Consumer
Only a couple of hundred of these were produced, and were given away to competition winners and social media influencers. The Unit 9 team in London were behind this, and did a wonderful job. What I really like about this example is the number of free media impressions it generated. Looking on YouTube, there are a huge number of videos, almost all produced by influencers and independent media agencies – not just by the brand. Another example is the Coca- Cola Ice bottle, which was a packaging-free concept tested at an event on a beach in South America. The famous Coca-Cola Contour bottle was made entirely from ice. Meanwhile, Fanta launched a special closure that featured a small LED, and allowed consumers to use their bottle for light writing, a short-lived social media trend that leveraged a slow shutter speed photo in a dark environment. This item was given away within a multipack to help absorb the additional cost.
The reach of social media influencers is changing the way beverages are marketed, and dramatically so.
Malibu launched a promotional bottle in 2016 where a near-field communication (NFC) chip was first used to connect the consumer with the brand through their mobile device and the bottle. This was the first of many to test NFC technology, led by the internet of things agency Sharpend. Sharpend is at the cutting edge of the emerging world of connected packaging, and is an expert at bringing the future of packaging to contemporary reality. Strongbow StartCap, also from the Heineken group, is a bottle that acts as a switch, bringing the party to life when a Strongbow is opened. Each bottle features a radio-frequency identification tag in the tamper label over the crown. Breaking the circuit triggers a physical activity within the party, such as a party popper, music or lighting display.
“Forward-thinking brands are taking advantage of the removal of geographic boundaries within the digital world to reach millions of consumers, excite them and drive aspiration for their brands.”
Again, this was used for an internal event, and was aimed at creating some buzz and to bring connected packaging to life in a meaningful way. Miller Lite Cantroller was a recent ‘experiential’ activation where a number of real beer cans were given a makeover to turn them into fully functioning games console controllers.
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Large-scale activations In the ‘mass’ type, the Turbo Tango comes to mind. It was an aerosol beverage that delivered a foaming stream of orange Tango, capable of being propelled up to 2m. This was launched a couple of times in the UK, much to the delight of children, although I’m not sure how much was actually drunk versus being sprayed at school friends. For each bottle of Medea Vodka, a digital LED display is featured, which could be controlled remotely from a phone via Bluetooth – a truly interactive label solution. But again, the Coca-Cola Bow label is my personal favourite. It started as a viral video and passed through ‘experiential’ in the form of employee Christmas gifts, and finally on to ‘mass’, where upwards of 100 million labels are produced, launched and enjoyed by consumers in Japan each year. Back in 2012, the creative team at Absolut and their glass bottle supplier made history when they launched 4 million unique bottles – the Absolut Unique Edition. Each was numbered and featured a decoration that was a blend of spray and paint applied using a purpose-built decoration line where colours and patterns were constantly changing. I still have one of these original bottles, and it will be a desperate day if I ever have to open it. That is a whistle-stop tour of ‘viral’, ‘experiential’ and ‘mass’. In the world of ‘always on’ social media, the forward-thinking brands are taking advantage of the removal of geographic boundaries within the digital world to reach millions of consumers, excite them and drive aspiration for their brands through small-scale packaging campaigns. And it’s working, so don’t expect this form of marketing to be going away soon. ●
Packaging & Converting Intelligence /
www.pci-mag.com
paulaphoto/
Shutterstock.com
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