Package Design - April 2012 - 28

The Promise of
Smart and active packages can bring consumer and product interaction to new levels.
By Linda Casey

		 						Technology
E
nhance, protect and sell. Designers have long created packaging with these three goals. But what if those packages could be more than static print on paper, poly, metal and glass? That’s the promise of smart and active technologies. These technologies transform static packages and designs into interactive devices that better protect products, make your package designs more effective on shelf, or encourage consumers to keep products in their original packaging to capture those second and third moments of truth. Gas scavengers and thermochromic inks are two activepackaging technologies that already are fully commercialized and readily accessible to package designers and brand owners. U.K. retailer Tesco is rolling out a gas-scavenging technology from Food Freshness Technology (U.K.) that will remove ethylene from produce packages and help prevent 1.6 million packs of tomatoes and 350,000 packs of avocados from being lost to spoilage every year. MillerCoors (Chicago, IL) has successfully used thermochromic inks to differentiate its Coors brand from other brands. Since 2007, thermochromic inks, manufactured by Chromatic Technologies Inc. (Colorado Springs, CO), have turned the mountains on Coors labels and packages blue. Supported by a strong promotional campaign, the coldactivated cans and bottles have become a strong element of the Coors brand. Luxury vodka brand Madea (New York, NY) uses a smart and active technology that’s not as widely used, yet. The bottle sports a programmable electronic display that consumers use to personalize the bottle with birthday, thank-you messages and the like. Retailing around $40 a bottle, the vodka and its display make a novel gift. If research from IDTechEx Ltd (Cambridge, U.K.) is correct, we should be seeing more electronic smart packages in the near future. In the report “Brand Enhancement by Electronics in Packaging 2012-2022,” IDTechEx researchers Cathleen Thiele and Raghu Das predict demand for electronic smart packaging will grow from $30 million in 2012 to $1.7 billion in 2022.

The Coors Light 16-oz. Silver Bullet aluminum pint features thermochromic graphics.

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APRIL 2012



Package Design - April 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Package Design - April 2012

Package Design - April 2012
Contents
From the Editor
Front Panel
Snapshots
Designer's Corner
Certifiable, and Proud of It
Prescription for Profits
Far Beyond Farming
The Promise of Technology
Proof of Concepts
Product Focus: Glass & Rigid Plastic
Online Now
Datebook
Index of Advertisers
Globespotting
Package Design - April 2012 - Intro
Package Design - April 2012 - Package Design - April 2012
Package Design - April 2012 - Cover2
Package Design - April 2012 - 1
Package Design - April 2012 - Contents
Package Design - April 2012 - 3
Package Design - April 2012 - From the Editor
Package Design - April 2012 - 5
Package Design - April 2012 - Front Panel
Package Design - April 2012 - 7
Package Design - April 2012 - 8
Package Design - April 2012 - 9
Package Design - April 2012 - Snapshots
Package Design - April 2012 - 11
Package Design - April 2012 - 12
Package Design - April 2012 - 13
Package Design - April 2012 - Designer's Corner
Package Design - April 2012 - 15
Package Design - April 2012 - 16
Package Design - April 2012 - 17
Package Design - April 2012 - Certifiable, and Proud of It
Package Design - April 2012 - 19
Package Design - April 2012 - 20
Package Design - April 2012 - 21
Package Design - April 2012 - Prescription for Profits
Package Design - April 2012 - 23
Package Design - April 2012 - Far Beyond Farming
Package Design - April 2012 - 25
Package Design - April 2012 - 26
Package Design - April 2012 - 27
Package Design - April 2012 - The Promise of Technology
Package Design - April 2012 - 29
Package Design - April 2012 - Proof of Concepts
Package Design - April 2012 - 31
Package Design - April 2012 - 32
Package Design - April 2012 - 33
Package Design - April 2012 - Product Focus: Glass & Rigid Plastic
Package Design - April 2012 - 35
Package Design - April 2012 - 36
Package Design - April 2012 - 37
Package Design - April 2012 - Online Now
Package Design - April 2012 - Index of Advertisers
Package Design - April 2012 - Globespotting
Package Design - April 2012 - Cover3
Package Design - April 2012 - Cover4
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