FuturePrint Podcast
FuturePrint is dedicated to and passionate about the power of print technology to enable new opportunities and create new value. This pod features deep-dive discussions with the people behind the tech as well as market analysis, trends, marketing and storytelling!
FuturePrint Podcast
#260 Digital Gateways: How Connected Packaging Outperforms Traditional Media
The digital revolution has transformed nearly every aspect of marketing, but one channel remains surprisingly underutilized despite its remarkable potential: the packaging that consumers literally hold in their hands. In this eye-opening conversation with Jenny Stanley, founder and director of Appetite Creative, we explore how connected packaging is creating powerful digital gateways between brands and consumers.
Stanley reveals the striking metrics behind connected packaging engagement, with scan rates of 7-8% dramatically outperforming traditional digital campaigns and average engagement times of 2-3 minutes per interaction. "Connected packaging is the only marketing channel where you have a consumer who literally has your product in their hands," Stanley explains. "It's actively the consumer's decision to make that interaction with your brand, so that's an incredibly palpable moment." This unique context, combined with the technology's ability to drive multiple interactions, can create up to 12 minutes of meaningful brand engagement per consumer.
The conversation dives deep into the technological evolution enabling this revolution, from serialized QR codes that give every package a unique identity to NFC technology offering premium "tap-to-engage" experiences. Stanley shares compelling case studies, including Woodlands Dairy's campaign that achieved a remarkable 30% sales uplift by providing sustainability education and rewards through connected packaging. She outlines three critical success factors: clear value exchange, multi-channel promotion, and content that resonates with consumer values.
Perhaps most importantly, Stanley highlights how regulatory changes like the EU Digital Product Passport are accelerating adoption, with 88% of brands planning to implement connected packaging by 2025. For brands just beginning this journey, she offers practical advice: "Start simple but start smart. Begin with a basic QR code, perhaps on one SKU. Don't try and stuff everything in all at once because you probably never get started."
Ready to explore how connected packaging can transform your brand's relationship with consumers? Listen now to discover the strategies and technologies driving this powerful marketing revolution.
Listen on:
Apple Podcast
Google Podcast
Spotify
What is FuturePrint?
FuturePrint is a digital and in person platform and community dedicated to future print technology. Over 15,000 people per month read our articles, listen to our podcasts, view our TV features, click on our e-newsletters and attend our in-person and virtual events.
We hope to see you at one of our future in-person events:
FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
Welcome to the Future Print Podcast, celebrating print technology and the people behind it.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the latest edition of the Future Print Podcast. I'm really happy to have with me Jenny Stanley, who leads a business called Appetite Creative, and she's a brilliant speaker and recently spoke at our Futureprint Valencia event. I also know she's an innovator and a leader in her field and she's won numerous awards and so on and so forth, so I'm really, really keen to have a quick chat with her for the podcast, to hear a bit about her story and also the kind of work she does, which is leading edge stuff. So welcome to the Futureprint podcast, jenny thank you very much.
Speaker 3:Thank you nice, nice to be here fantastic.
Speaker 2:Um, jenny, limited on time a bit so I'm going to go straight into to asking you sort of specifics really. Um, first off, just a little intro about yourself. I gave you one, uh, a little intro there, but, um, just a little bit of your backstory really.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you've said a lot of things there, lots of nice things. Thanks very much. But I'm Foundry Manager and Director of Appetite Creative. We're focused on connected packaging and connected products and connected experiences. We've been doing that for over 10 years and that's my specialist subject for your questions today.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. It's leading-ish stuff you're doing and it's really exciting about connected packaging and so on. I'm not entirely sure I know exactly what that means, but you have described connected packaging as a digital gateway that can actually outperform trad media like TV and social. What's driving this shift and actually why should brands take it more seriously now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely so. I often talk about this digital gateway or this two-way communication channel, and what's fascinating about connected packaging is that it's the only marketing channel where you have a consumer who literally has your product in their hands. It's actively the consumer's decision to make that interaction with your brand, so that's an incredibly palpable moment. That's not the same in TV, of course. It's not the same with social, and you simply just can't replicate that with traditional media. We're seeing scan rates of 7 to 8 percent, which some people say is only 7 or 8 percent. But when you think about what a digital campaign enables you to get, you're happy to get a 0.1, 0.2 percent click through rate. So when we talk about 7 to 8 8%, people might poo-poo that, but then if you put that into context with your digital campaigns, you can see there's a huge difference there.
