South Africa’s Amarula liqueur and Italy’s Melinda Apples have used purpose-led design and digital technology to connect with consumers in creative ways.
Brands are discovering that digital printing technology can help reinvent the way they engage their audiences and the experiences created for them. So said Nancy Janes, global head of Brand Innovation at HP Inc., in her introduction to HP and The Dieline’s brand design conference at Interpack recently.
Janes cited a number of well-known examples of brands that have successfully adopted digital print-enabled strategies to raise their profiles, connect with consumers and grow their businesses. Two recent examples in particular are backing a cause that's resonating strongly with consumers.
Hot off the digital press in South Africa is a new campaign by Amarula, the South African producer of cream liqueur brand Amarula Cream, known for its iconic elephant graphic on its branding and named after the fruit that elephants like to eat in the South African bush.
Amarula is now releasing a special edition of 400,000 bottles with individualised elephant icons to raise global awareness for the same remaining number of the endangered African species.
In a collaboration with HP and label converter SA Litho of Cape Town, South Africa, Amarula Cream turned its liqueur bottles into unique pieces as an added dimension to the brand’s “Name Them, Save Them” African elephant conservation project.
The production of the one-of-a-kind designed elephant icons and names on labels was made possible by HP SmartStream Mosaic, using two seed patterns in a variable design software algorithm, and the HP Indigo WS6800 Digital Press.
Turning to fruit of another kind, Melinda Apples of Italy is using social media and digital print for a campaign to support Italian apple farmers affected by the earthquake in 2016.
The apple company launched the “Dedidamela” (Pledge an Apple) campaign, inviting comments on its Facebook page to encourage the afflicted famers. In the first two weeks of the campaign 22,977 comments were received; Melinda has pledged to donate a euro for every message received.
The uplifting messages are integrated into the design of the corrugated boxes, and printed on an HP PageWide T1100 Press by converter Ghelfi Ondaluti.
Janes said the campaign is driving apple sales as consumers are purchasing entire boxes for the limited edition message, rather than just a few single apples.
Janes went on to tell the audience that two million cartons have been printed thus far, and another six million are slated for production.
