Packaging With Built-In Reminders
It is already possible to buy foods and medicines that have date- and temperature-sensitive packaging to indicate if the hamburger you bought is still safe to eat, and whether a medication has been stored at an optimal temperature. This is but the beginning of a wave of interactive packaging that will change some of the ways consumers select and relate to the products they buy.
Coffee With a Wake-Up Call
While not quite ready for prime time, coffee giant Nescafé and bottled water firm Vittel have experimented with adding alarms to packaging. Both projects are pilot programs and may not become mass market realities, but they show what is possible at the new juncture of packaging, 3D printing and electronics.
While many people now use their smartphones as alarm clocks, the morning cup of joe may possibly be a lot closer than the kitchen. The recently tested hot beverage-alarm clock is a marketing exercise from Nescafé. Together with several Mexican creative agencies, Nestlé has developed the Alarm Cap, a limited-edition 3D printed lid with powered electronics that wake sleepers in what the company claims is a scientifically researched manner.
Seven different alarm sounds, including a bird song, work in tandem with a gently pulsing light to wake a sleeper in a natural and calming fashion. The user opens the lid to switch off the alarm and in turn is greeted with the refreshing, awakening smell of morning coffee. How well this works for people who lunge for the alarm clock and knock it on the floor is yet to be determined.
The 200 limited edition lids in the test use 3D printing on both sides of the cap. The exterior is printed by Shapeways, an emerging leader in additive manufacturing, using a material called Nylon SLS. The inner piece, which houses the electronics, is printed on a MakerBot Replicator, a relatively low-end but reliable printer. Though unlikely to be offered on a mass scale, this exercise by the largest food company on the planet shows how 3D printing can be used to create innovative products and house some clever technology on a small scale.
Keep Hydrated
People are constantly advised to stay hydrated every day by drinking plenty of water. But it’s easy to forget. With that in mind, Vittel (a subsidiary of Nestlé, by the way) has invented a simple yet effective bottle cap with an in-built alarm that can remind you when to drink.
Screwing the cap onto the top of a regular bottle activates a timer. An hour later a little spring inside the cap then causes a flag on the top to pop up, grabbing a person’s attention. The cap and timer is reactivated when it is screwed back into the bottle. In an experiment conducted by ad agency Oglivy Paris, people using the cap drank more water during the day when using a bottle equipped with the reminder cap.
As with the coffee cup alarm, there is no news regarding general commercial availability, and launching such options is most likely a few years away. Still, brand owners are already thinking about ways to incorporate a variety of intelligence into packaging. These caps are early interactive packaging and border on the Internet of Things, a world where packaging will communicate with devices such as smartphones, reminding users to buy coffee because the bag in the fridge is nearly empty, or to recommend products while in a store, based on past purchases. It also means that converters will need to be climbing new learning curves and finding ways to produce packaging that modest levels of interactivity and intelligence.
