No Label Needed: Martens Brewery is Back with its Latest Direct Print Bottle

Who could forget the talking beer bottles that took the digital printing world by storm last summer?

If you haven’t seen these innovative bottles, here’s a reminder: To promote a popular Belgian television show, Martens Brewery printed the show’s popular characters onto beer bottles. Using augmented reality, Martens created “talking bottles,” allowing consumers to interact with the bottles via smart phones or tablets.

While the augmented reality aspects were incredibly innovative, Martens didn’t stop there. This beer was bottled in PET plastic, a rarity in this segment, and utilized Direct Print Powered by KHS to decorate the bottles without using labels.

Now Martens is at it again, packaging its Pilsner in a green PET bottle and implementing the same direct print capabilities in lieu of a label.

To learn more about this direct print technology and its potential, packagePRINTING caught up with Phil Johnson, managing director of NMP Systems, a subsidiary of KHS, which specializes in innovative packaging systems for the beverage market.

Jan Martens, owner of Martens Brewery

packagePRINTING: What led Martens to want to utilize and embrace this technology?

Phil Johnson: KHS started developing direct print in 2006, but the tipping point was really a [trade] show called drinktec, which is an important show, especially for beer. The last one was in 2013 and that’s where we showed the equipment that eventually went to Martens.

When [owner] Jan Martens saw that equipment and saw where it was going, he saw it as being able to do short runs, but also to be able to change decorations very quickly. Obviously, eventually eliminating the labeler is important to him because labeling is one of the more difficult pieces of the packaging line. Also for lead times, inventory and things like that, he really sees it as the future.

pP: How did consumers react to these bottles? Did they enjoy seeing beer packaged in this innovative way?

PJ: [Martens] did something very special. They created a beer brand to promote a movie of the television series.

Martens used direct print on these PET bottles that promoted a Belgian television show. The bottles also incorporated augmented reality to create "talking bottles."

That’s a very creative space. The idea for talking bottles was cool, and to do it with direct print, that’s just a really nice combination of things that really reaches out and grabs the market here.

But to the consumer, those are going to be collectors’ item bottles. If you grew up with that television show, and a certain sector of Flemish-speaking Belgium did, they’re collectors’ items.

pP: Have you seen any other creative uses of this direct print technology?

PJ: I think one thing that you’re going to see, especially from people like Martens that have this capability, is instead of thinking about it in the pattern of a new label, they get to think about a decoration. They have fewer limits in their mind about the format, about the overlap, about where different things are going to appear on that bottle.