FOCUS: SMART PACKAGING

Smart packaging becomes intelligent and active

Smart Packaging is gaining pace and adopting new meanings as it promises to disrupt the ‘functional’ packaging that we are all familiar with

-By Andy McCourt

The AIPIA’s (Active and Intelligent Packaging Industry Association) World Congress, recently held in Amsterdam, stirred the smart and intelligent packaging movement into renewed action following the easing of pandemic conditions.

Smart Packaging – as reported here one year ago at the AIPIA Congress, also in the FPLMA Forum May 2022 issue and Auspack coverage – is gaining pace and adopting new meanings as it promises to disrupt the ‘functional’ packaging that we are all familiar with. It’s still about reconciling our planet with profit and people, but new facets are emerging, with data and the Internet of Things fully engaged.

Sustainability continues at the fore of smart packaging initiatives; it is now a given that packaging producers must strive for ‘zero packaging to landfill’ by the end of 2025, eliminate or reduce the use of hazardous plastics and increase recycled content, to eventually reach a truly circular economy of packaging.

There are road bumps along the way, such as the suspension of soft REDCycle’s plastic recovery by the major supermarkets, due to a fire at its main re-processing plant, Close the Loop. The plant is not expected to be back online until mid-2023, during which time plastic stockpiles will bloat and much will go to landfill again. This in itself, is not smart!

The situation has become political, with Environment Minister Tanya Pilbersek stepping in and saying she expected Coles and Woolworths to come up with the answers and that government would work together with them. She noted that the government had set aside $60 million to increase soft plastic recycling and provided $1m to the Australian Food and Grocery Council to work with industry to develop more sustainable solutions for their soft plastics.

Irrespective of finger-pointing and splashing funds, it is a fact that Australia only has one substantial soft plastic recycling plant and it is out of action until well into 2023.

Moving on to the November AIPIA World Congress in Amsterdam, defining what ‘Smart’ or ‘Intelligent and Active’ packaging is, is a science with frequently widening goalposts. This is largely due to the torrent of new technologies being applied to packaging.

However, one of AIPIA’s leading supporters, the US$5.5 billion revenue Sealed Air Corporation sums it up well. As the inventor of Bubble Wrap (originally a failed wallpaper!) and Cryovac, this company is in a good position to define packaging trends, saying:

“Many brands are quickly learning that smart packaging, also referred to as digital packaging, is an excellent vehicle for connecting with consumers. More food products are ordered online now than ever before. The COVID-era made online ordering and hands-free delivery a necessity, but now they’re lifestyle preferences.

Joe Lambert, Sealed Air’s global leader for digital solutions

“This is more than a trend. It’s an evolution. Mobile technology is now interwoven into everyone’s lives. As more consumers turn to their phones and laptops, smart packaging has greater opportunities to link with consumers. These interactions provide the valuable data that companies need to gain market share.”

In summary, Sealed Air asserts that smart packaging provides:

• a way for companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors

• an opportunity for brands to deliver content to consumers in their preferred digital format

• more flexibility and personalisation

• added product tracking and security

At AIPIA, Sealed Air global leader for digital solutions Joe Lambert presented on “How digital-connected packaging drives efficiency down to the package level”.

Avery Dennison makes labels smarter

Another major supporter of the AIPIA is pressure-sensitive label manufacturer

Avery Dennison, with three speakers on the agenda. currently has over 22 billion physical items managed by its database.

When large corporations designate a job function as: “Ecosystem engagement manager, food and beverage” you know it is serious about sustainability. This is Monica Gross’ title, another speaker at the AIPIA conference.

Avery Dennison food and beverage ecosystem engagement manager Monica Gross

Her topic was all about digital product passports (DPP) – yes they are coming and may even be mandatory in Europe within three years. A DPP is designed to make it easier to repair or recycle products and track substances of concern along the supply chain.

“It’s the data, stupid”

With apologies for paraphrasing Bill Clinton’s famous “It’s the economy, stupid” chiding of a journalist, what AIPIA has made clear is that packaging must become a data-collecting and management medium. Tim Sykes from Packaging Europe, made this clear when chairing an opening panel discussion about Connected Packaging and Redefining the Data Flow.

Sykes said all along the value chain, data can provide critical insights about a product, its journey and how consumers react to it. Smart packaging opens a new dimension to the collection and delivery of data which can then be used to enable new product development, provenance, authentication, supply chain security and consumer engagement.

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPGs) and the people who buy them. This data flows both ways, outwards to suppliers, retailers and customers but also internally, to improve production, distribution and marketing.

Using this data effectively is a vital business function. However, this means many companies need to change the way they share data across their businesses.

