Today’s
consumer wants to be engaged, informed, and entertained by the brands with
which they do business. Paperboard packaging has been able to facilitate these
important marketing functions with its flat, printed surfaces that are well
suited to deliver cutting-edge interactive product information, in-store sales,
and entertaining games, and more.
The most
ubiquitous of these technologies is the QR code (“Quick Response Code”). Seen
today on packaging, commercial publications, billboards, and even on T-shirts,
these codes send consumers to a product or company’s website or social media
page once scanned via a mobile app.
Even though the
2013 holiday season saw a 33% increase in QR code triggers over the previous
year, as of late, there has been much debate as to whether consumers actually
glean value from QR codes. In fact, many pundits suggest that QR codes are a
dying technology as they are cumbersome and inconvenient to use. Today,
consumers simply aren’t willing to take the time to pull out their phone, open
the app, steady the screen over the product, take a photo, and wait for a
website to load. Furthermore, many QR codes bring consumers to sites that are
not mobile optimized or do not have a direct connection to the scanned product.
Nor do brand owners want to eat up valuable brand real estate with both a UPC
and QR code.
Although the
fate of the QR code remains unclear, several new mobile technologies are poised
to overtake the interactive packaging market by streamlining the consumer
experience. They include:
Image Recognition
New apps such
as Ricoh’s Clickable Paper and Google Goggles allow for direct mobile
interaction with a package, thereby eliminating the need for a separate
scanable code that eats up precious branding space and distracts from a
package’s aesthetics. After scanning a package enabled with Clickable Paper
technology, the consumer can access links to websites, video, charts, maps,
blogs, shopping carts, product reviews, and other important data. Thus, unlike
a QR code that only brings the consumer to a single website, these image
recognition apps connect consumers to a wider variety of content.
Smart Inks
Touchcode has
developed an invisible electronic code that is printed directly onto a package.
By simply touching the encoded package with one’s smart device, the consumer’s
screen comes alive with engaging product content. Again, this technology
provides mobile interactivity without affecting package design. Furthermore, it
is also currently marketed as a way for consumers to verify the brand
authenticity of the products they purchase.
Augmented Reality
Augmented
reality apps allow consumers to train their smartphone or tablet on a package
and then view superimposed computer-generated images that provide additional
information about the product. For more detailed information, check out our
blog that discusses this fascinating new technology.
Near-Field Communication (NFC)
Not as widely
used in packaging, NFC is a term for an exchange of information between two
devices. With this technology, an NFC chip is embedded into a package so when a
consumer with a NFC-enabled smart device approaches, product information is
automatically transmitted from the chip to the consumer’s phone. Although large
amounts of data cannot be stored in the chip, it can provide simple information
such as discount vouchers, website URLs, or email addresses. Most likely, this
technology will be used in the future as an easy way to purchase products or to
turn on or off TVs, lights, etc.
Although
marginal today, the above technologies clearly reveal the direction in which
interactive packaging is heading. As QR codes represent a promising yet poorly
executed idea, these new technologies aim to simplify and optimize the
consumer’s experience. Luckily for our industry, no matter where these
technologies move, paperboard will continue to be the packaging medium best
suited to engage and delight potential customers with its ability to easily
interact with our ubiquitous mobile devices.
