, customer experience, artificial intelligence and sales teams, point-of-sale digitalisation, brand identity and territory, and luxury. Replays are available on the website. The 2027 programme had not been published at the time of writing.

Awards and highlights

The SHOP! Awards Paris, the retail marketing competition, exhibit the shortlisted projects at the heart of the trade show. Their 62nd edition, in 2026, marked the arrival of the C!Brand Awards, with two categories aimed at packaging manufacturers and promotional item resellers.

The Concours National des Jeunes Espoirs de la PLV, run for more than 20 years by the SHOP! France association, showcases mock-ups by design and applied arts students responding to a brand's brief. The 2026 edition was run in partnership with SVR; for 2027, the website announces the Justin Bridou brand.

The trade show is organised around a conference and business bar area, and an activation, consultancy and design area, a meeting point for retail activation and design consultancy agencies.

Community & networks

The partners page of the website lists the Fédération Française des Professionnels de la Communication par l'objet (2FPCO), FESPA France, the SHOP! association, Procos, the Conseil du Commerce de France, the CNA, the SORAP, the Club Enseigne & Innovation and the CCI Paris Île-de-France. The 2026 report counts 29 institutional partners, associations and media outlets for both trade shows.

On the media side, the organiser counts C!Mag and Le Mag IC among its main titles. The trade show is present on LinkedIn and Instagram (@saloncbrand).

On site: what you need to know

The trade show is held at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, Pavilion 5, place de la Porte de Versailles, 75015 Paris. Opening hours: 9am to 6pm on Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 March 2027.

By metro, line 12, Porte de Versailles station, exit 1 for pavilions 2 to 7. By tram, T2 and T3a, Porte de Versailles, Parc des Expositions stop. By bus, line 80, or line 39 at the Desnouettes stop. A Vélib' station is located on avenue Ernest Renan. By car, Car Park 6 is accessible from place des Insurgés de Varsovie. From Orly, allow around twenty minutes by taxi, and about 45 minutes from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle.

Visitor badges are ordered online on the official website; proof of professional activity is required.

How much it costs to exhibit

Preparing your visit

For the exhibitor

• Book early: sales for the 2027 edition are open via the website, and the brochure is available on request.
• Treat the stand as a showcase of craftsmanship, since visitors come looking for suppliers able to produce their own brand experience.
• Enter the C!Brand Awards if you manufacture packaging or resell promotional items: the competition's shortlisted projects are exhibited at the heart of the trade show.
• Offer to speak at a conference, an opportunity the organiser opens up to exhibitors to showcase a case study.
• Be wary of unsolicited commercial approaches: the official website devotes a warning page to this issue.

For the decision-making visitor

• Prepare your badge with proof of professional activity, as checks may take place on entry.
• Visit both trade shows: a brand experience project often touches packaging, promotional items and in-store display all at once.
• Visit the SHOP! Awards exhibition to spot award-winning work and the suppliers behind it.
• Check the conference programme as soon as it is published to plan your schedule around the useful sessions.

CSR policy & initiatives

The trade show displays a CSR approach centred on visitor mobility: it encourages public transport and cycling, and offers a free carbon impact calculator for journeys on its access page. Neither the trade show's website nor the organiser's publishes a carbon footprint for the event or an ISO 20121 certification specific to C!Brand.

Environmental responsibility mainly appears in the content: sustainable solutions form part of the stated positioning, and the trade show's news items highlight responsible promotional items and committed corporate gifts. These are programme and exhibitor-offer themes, not a quantified commitment from the organiser.

The venue provides a documented framework: Viparis, which operates Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, states it was the world's first events operator to be certified ISO 20121 across all its sites, in 2014, and has structured its Better Events sustainable development policy since 2018.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

C!Brand grew out of a market observation: the line between point-of-sale marketing and brand communication is fading. Infopro Digital Trade Shows, already an organiser of promotional item and print trade shows, announced in January 2024 a brand experience trade show attached to SHOP! Le Salon, formerly the MPV trade show, for a first edition in March 2025.

The format tightened from the second year onward: three days in 2025, two days since 2026. The two trade shows share the pavilion, the conference programme, the competition and the report, which explains the absence of figures specific to C!Brand alone. For an exhibitor, the question is therefore not the size of C!Brand alone, but access to the shared visitor base, dominated by brands, retail chains and marketing departments.

The trade show has also built its own identity through promotional items and corporate gifts, with the launch in 2026 of its own awards, the C!Brand Awards. For promotional item suppliers, it offers a gateway to advertisers, whereas CTCO, in Lyon, positions itself first as the reference event for resellers.

All data not attributed to a source comes from the organiser's website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (salon-cbrand.com).