Customers expect more from brands. They want to feel a connection and to get a sense of what the brand represents.
Brands can capitalise on this expectation by offering customers a more in-depth experience through the packaging of products. Connected packaging enables brands to differentiate themselves through brand storytelling and build a dialogue with customers via their packaging.
The benefits include:
- Engagement
- Education
- Interaction
- Incentivisation
- Data capture.
Common methods of delivery include QR codes and near field communication (NFC) tags.
Here are five great examples of connected packaging.
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Gamification
Connected packaging provides the means to communicate various messages, such as a brand’s green credentials, but this will only be effective if the vehicle for delivering the message also works.
Tetra-Pak has used gamification to engage with consumers and tell them about the company’s sustainable packaging.
They achieved this combination of entertainment and education with an online game platform accessible via a QR code on the packaging.
A single URL hosted a variety of games so that anyone scanning the code would then experience a random selection of games, different each time they visited the site.
The result is the perfect integration of brand messaging with customer engagement, through connected packaging.
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Recruitment
Pepsico found a new way to develop its graduate recruitment process further using connected packaging.
Connected packaging offers ways for brands to connect with their target audiences. In this case, Pepsico’s target audience was potential talent in the form of graduates.
To connect effectively, Pepsico wanted to educate graduates about its range of products and brands.
The company incorporated gamification apps into its Dare to Do More challenge, and, through scannable barcodes on various Pepsico products, it could encourage graduates to engage in a series of interactive quizzes.
Pepsico’s recruitment team could then access a dashboard that gave them an overview of people’s performances.
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Data Capture
Adding value to the customer is important, but what should a brand get in return? CurryKing’s connected packaging answers this question.
Users could scan the product pack and this would trigger an augmented reality experience, inviting them to play a game.
Each of the games offered featured an animated CurryKing character, reinforcing the brand at the same time as engaging the customer.
Behind the scenes, the client had read access to a dashboard enabling them to download and view user data. The dashboard collated this so that the client could see every customer engagement and details of each game played.
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Increasing Awareness
Rani Float is a Coca Cola product that contains real fruit pieces. The company wanted to attract consumers by raising awareness of the product.
The perfect vehicle for this was a connected packaging experience. It would enable Coca Cola to promote the brand’s flavours and real fruit benefits.
This involved an augmented reality app using image recognition to identify the different Rani Float flavours.
The idea was to encourage customers to buy the drink by engaging in online challenges. The users could win prizes and interact with the brand, while the client gained useful data about locations and peak selling periods.
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Engagement and Education
Emmi is a Swiss dairy company and it wanted to engage with consumers of its lactose-free milk drinks digitally.
A big part of this engagement was to educate the target audience about product benefits, such as valuable minerals and high protein content.
The solution was an interactive online quiz, accessible via unique QR codes on the product packaging. Each QR code was a one-time use code. This meant Emmi could engage with individual customers, based on the data gathered.
Customer Insights and Targeted Campaigns
Connected packaging adds value to consumers and provides brands with valuable customer data.
It helps build brand awareness, enhance the customer experience and differentiate products in the marketplace.
To find out more about connected packaging and experiences, please get in touch.