Sustainability is the overriding ‘smartness’

Without sustainability as the guiding principle, all other benefits –differentiation, content delivery to consumers, personalisation, tracking and security – will suffer.

Consumers expect sustainability in both product and packaging. They actively seek out products that appeal to their sense of social and environmental responsibility; that help them ‘do their bit’ for the planet while knowing that that core issues are mega, global and beyond their individual control. Such conscientiousness extends to the way that products they consume are sourced, manufactured and transported.

Today’s ‘smart’ consumer abhors slave labour; they hate the idea of children being exploited as cheap labour; they shun products that they know to be unsustainably mined or harvested or contribute to deforestation.

Etiko’s founder Nick Savaidis embraces sustainability, fair trade, climate action, FSC – all with clothing and footwear

They loathe the use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Waste and landfill are no-nos. They see packaging as something that has safely conveyed a product into their homes, ensuring genuineness, safety of use and even convenient storage – but they want that packaging taken back and re-used either as packaging or other products.

All of this can be communicated to consumers via smart packaging. Naturally, the first step is with the ‘label on the tin’ –bold statements that support sustainability. Next, good graphics portraying the wholesomeness of both product and package. Then newer tech such as augmented reality links using QR and GS1 codes scanned on smartphones.

One of the best-articulated commitments to sustainability is that of the Melbournebased Etiko clothing and footwear brand, founded by Nick Savaidis in 2005. It’s not mere mission statements with Etiko (motto: ‘Wear no Evil’), it’s the circular economy as it should be.

Raw materials including organic textiles are ethically sourced, Etiko’s Fairtrade membership ensures workers are paid a fair wage, FSC certifies all packaging is sustainably sourced. In fact, when receiving cardboard (no plastic) packs of Etiko underwear, the packaging screams “I was recycled – recycle me again!”

Etiko’s packaging is sustainably smart

Etiko’s humanitarian ethos is summed up thus: “By creating fair, transparent, environmentally friendly supply chains, Etiko has directly supported the human rights and labour conditions of countless cotton growers, rubber tappers, apparel workers, shoe manufacturers and sports ball producers living in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. This has positive flow-on effects for these workers’ families and their communities.”

The next step will surely be adding augmented reality (AR) to Etiko’s packaging, to tell the story of just how committed the company is to its beliefs.

Living wine labels with AR

Smart packaging comes in many forms, but data and sustainability are common themes. A third theme presents the possibility to really engage consumers in conversations, with entertainment as the driver.

Wine house Treasury Wine Estates decided to ‘make labels come alive’ for its 19 Crimes series that celebrates convicts who were transported from Britain to Australia in the 1800s, sometimes for political or petty misdemeanours. Many went on to become high-achieving pastoralists and even judges.

Treasury Wines uses an artificial reality app to connect customers to the stories behind its 19 Crimes labels

19 Crimes’ Ming Alterman, US brand director of 19 Crimes, decided that creating an app that enabled linking to an AR website and telling the stories was the go. This worked so well that 19 Crimes sales rocketed in the US, so much so that the app can now feature rapper Snoop Dog – a brand ambassador who embodies the spirit of 19 Crimes – the spirit of 19 Crimes –rule breaking, culture creating and overcoming adversity.

“The interactive web-based augmented reality allows consumers to interact with Snoop without downloading an app. Instead of a face talking off the bottle, Snoop now jumps right off the bottle and answers any questions his fans would like to ask,” Alterman said.

Rapper Snoop Dog is helping to sell Australian wine in the US – with AR labels

19 Crimes was the first wine brand to launch an AR component to their collection. Although Living Wine Labels was launched in 2017, it continues to innovate and the partnership now extends to Squealing Pig, Matua, Lindemans and Wolf Blass wines – also Treasury brands.

All it took was an app and website – and a lot of imagination. “Don’t just drink wine –experience it” is the great tagline. You can see samples on www.livingwinelabels.com.

Tell the stories, save the data

AR and XR (eXtended reality) is in its infancy when looking at the potential in packaging of all kinds – not just labels. One idea; how about potato chips with an AR link that takes the consumer all the way back to the farm from where the potatoes were grown?

The harvesting, slicing and cooking processes, all using bio-organic products and finally, the responsibly sourced packaging with vegetable inks that can be recycled into playground insulation?

AR studios are springing up everywhere and the app can either be an adaptable ‘off the shelf’ such as Blippar or ZapWorks, or a custom-built app by an AR studio.

The link between AR, XR and brand packaging is too good to overlook and suppliers of labels and cartons should look towards offering it as an additional service to converting – it’s a natural companion to track & trace, authentication and other forms of turning packaging into an active and intelligent medium.

It’s the brave new world of smart packaging.