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Almond Breeze On-Pack AR Experience Maps Orchard-to-Shelf Journey

Consumers are increasingly looking to food and beverage brands to supply them with greater transparency on the origins of the products they purchase—especially in categories such as plant-based, organic, and allnatural brands. With this in mind, Blue Diamond Growers reached out to immersive creative and production studio Tactic to develop an on-pack Augmented Reality experience for its Almond Breeze brand that would both educate and entertain consumers of their non-dairy milk, yogurt, and creamer products.

“We reached out to Tactic and started engaging with them in 2019,” shares Almond Breeze Group Marketing Manager Micah Keith. “We saw how some brands were using AR technology to tell their own stories, and we felt this would be a great way to engage our consumers to tell the story of our cooperative of more than 3,000 almond growers and our delicious almond milk products.

“We wanted to give consumers an inside look at the places, people, and work that make Almond Breeze one of the most trusted brands in non-dairy milk products. One of our main goals was to help consumers that already purchase us to understand us even more, and with this experience, we are hoping our consumers will fall even more in love with us and get to know us even better.”

According to Tactic President Peter Oberdorfer, the process of developing and executing a branded AR experience begins with a consultation with the company’s brand managers to align with any existing campaigns and to decide on points of emphasis. “In the case of Blue Diamond, they were looking for a way to help activate the store shelves where their products exist, and tell the story of how their cooperative growers in California make the product,” he explains. “We thought that a storybook/ pop-up motif inside the carton would be a great experience for the consumer and an easy, shorthand way of conveying this message with visuals and an audio narration. The team at Almond Breeze loved the initial concepts, and we worked with them to develop a narrative that was in line with their product.”

Tactic’s script, divided into chapters, tells a farmto-table story about the Blue Diamond cooperative of growers, as well as Almond Breeze’s ingredients and packaging. “We tried to boil down the essence of what the brand is about in a series of key scenes that would really convey the hard work, love, and care these families put into delivering the nal product,” Oberdorfer says. Tactic also suggested a visual menu of alternating recipes that could be updated dynamically from season to season, as needed.

Unlike many existing on-pack AR experiences, consumers do not have to download an app to access the AR content from Almond Breeze. Using the webAR library from platform developer 8th Wall, Tactic developed the AR experience to be accessible from a dedicated website, ar.almondbreeze.com, which opens up when users point their smartphone at a QR code on the packaging. Once activated, the AR experience reveals a series of animated dioramas that appear within the package, though a portal that slides out from the package’s signature diamond-shaped logo.

To kick off the launch of the web-based AR experience in March 2021, Almond Breeze collaborated with Tactic on an in-store fridge execution. Triggered by a QR code featured on Almond Breeze signage on store refrigerators, the AR experience launched a full diorama of an almond farm on any open space in front of the user. Featuring a farm with a barn, animated delivery trucks, a eld of blossoming almond trees, beehives, a brook, and a roadway, the experience allowed users to freely move around the AR scene at their leisure. The miniature AR farm can now also be accessed by users without a QR code or package, by visiting the dedicated website on their smartphone.

According to Almond Breeze’s Keith, since the launch of the AR experience, the company has had almost 2,500 session startups, with a progressive growth of almost 50% more sessions each month. “Consumers are engaging with the AR experience for 1:18 seconds per view, which is certainly at the higher end of engagement time across all mediums in which we reach our loyal buyers,” he says. “Additionally, we’ve had almost 20% of AR users come back to the experience and try it again, which allows us to both entertain our consumers and continue to share our brand message and promote brand transparency.” —Anne Marie Mohan

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Social Media Buzz for Oreo Thins Limited Edition Camou age Packaging

Oreo produces over 40 billion cookies each year, but only 3,000 packages of Oreo Thins were made available for the “Thins Protection Program” social media sweepstakes, which was held in July. The campaign partnered with Green Giant, Ford, Hanes, and Better Homes & Gardens to create packaging that looks unlike the traditional cookie packaging and can be hidden in plain sight.

Camou age package designs included an owner’s manual for the 2022 Ford Maverick truck, Green Giant cauli ower riced veggies, Hanes men’s t-shirts, and a BHG cookbook, made to riff on the fact that many parents apparently hide their treats from the kids (or others) in order to get a chance at eating them. Hiding them in the freezer, the glove box, or even on a shelf in plain sight was a unique marketing campaign that got people talking about where they hide their own Oreos. Fans were asked to post creative hiding spots for their Oreo Thins, to enter the sweepstakes and get a free package while they lasted. One winner was chosen for a $25,000 grand prize. Many big brands like Ikea, Home Depot, and Xbox also jumped in, with creative posts of their own hiding spots. Packaging World reached out to brand owner Mondelez for more information about the packaging, intending to ask speci cally about possible use of digital printing technology to complete the short run packs, but didn’t receive a response by press time. —Kim Overstreet

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Directory of Packaging Suppliers Launches with Better Search, Improved Categorization

This month PMMI launched a directory of packaging and processing suppliers at www.PMMIProSource.org. More than 900 leading suppliers, all members of PMMI, are cataloged and indexed on the site.

The website incorporates several features that make searching for suppliers faster, easier, and more reliable than ever.

Company listings are curated by a full-time editor who ensures they appear in the correct product categories. (The product categories themselves have been recon gured from scratch, based on actual end-user input.) Summary descriptions that appear on search results pages are edited for clarity while minimizing marketing hype.

A search engine optimized for packaging and processing terminology returns a consistent set of search results for a given product category, regardless of the keyword variation typed into the search box.

