Vanguard Companies founded in 1975, is a leading designer and manufacturer of retail point-of-purchase (POP) displays, graphic packaging, industrial packaging, and fulfillment services. Vanguard is pleased to announce the winning of a coveted Gold Shop! OMA Award.
The Shop! Outstanding Merchandising Achievement (OMA) Awards program, now in its 65th year, is the Marketing at Retail Industry’s most prestigious, largest, and longest-running awards contest. It recognizes and honors excellent displays that set the merchandising and design precedents of today to become the standards of tomorrow.
“Creating an award winning display requires great customer collaboration, innovation, and teamwork. Congratulations to our valued customer and the entire team at Vanguard Companies for making awesome happen.” said Jim Beard, Vanguard Company CEO. “This was truly a team effort— from the collaboration of our sales team with their clients, through the design phase, planning and manufacturing. Vanguard Companies delivers award winning results for our customers.”
Vanguard Companies and PopSockets won a Gold OMA Award in the Personal Electronics and Software – Temporary Display division for their PopSockets 4-Way Fixture for Walmart.

PopSockets tasked our team with developing a new POP display concept at retail. The main objective focused on a customized phone grip display that would hold a variety of product choices and fit on a Walmart 4-Way fixture. To drive awareness and ROI, the display had to leverage key brand attributes, appeal to shoppers, and maximize in-store effectiveness. The brand wanted simplicity to attract, engage, and convert shoppers.
Through collaboration, research, and testing, we felt simplicity would accentuate the variety of products and make choice and shopping the display easier. The PopSockets brand equity is strong across the retail marketplace. The brand and graphic treatment of this display had to complement those of their other displays.
Collaboration led to the design of the display to arrive fully assembled, easy to lift, and placement on the bottom shelf of a 4-Way Walmart fixture. Once positioned, the display was about 42″ tall and easily visible to shoppers.
To differentiate and increase attraction, the team added a dimensional element to the display. The dimensional border around the product suggested the shape of a cell phone. This would draw attention to the graphics and product while promoting the brand. An angled base provided visibility to the branding when approached by shoppers.
The team leveraged the brand’s primary color black on key locations of the display to meet the objectives and drive engagement. The base created contrast and eye fixation on the brand logo. The black inner product cell provided contrast and fixation on the product planogram. The use of black on the vertical instruction panel highlighted instruction and pricing. The side panel brand logo provided strong visibility to the brand.
Through customer collaboration, leveraging insights, and strong design activation, the display helped the client drive and validate a new POP Display concept at retail. The display maximized ROI and increased product sell-through. As a result, the customer has ordered multiple refreshes of the program since the initial program launch.
About Vanguard Companies
Vanguard Companies is one of the industry’s leading corrugated merchandising solution partners. Our expertise in point-of-purchase displays, signage, retail-ready packaging, industrial packaging, and e-commerce packaging is demonstrated across every retail sector. These products are amplified by our creativity, high-end graphics, digital printing, fulfillment services and program management capabilities.
We combine the latest shopper intelligence, award-winning design innovation, and technology to provide the most effective omnichannel display and packaging solutions. We are committed and focused on helping companies reduce program cost, create brand value, sell more products, and improve their bottom line. Learn more at www.vanguardpkg.com