Brought to Life

By 2020 90 percent of the global population – according to experts’ assumptions – will have access to mobile high-speed data and 70 percent to smartphones. Needless to say customers’ expectations for products and their packaging will also rise.

Especially in times of growing e-Commerce physical retailers have to satisfy shoppers’ higher demands. Consumers wish to shop smartly, receive additional information fast and conveniently and enjoy a consistent customer journey at all so-called touchpoints – that is all the contact points between shoppers and a brand or company.

Brand owners and packaging producers are already using various technologies for this purpose – such as Virtual (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Especially emotional products and those in need of explanation are predestined for the use of this modern technology. VR and AR are to increase margins and boost sales. To this end the interaction and relationship with shoppers is being intensified – preferably wherever they get into touch with the brand or the company – be it at the check-out, with shop assistants or after-sales service. Shoppers’ uncertainties are to be reduced and new target groups and markets to be won over.

The technology primarily used for gaming so far is also increasingly applied in the food packaging segment now. Here the playful discovery of brands and products is in the foreground. By means of a marker on the packaging virtual figures can be brought to life – a current case in point being the wine brand 19 Crimes. The name of this “red drop” goes back to the history of Australia and Great Britain, which made the island on the southern hemisphere its penal colony in the late 18^th century. After committing 19 crimes perpetrators were given a choice between the death penalty or being banned for life to Australia.

Many did not survive the harsh trip but some did and achieved fame post mortem – or rather – they were brought to life again on a wine bottle. 19 villains tell their stories thanks to Augmented Reality. To make this possible Australian company Treasury Wine Estates has developed a special App together with the Tactic company. Once you scan the portraits on the wine labels with your smartphone the prisoners start talking.

19 Crimes Augmented Reality App from Anthony Shafer on Vimeo.

19crimes_MusicA from Peter Oberdorfer on Vimeo.

Another promising area for using such modern technologies is packaging logistics.  Thanks to smart transport packaging the supply chain can be optimised – a benefit for shoppers, too. In future, robust and versatile “envelopes” will not only be designed as information carriers but generate data themselves and/or communicate with each other, monitor content independently and be able to take productive decisions. This is at least forecast by a study commissioned by VDW, the Association of Corrugated Board Manufacturers to the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML, in Dortmund in 2017. Smart packaging can be put into practice, says the IML, by using sensors for transport monitoring, AutoID systems, 3D printing, finger prints and ID processes for paper and cardboard as well as by autonomous transport systems.