Category-speci c lters further aid in re ning searches. For example, within liquid lling, it is possible to lter by product type (e.g., viscous, non-viscous, etc.), machine type (inline, rotary, etc.), ll type (volumetric, ll by time, hot ll, etc.), certi cations and sanitation (CIP, Dairy 3A, etc.), shelf life, and more.

The directory also distinguishes between companies who supply a machine as a standalone machine or integrated as part of a monoblock or multi-machine con guration. The site also differentiates between manufacturers and distributors.

A powerful feature of the directory is the ability to lter any category by package type; for example, it’s possible to quickly isolate companies that supply case packers that work speci cally with stand-up pouches, or liquid llers that ll bulk containers. Extensive illustrations of package types and machinery and material categories make it easy for less experienced users and transcend language barriers.

Packaging materials and containers are featured extensively in addition to machinery. Users can lter by a wide range of criteria including sustainability tactic (such as recyclable, bio-based, or recycled content), package features (child-resistant, anti-counterfeit, e-commerce, etc.) and much more.

An A-list panel of end-user experts who have decades of experience at

major CPGs guided the development of the categories, lters, and design of the site. In effect, the site was designed by end users for end users. Questions and suggestions can be sent to prosource@pmmi.org. —Matt Reynolds

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Colgate, GSK Sink Their Teeth into 2021 AmeriStar Awards

This year’s Institute of Packaging Professional (IoPP) AmeriStar Awards should make you smile. Colgate’s Elixir toothpaste tube (visit pwgo.to/7263 for PW’s coverage last month) pack format took home both the Best in Show and Design Excellence Awards, while GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) earned the Sustainable Packaging Award for its plasticfree, 100% recyclable, toothbrush secondary packaging. According to a press release from IoPP, “AmeriStar judges rated the Colgate Elixir very high not only for its sustainability attributes, but also make it the clear choice for this year’s Best in Show Award. It’s very rare when the same package wins more than one of the top three honors in the same year in the AmeriStar competition, but the judges rated this as a truly exceptional package in multiple ways.”

This award-winning package marries a PET bottle with LiquiGlide technology, enabling the Colgate-Palmolive team to use PET with more viscous toothpastes. The cap opening was developed to dispense viscous toothpaste on a toothbrush while permitting air into the bottle, allowing smooth out ow of toothpaste. Designed for recyclability, it includes a thick-walled PET-E cap to provide a premium aesthetic while retaining compatibility with the PET recyclability stream. The label is a combination printed p-s label, printed in four colors with dual matte and gloss varnishes, as well as two cold foil applications and a reverse printed back label. The bottle itself is produced through a Single Stage ISBM process and assembled with an injection molded PP shoulder shroud and a thick-walled PET-E cap.

Taking home top honors in sustainability was GSK’s rst ever 100% plastic-free, 100% recyclable secondary packaging toothbrush. The brand says the launch disrupts the toothbrush aisle with an aesthetically pleasing, consumer friendly, innovative, and fully sustainable concept. The IoPP judges agreed.

The toothbrush twin pack consists of a color matched, thermoformed PaperFoam tray that is compostable and recyclable in the paper waste stream. It is heat sealed to a printed, SBS NatraLock® UltraSeal top card engineered to be used as a plastic clamshell replacement, while maximizing shelf appeal and enhancing sustainability. The top card has a die-cut window glued with clear, heat-sealable compostable cellulose transparent lm, allowing the consumer to see the product. Finally, on the back of the cellulose tray are two paperbased labels, also plastic-free.

All in all, there were 24 AmeriStar award winners in various categories, as well as three student award winners in the competition. Visit the IoPP website at pwgo.to/7265 to view them all. —Matt Reynolds

Watch a brief video of the Colgate-Palmolive Elixir tech, as well as other advances in toothpaste packaging, at pwgo.to/7264.

GSK’s plastic-free, 100% recyclable, toothbrush secondary packaging earned IoPP’s Sustainable Packaging Award.

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CPGs to Spend $23.8 Billion on Digital Transformation by 2030

Manufacturers of consumer packaged goods are increasingly utilizing analytics to anticipate customer demand and optimize their processes. According to a report from ABI Research, Industry 4.0 in the ConsumerPackaged Goods Market, overall, digital factory revenue will approach $24 billion in 2030, with spending by CPGs on data and analytics services forecast to reach $4 billion in 2030, up from $500 million in 2021.

“Plant managers walk a tightrope every day. Too little production leads to shortages and lost revenue opportunities; too much production means that perishable products go to waste,” explains Michael Larner, Industrial and Manufacturing Principal Analyst at ABI Research. “Digital threads across the supply chain are essential.”

Production planning is challenging without information from retailers’ point of sales systems, the report notes. CPG manufacturers need to work with retailers, distributors, and supply chain partners to share sales information through the supply chain, from the farmer to the checkout line. “While creating digital threads across the supply chain will take time, in the short term, CPG manufacturers need to ensure that their production plans are informed by as much relevant data as possible,” Larner points out.

According to ABI, CPGs are investing in IoT sensors and analytics to monitor temperatures and humidity levels in their facilities and the condition of ingredients and foodstuffs, alerting staff if conditions change beyond acceptable parameters. Many CPG manufacturers are undertaking ambitious data projects. For example, the report shares, AnheuserBusch InBev is unifying its 27 disparate Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) into a single system, and Mars is creating a digital thread to provide visibility from the point of origin of its raw ingredients to the point of sale.

Advises the report, digital threads will be essential for CPG manufacturers to meet the needs of their various stakeholders. Concludes Larner, “Manufacturers need work with retailers and supply-chain operators to, among other things, anticipate and prepare for demand surges, have exibility on their production lines to accommodate trial avors and new packaging, as well as have the required documentation available for regulators as evidence of how the facility handles ingredients.” —Anne Marie Mohan