US company Fresnels has been studying the use of digital lenses as a way of enhancing packaging in the future.
While the use of radial fresnels on packaging isn't new, with some toothpaste and champagne brands already using them, these optical effects were not studied until last year.
In 2016, the market research team at Fresnels investigated the efficacy of these optical effects as ‘attention grabbers’.
Fresnels COO Dr Glenn Wood says that, typically, these modern variants of holograms are circular, lack the prismatic colours associated with holograms, and have the appearance of polished metal spheres or domes in which customers can see their faces by reflection.
“But there's another effect we observed, which causes even greater customer interaction,” Wood says.
“We've noticed that, in every case, when we've demonstrated samples of these optical lenses to members of the public, there's a universal urge to touch it and utter an exclamation of amazement along the lines of ‘WOW!’
“From the point of view of paths-to-purchase in a retail environment, the positive effect of these lenses begins at a distance of 6' or more.
“This is exactly the purpose of having eye-catching effects on packaging – distinguishing the product from its neighbours on crowded shelves and drawing in the prospective purchaser for closer examination.”
Unlike holographic images or effects which require special lighting and viewing angles for optimal impact, the fresnel lens acts like a convex mirror, reflecting the ambient light from all directions even when the light level is quite subdued.
Thus, it announces its presence as the prospect approaches from a distance of up to 20’ and then plays on the innate curiosity of the prospect to draw them in for closer inspection.
Fresnel's tests were initially carried out in China and repeated in the US and Europe.
“In every case the result was the same - a compulsive desire to stroke the lens followed by an equally strong request to own it regardless of the content,” Wood says.
“The rationale for incorporating these fresnel effects into packaging is clear, but a restraining factor to their commercialisation has been the limited technology available to do so.”
From a production point of view, Fresnels is able to offer fresnel effects on competitively priced PET laminates, which are applied to board for folding cartons with 100 per cent coverage.
This has cost implications that inevitably restrict the use to high value products that can sustain the additional cost.
“We are now seeing the launch of hot and cold stamping foils that allow the fresnel lens to the placed exactly where the design calls for it and in a quantity not much greater than the dimensions of the lens itself,” he says.
“Not only can these foils reproduce exactly the true fresnel effect without distracting rainbow colours, but also they lead to significant cost reductions through material savings and enhanced productivity.”
