The past year brought many changes to the entire marketing world as a result of all the changes that have happened in the world, Covid 19 outbreaks, vaccinations, political and financial issues, and technology innovations all contribute to this evolution. 

In this article, we will focus on the questions, "Will connected packaging be the primary way brands communicate with their customers? What are the benefits and barriers? " by analysing Appetite's recent survey and webinar, "Connected Packaging for 2022 and Beyond" held the first week of February 2022.

To view the entire webinar, you can access the link on YouTube.

Nearly 85% of Appetite Creative survey respondents, who are FMCG and packaging professionals, were confident that the connected experience will become increasingly important to the packaging industry over the next 12 months and beyond. That's a comment we can not simply ignore from professionals working in marketing and sales. Especially when nearly 54% have already incorporated connected experiences into their marketing plans. You can see the full connected packaging survey’s result here.

How would it feel if companies can gain more insights and get closer to their customers through the use of technology, which fortunately is not complicated and can be used to target almost all types of customers, since the only requirement is the possession of any smartphone? Apart from that, there is another advantage for the companies: They do not lose the connection with their products while they are on the shelves or in the stores.

There is a technology for this- NFC ( Near Field Communication), which was addressed in the webinar on connected packaging by one of the speakers, Frank Smits, business development manager RFID EMEA at Avery Dennison. He shared his experience and described the NFC potential for attendees, from checking temperature, the condition of the package, whether it was open or not, to communicating with customers, "It seems like an easy way to connect by just tapping your phone instead of using a special app. We are seeing a huge increase in brands being self-aware and wanting to protect their brand."

So as we get better in creating connected experiences, It will help us deal with concerns about transparency of supply chain and brand protection by simply adding data into a NFC chip and combining it with geolocation, the technology that having it in your business might not seem too far since Startups have popped up and they are going to produce chips with 90% lower price.

It may seem unclear how far you can go with the ideas for connected experiences, but let us be clear that the sky is your limit for that. As for your creativity, you can use your packaging as a medium for a simple questionnaire or a smart game.

Another important point is budget control, as the webinar speaker, Angela Simondi, Regional Marketing Director, Greater Middle East and Africa at Tetra pack, aptly stated after discussing connected packaging in the FMCG industry, "Contrary to popular belief, this is not such a big investment, let us say you have control over the investment and can use it according to your budget. It's also flexible and fast if you need to change something.”

Why are all these ways of communication and control so important? Why do we need to do all these processes? Paul Jenkins, founder and CEO of ThePackHub, has stated quite simply that all the intelligence gathering, product protection, customer education and relationship management in primary markets can lead to us selling more products.  

One of the things that can influence today's audiences in making purchasing decisions is personalised experience, which Matthew Ward, head of print and digital at Transcend Packaging Ltd, aptly mentioned in the webinar, "We can make packaging more tangible and tactical for brands and make it much more interactive. They are going to get more brand value, it's really going to help them sell the story consistently and build some kind of brand loyalty."

Covid-19 has impacted several markets, and one of the most important is the growing concern for sustainability. Connected packaging can also support sustainable ideas and ensure that you get the right instructions for recycling your product or share instructions with your customers to help them do so. Also we can mention sustainability issues that are considered in the NFC improvements through some kind of paper-based solutions for better recyclability and so on.

Overall, we can clearly see that the growth of connected packaging technology can impact different areas of a business, from data mining and gathering customer insights, to communications strategy, supply chain and procurement, which is quite interesting and can be adapted with different budgets. So it's not impossible for even small and mid-sized companies to create connected experience campaigns to drive their business. We as Appetite creative are excited to bring brands to the future of mobile marketing and communication strategies.