Big Picture - March 2018 - 30

M E TA L C A N S

BIG PICTURE

March 2018

Zappar has worked closely with Crown,
a manufacturer of metal cans, to create
codes that can be variably printed and
placed under the ring pull of cans or
bottle tops, delivering a wide range of
content and experience to consumers.

PROMOTIONS

"Angry Birds" maker Rovio partnered with
Zappar to release a billion "Bird Codes"
through various consumer products and
brand promotions, including PEZ dispensers. Users unlocked an AR mini-game and
posed for photos with their favorite "Angry
Birds" characters. (Photos: Zappar)

country. Through the AR experience encoded in the wine
labels, these rogues come to life and share their stories.
The creative services company Tactic brought the concept
to life by combining its expertise in character animation and
visual effects with knowledge of AR for mobile devices. The
19 Crimes app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times.
Treasury Wine Estates updated the app for use with its
Walking Dead brands of wines. Viewers can use the Living
Wine Labels app with The Walking Dead Blood Red Blend
wine label to see Sheriff Rick Grimes fight the walking dead in
the wine aisle of the store. Viewers of The Walking Dead
Cabernet Sauvignon labels see a horde of zombies breaking
out of the label onto the phone screen. When the two bottles
of wine are viewed side by side, the AR experience shows the
characters fighting each other.
Mesh Omnimedia produced AR-enhanced wine labels for
Notaviva Vineyards in Loudoun County, Virginia. When the
consumer views the wine label, it plays music that corresponds
to that wine type. The AR technology also triggers a video
showing the tasting room at the winery and links to information
about the wine blend, music playlists, and overnight accommodations at the winery.
"Notaviva was founded on the vision of providing
customers an opportunity to heighten their enjoyment of wine
by inspiring them to consider the correlation between music,
their emotions, and their sensory perception," explains CEO
and wine composer Stephen Mackey. "Using AR for our wine
labels is just the first step in building this technology into our
brand experience. We are incorporating AR technologies into
our tasting room processes, using it at wine festivals, and
leveraging it for our professional services such as corporate
retreats, team-building, and private events."

Why Digital Printing Companies
Should Care
Teaching more designers about what's possible with connected packaging and interactive print will help drive the growth
of digital printing and development of value-added content.

Twenty-five years ago, wide-format graphics didn't gain
popularity until a few designers and ad agencies posted
eye-catching bus wraps, billboards, and building wraps in
major cities. Today, creative application ideas, best practices,
and new business models for connected packaging can spread
like wildfire on social media.
Depending on a company's goals, packaging might not
prove to be the best channel for connecting print with online
content. Some brands might want to test interactive print
technologies with other types of printed materials, including
T-shirts, coasters, posters, or P-O-P displays.
For example, Campari America has worked with Thinfilm to
develop NFC-enabled refrigerator magnets for six of their
popular brands of liquor. When you touch your smartphone to
the magnet, you can have bottles of Wild Turkey or SKYY Vodka
delivered directly to your door through the Drizly online beer,
wine, and spirits marketplace. The NFC chip prompts Drizly to
open the specific website page for the brand and gives the
consumer the option to add the item to the cart and check out.
"Packaging doesn't exist in a vacuum," notes Zappar's
Jeff Ridgeway. "Point-of-purchase displays, receipts, and
marketing collateral can all be leveraged with AR content."
He says that as companies track the usage and effectiveness
of campaigns in real time, they will make updates that will
increase their chances of success.
Global brands won't be the only ones interested in
connected packaging. Some start-up, local, or online brands
might prefer to keep their printed packaging clean and simple,
and use AR to deliver additional, updateable content about the
brand's values.
Experiential marketing firms may also be interested in
interactive print. Codes can be added to gift packages,
T-shirts, or water bottles, or on wall murals and signs.
Triggered AR experiences can be shared on social media.
Erica Aitken, president of Rods and Cones, believes
connected print represents a huge opportunity for brand
owners, publishers, creative agencies, and printing firms. She
chose to work with the Linkz platform because the solution is
sophisticated, mature, and easy to use.
Rods and Cones can help print-service providers implement a few test projects or set up portals through which they
can sell print-to-digital platforms to their clients, like they did
for this month's Insight on page 2.
"Everyone is a winner," says Aitken. "Agencies and printers
can offer print-to-digital services via their Linkz portal. Brand
owners and publishers can benefit from higher customer
engagement and loyalty."

Learn More About It
To learn more about connected packaging, visit the AIPIA
website and attend events such as Dscoop, How Design Live,
the Digital Print for Packaging Conference hosted by Smithers
Pira, and WFX: Wide-Format Exchange.
If your company has already started producing connected
packaging, send us some pictures. We'd love to share your
success stories.
EILEEN FRITSCH was a founding editor of Big Picture magazine.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Picture - March 2018