Speaker 3:And, more importantly, engagement times are around two to three minutes per interaction. So again, you want to compare that with, let's say, tv. You're not going to be able to afford a three-minute TV campaign and you know that nobody's going to sit there and watch it for three minutes. We already know. If you look at tiktok, if you look at instagram the stories, the reels, it's, it's seconds, it's a couple of seconds where you have um, a consumer's attention, and we're talking about two to three minutes and they can come back and rescan. We see between three to four times on average rescan, so that's four times three minutes.
Speaker 3:Okay, we're now talking about 10 to 12 minutes of engagement time, which is extraordinary if you compare that to traditional media um and this shift, I think has been driven by lots of different things behavioral changes, consumer changes, post go, covid, smartphone, ubiquity, um and and lots of different things happening um in legislation, which we can talk about um later on. But in answer to your question, in essence connected packaging is your most targeted media channel, um and every package becomes a direct line to your consumer, without wastage, where you can learn and they can learn yeah, so it's really exciting, the potential, and you say it's underexploited at the moment.
Speaker 2:Or is it early stages or or not?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean, we talk about the qr code and it's been around 30 years, but actually we see really that things are starting to move forward. Um, we just did a a survey. So we do a survey every year. Our connected packaging survey revealed um 88 percent of brands, uh are planning to use connected packaging um in 2025. So that really reflects how this has moved from a nice to have to more of a must have. Um.
Speaker 3:What's driving this is probably a perfect storm of consumer expectations. Consumers want to know more about where did this product come from? How is this sourced? Um, all of those different things.
Speaker 3:A lot of regulatory requirements are changing and then, of course, competitive pressure. As more brands do it, then more brands feel that they need to. We see lots of different brands. Coca-cola, ab and Bev Kellanova have got some really interesting implementations on several different brands. Pringles pops into my mind as I'm talking now but where QR codes are really part of their always-on strategy is appearing on every single product that they produce. So this is huge brands now kind of taking it seriously. Should we say Pepsi, 50% increase in their CRM database through QR codes in just 18 months? So I think we're moving from experimental now into strategic decisions and then sustainability compliance. These are major drivers as well. Connected packaging has new regulations coming through. With the digital product passport there's a lot there. The GS1 Sunrise project extended producer responsibilities through. With the digital product passport there's there's a lot there. The gs1 sunrise project it extended producer responsibilities. All these different legislations and regulations are also pushing this into um much more.
Speaker 2:As I said, a need to have, or rather than a nice to have yeah, and I guess, like you said, it's a confluence of a number of things legislation trend, the fact you can arrest a high level of attention from consumers as well, and all those things together means it's going to be accelerating codes and NFC as signs of market maturity. Can you explain these technologies a bit more? On the consumer engagement role and perhaps almost what role do digital printers play in delivering the value?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a good one. So serialized codes are really game changing. And they're serialized. That means every single code is unique. That means that there is the ability for individual product tracking, um, which also means there is the opportunity for truly personalized experiences. So, instead of having one code for everything or one code per skew, every package has its own. Therefore, unique identity. That enables sophisticated loyalty programs, instant win promotions. It can give you detailed supply chain transparency who's the farmer that picked this particular crop that went into this particular product, for example? So there's some really interesting things that serialized QR codes are allowing brands to be able to do.
Speaker 3:Nfc technology it's a bit more expensive. It's the NFC chip, so that's the tap to engage experience. It's the same, as you know, tapping your credit card on the subway or the payment machine, so you don't need to scan anything. The costs there are dropping rapidly as technology is moving on, but we're seeing that more for premium products and authentication solutions. But coming back to your question around, what role do digital printers play? Digital printers are crucial to enable you to be able to have the unique code. Of course, that's something which has got to be printed unique and therefore anybody in the printing industry understands the difference required there, and companies like Domino Coyne Bauer. They're enabling variable data printing, which is what you need to have serialization economically viable and that's what you need to be able to deliver personalised experiences at scale.
