PACKAGING DIGITAL WORLD BUILDING
and ‘disruptive’ elements may have been emphasised via, for example, a bold choice of ambassador, for Phantom, Paco Rabanne is immersing fragrance fans in ‘Phantom’s world’ via the Phantom pack itself. The cute dancing robot that appears on Paco Rabanne’s retail website and steals the show from the obligatory attractive models in the video campaign is a digital avatar of this bottle, which (beyond its adorable form) has two other major selling points: it is refillable and the robot’s head, ie the spray cap, is ‘connected’. “An innovative fragrance couldn’t come in a traditional bottle,” says a Puig spokesperson. “It was important to push the difference in a way that only Paco Rabanne can. This retro-futuristic robot is born from an idea by Pierre Dinand, adapted by Bloom Room in 2019. It is a statement piece of creativity, highly desirable and collectible, but it also comes to life with a fun, cheeky character: a true ally that accompanies the consumer in their day-to-day life.” For the 100ml and 150ml sized bottles, the user can place their smartphone near Phantom’s head and freely discover the games, playlists, etc, that make up Phantom’s world.
This connected cap was realised via a collaboration between Puig itself; VPI (part of Faiveley Plast Beauty), which provided the injection moulding, decoration and assembly expertise; and STMicroelectronics, which provided the NFC microchip.
But, whereas in the past the ‘different’ ‘
NFC technology... is a way to enlarge the physical object, because all of a sudden, you are opening your own gateway towards the digital world
“We all have a physical body, true, but we all exist in the digital space. I would say NFC can bring the same opportunity to any product: a physical product that can now have the capability to get a digital existence, as with the example of the Phantom universe.” Ultimately, she tells Cosmetics Business: “You have a fragrance in a bottle that can be stuck on your table for years. But, at the same time, you have a digital world that is living around this and maybe changing over time, and with your smartphone you’re accessing through this digital world and you are connecting the two.”
“The brief at the beginning was essentially to activate a function without having any energy in the cap – and by that I mean no battery. The idea was to have something that could have a function that could be activated from an outside source,” Béryl Trentin, Key Account Manager at VPI, tells Cosmetics Business. “Today it’s the phone that you have to apply on the front end to activate the website, or to have some input about Paco Rabanne and the [Phantom] universe.”
While NFC technology – like that used in Phantom – has been available for 15 years, it is ideally suited to linking a product with its online universe. It “bridges any physical product, whatever it may be, with the digital world”, says Giuliana Curro, Marketing & Business Development Manager at STMicroelectronics.
Commenting on the wider benefits of NFC-connected packaging and digital universe building, Curro notes: “It’s sort of a gateway, the NFC technology. It’s able to bring very low cost for power consumption. You don’t need any battery to make it work – the ‘energy’ is brought to the object to which you attach your tag by the smartphones that are interacting with it.
“At that point, it is a way to enlarge the physical object, because all of a sudden, you are opening your own gateway towards the digital world,” Curro explains.
The NFC component in Phantom’s pack is integrated into the ‘head’, linking the user to Phantom’s digital ‘galaxy’
34 November 2021
There is also the opportunity to link this connectivity to trending beauty benefits including bespoke, with Curro saying “ the NFC chip brings a unique ID, so you may personalise the content”, and also sustainability, with the tag letting the user access “better content about how to make the best use of their refillable bottle”.
LOGISTICAL HURDLES While the digital space can be as expansive as your creative teams’ imaginations, the connected packaging’s specifications have to be rather more grounded. For VPI’s Trentin, one of the challenges to be met when integrating the NFC tag surrounded the cap’s required dimensions.
“The complexity is very often the size,” she explains. “If we want to have a part enhanced, we can be very creative. But here the intricate part is to remain inside the size that the marketing team would like, to have a global product – including the glass and everything – that that fits in the hands of the person.
“So that was the difficulty, especially for the NFC components, because what you can do with your chip also depends on the size of the inlay, so we had to calculate to measure and to optimise, as much as possible, the plastic components and work with with the different suppliers to have components that fit inside.”
For brands that are wondering where to start with connected packaging, STMicroelectronics launched a SD25Connect programme in September. “Brands can get in touch with us if they have a project, or if they have questions about how they can integrate this technology with any type of physical products, but don’t know where to start,” says Curro.
cosmeticsbusiness.com
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