Personalisation was a hot topic at the conference
The Smithers Pira Digital Print for Packaging 2013 conference took place in London in early December with over 150 attendees listening to a range of informative presentations and enjoying much discussion. By Sean Smyth.
Very much to the fore was the ‘Share a Coke with . . .’ campaign, referenced by most speakers and explained by Gregory Bentley, packaging innovator at Coca-Cola Europe, who was behind the production. It saw over a billion labels printed digitally, and resulted in Coke gaining large volume sales and increasing market share where it ran. Not to mention 350 million open impressions in social media. This was the highest campaign recognition that Coca-Cola has ever achieved. There will be further use of digital printing in campaigns to come; one will tie in with next year’s World Cup.
Over the two days, there were presentations covering other successful case studies with much valuable insight being presented. Doug Hutt from giant brewer SABMiller talked about digital being more than a printing technology, it is a culture, with consumers becoming ever more demanding and multi-tasking. They are now expecting products to have digital content, connectivity and interaction so labels and packs will need to provide new capabilities. Many consumers are no longer satisfied with the standard version and he believes that there will be ‘co-creation’ lead by the consumer, not the brand, in a collaboration.
A practical example of using digital packaging to appeal to the ‘social media’ generation was provided by Chris Tonge and Kevin Laughton of Shere Print. They put their capabilities to the test, inviting the audience to switch their phones back on, take a selfie and upload it to one of their sites with a message. This would be converted into a pack and sent out, beautifully demonstrating the new service capabilities and quality achievable. The company has opened new opportunities following its digital investment, for example Walkers Crisps providing a personalised pack of crisps and Tesco personalising Parmentier potato packs.
TO TRY THE SELFIE ON PACK – CLICK HERE: www.selfieonpack.com/dlp
Personalised Famous Grouse whisky bottles
Volker Till of Till Engineering announced that they had received four orders for the inkjet SmartPrint modular direct to pack printers for delivery in 2014. Reducing time to market and obtaining control were the key factors. The standard configuration is five colours, CMYK plus white, with an optional three further colours or varnishes. The machines were shown at DrinkTec, and Mr Till said that they took 150 serious leads as the appetite to change the traditional supply chain of labels and pre-printed packs grows.
There were several lively debates, where the fear factor of the unknown among customers was identified as one of the key blocks on digital take up. As brands and creatives learn about the capabilities and benefits of successes, there will be a move away from being seen as a technology pushing for acceptance into a key part of the production armoury.
Getting the message of the capabilities out there is a key issue for future growth. 2014 will see many more examples and opportunities as more productive, larger presses come onto the market with new suppliers joining in. It is certainly becoming mainstream when there are adverts on prime time TV extolling the benefits of personalised bottles of whisky for Christmas. Slàinte mhath!