Speaker 2:Fantastic, and NFC. What's that stand for? Is it near field?
Speaker 3:Communication.
Speaker 2:Near field communication. Yeah, thank you. You highlighted a case study for a woodlands dairy. Yeah, particularly compelling, particularly the sales uplift. What are the, in your view, are the key ingredients for creating a successful connected packaging campaign that really delivers that tangible ROI? What explain a bit about that?
Speaker 3:yeah, definitely. So. They've got a 30 percent sales uplift, which, of course, is incredible, and not many brands would say no to that. We actually see on average 20%, so 30% is a really fantastic case study. On average, 20% is still really good.
Speaker 3:But what's the success? I'd say it comes down to three elements Clear value exchange, multi-channel promotion and educational content that resonates. So, first of all, they gave consumers something that was valuable, something that those consumers were interested in, and sustainability education was one of those, and there was the chance to win a prize, um. Secondly, I talk about multi-channel promotion. They promoted the QR code in several places. There was in-store promotion on point of sale material. There was the QR code on pack. There was social media that supported it as well, and that really helps people to know that it's there. If you know that it's there, you can scan it. And then, thirdly, as I was talking about it was around content that aligned with those values, and very much so, of course, dairy and sustainability. Uh, environmental responsibility is, is is very important at the moment. So I guess that the secret sauce is is always asking what's in it for the consumer, because if you're just going to send people to your website. I always say this do not bother, it is a wasted opportunity. You will have a negative reaction rather than a positive.
Speaker 3:The best campaigns provide value. Is it education? Is it entertainment? Is it rewards? Is it cash back? Is it exclusive access to something you know? What is it that I'm going to give the consumer in exchange for what it is that I want as a brand?
Speaker 3:And do I want your data? Do I want to know when you're scanning? Do I want to and do I want your data? Do I want to know when you're scanning? Do I want to know how old you are? Do I want to know what you think of my product? So that's really important. It's that value exchange. And then timing matters as well. There was an interactive quiz in that Woodlands Dairy example, where we kept people engaged for over two and a half minutes, but we kept it fresh, so we had different questions. Every time somebody came back, they got a different set of questions, so it enables them to feel like they want to come back. Oh, what's going to happen next? What's going to happen next? So I guess there's a few things there in terms of the key ingredients, but it's about a clear value exchange first and foremost, and then and secondly, that multi-channel promotion yeah, absolutely, and it's.
Speaker 2:It takes a lot of thought and strategic thinking and and a lot of creativity as well, I'm sure in in amongst all of that, to to get yeah yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's where I really feel appetite, creative comes into. Uh, its own it's. It's being able to understand what that value exchange is, to enable the brand to get what they want and the consumer to feel that they've got something that they want yeah, makes makes sense.
Speaker 2:Exciting, exciting stuff. Um, you also mentioned legislation such as the digital product passport and gs1 sunrise, which is up, you know, on the horizon. How do you see regulation accelerating this innovation? Um, and perhaps what should brands and retailers do to prepare?
Speaker 3:yeah, this is. This is definitely a big one. Regulation is becoming the biggest accelerator, I think, of connected packaging adoption at the moment. So the eu digital product passport, um, has some requirements in place already and will be continuing to roll out by 2027. So that's being able to have information on your product accessible by a QR code, telling you ingredients, where it's sourced from, how to dispose of the packaging responsibly, amongst other things. The GS1 Sunrise is also 2027. It's an initiative moving from the 1d barcodes to the 2d qr codes. So where we are really looking, um, there is being able to see that change happening, where the retailer will have qr codes that will go beef at the till. And then there's I talked about the extended producer responsibility as well. So that's legislation where connected packaging again is essential for compliance. There's just not enough physical space to put all of this stuff that you now legally have to on that physical product, especially when you're talking about a small product. So that's where the digital really does enable the extra space to be able to have that.
