A New Way to Look at Packaging

Packaging is something that almost every physical product needs. However, traditional packaging is confined by the size and shape of the product, which can make it difficult to convey your brand's message. The emerging trend of connected and smart packaging has no such restrictions and can be customised to meet the individual needs and objectives of the brand.  This new way to look at packaging can make your packaging the most important marketing tool for your product and brand.

Jenny Stanley, Founder and Managing Director of Appetite Creative and Rachel Sheldon, Market Development Manager UK/IRE at Greiner Packaging, gave a presentation at the AIPIA Digitalization in Packaging Congress on 16 November 2021. The online event invited over 200 packaging professionals from around the world and featured several online sessions on smart packaging solutions for digitalisation, supply chains and sustainability.

The hidden potential of packaging

In their session, Jenny and Rachel presented a new way to look at packaging, provided recent industry stats and case study examples, and showcased innovative technologies around packaging. Key insights from the session are highlighted in the following.

Jenny Stanley underlined the importance of packaging as a marketing tool and the fact that it has the potential to become the most important media channel for your brand.

“Your packaging can be your most powerful marketing tool and a media channel in itself” - Jenny Stanley

She also pointed out the fact that physical packaging has many limitations, whereas connected packaging does not, so the applications of this new marketing tool are almost limitless.

“Digital or smart packaging is not confined by any particular shape or size, and any kind of digital experience can be integrated” - Jenny Stanley

So what are the key benefits of connected packaging and why should brands engage in them?

1. Drive awareness, engage and educate your audience

2. Drive sales

3. Gather first-party data

Trends in the packaging industry

Connected packaging experiences have many applications and can serve many different purposes depending on a brand's needs and desires. There has also been a tremendous increase in QR code usage since the start of the pandemic, which is one of the most widely used connected packaging technologies in the industry.

Meanwhile, a recent report by Data Bridge Market Research outlines the potential of the connected packaging market for the coming years.

There are also many brands that are already leveraging this new marketing tool. Tetra Pak, for example, uses connected packaging to educate its audience about its sustainability efforts. Emmi has used QR codes on its packaging to support new product launches over the past, and The Kuwaiti Danish Dairy Company (KDD) achieved a dwell time of almost 3 minutes and a bounce rate of only 1%. In addition, our campaign with KDD achieved over 800 registrations and more than 96k scans.

In general, we can see an uplift in sales for brands of around 20%, and that 90% of brands that have done a connected packaging campaign have decided to repeat the activity.

How K3 packaging technology reduces recycling rates

In the second half of the presentation, Rachel Sheldon introduced Greiner Packaging's K3 technology. K3 not only helps brands to enormously reduce the amount of plastic and the CO2 level of the packaging, but also allows the packaging to be printed from both sides of the cardboard, which increases the print area by 100 %. K3 uses a cardboard wrap applied to plastic packaging, but due to the thickness of the cardboard, the plastic percentage of the packaging is greatly reduced.

The K3 packaging uses a CTA on the front of the carton to encourage the consumer to remove the cardboard after consumption and uses QR codes on the inside to give full access to a connected packaging experience. As previously mentioned, such a digital experience can be fully customised to the needs of the brand.

"The great thing for me about these (connected packaging) experiences is that you can completely tailor the experience to what the brand wants" - Rachel Sheldon

Finally, Rachel underlined that connected packaging is not only an innovative media concept, but can also help brands improve recycling rates. The emerging marketing tool gives brands the opportunity to collaborate with external partners to create the right experience for their brand's consumers and can help drive sales through competitions, giveaways and alike. Last but not least, connected packaging helps brands collect data about their consumers to get to know their customers better and optimise their campaigns according to their clients' needs.

The full presentation of the event is available here on YouTube if you are interested in learning more.