Speaker 3:So smart brands are getting ahead of this. They're implementing future ready packaging now. So if they're redesigning packaging anyway, then they're building in this capability for digital connectivity. They're thinking about where does the QR code go, what is going to be in that QR code? And the beauty is that these compliance driven investments also unlock these marketing opportunities. So you can think about well, if I'm going to have, you know, the obligation of having my QR code here because I've got to comply with X, y and Z the things I've just mentioned then I might as well create something for it, for myself as well as the brand. So that's what I mean unlocking those marketing opportunities.
Speaker 3:So my advice is to start with the basic QR code implementation. Now, you know, think about it. Ensure your supply chain can handle variable data printing. If not, how do I get there and start collecting data? Who's scanning who's? You know this is market research that is in real time. You don't have to wait six months to find out who's actually purchasing your product and what they think of it. You can find out in real time. Everything we do is collected in a real-time dashboard. So brands I guess, going back to your question, you know what should they be doing? They should definitely be preparing. They should definitely reach out to people like ASCU who can help them if they find that it's quite overwhelming. But don't treat this as purely a compliance exercise, because if you do that, you're going to miss the massive marketing upside that's there as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you say, it's a mixture of aligning properly with legislation but actually exploiting the creative power of it as well, isn't it?
Speaker 3:exactly, yeah big opportunity.
Speaker 2:Ai is something that we're all using these days. Um, what role does ai play and have you got any examples? Um you mentioned a couple in your talk about how I ai is actually shaping the future of packaging as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely, and it's both on the creative side and on the data side. So AI is definitely transforming so many things, but it's taking predictive packaging from reactive to predictive and I think that's really interesting as well. So, instead of just responding to scans, we can anticipate customer needs, purchase behavior. We can deliver hyper personalized experiences. Yeah, we've got a fantastic campaign.
Speaker 3:I think we talked about sunny oil at your event and where we're analyzing scam patterns, location data, consumer preferences. But the the sunny oil campaign in particular, also had ai on the front end, so it generated personalized recipes based on the ingredients that you had in your home. So, instead of just having a recipe given to you when you scan the QR code, you scan the QR code and you say what you've got in your fridge and then it gives you a recipe that's personalized to you that AI generates based on what you've got and who you're cooking for. So that's really nice being able to create something which is really personalized to that particular consumer. And, of course, it involved the sunny oil, which was the product, so you needed that with each of the recipes that you were going to be prompted to cook.
Speaker 3:The real power, I think, is in the data strategy. It's nice, they're nice to have on the front end, but ai helps us to predict what consumers are likely to churn, identify the optimal time for retention offers, understand what product variations resonate with different demographics, which incentives. So we're moving from mass marketing to that one-to-one personalization, which we know is a trend that consumers want, and connected packaging is then the perfect delivery mechanism because it's, as I said in the very beginning, something where your consumer has your product in their hands at that time, so it's completely contextual. So, yes, I think AI has got some fantastic transformation opportunities here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's exciting. So at the beginning, obviously you help your clients bring these things to life, bring these things to market, which um is a um, obviously based on your expertise, your experience and your and and your ability to um. Keep ahead of the curve, really with technology as well. Make sure everything. If somebody's at the beginning of their journey, like a brand or a printer just getting started, what, what would be the best first step in exploring connected packaging, and how can they perhaps avoid being overwhelmed by the technology?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, definitely. I think first off is start simple, um, but start smart. So begin with a basic qr code, perhaps on one skew, something like scan for recipes or scan for sustainability info. Don't try and stuff everything in all in one go, because you probably never get started. Um.
Speaker 3:I think the key is to focus on experience, not the technology itself. So what genuinely going back to you know, making sure that something fits? Where's that value exchange? What genuinely will help my consumer right now? What do they really want? And they don't want a link to your website, and they probably don't want a link to a PDF of your sustainability credentials, right? What is it that they actually want? And then you can work backwards to that tech solution, all right. So if that's what they want, how can we deliver that? So don't get caught up in the NFC versus QR, versus augmented reality, versus AI and all of these different things.
Speaker 3:Think about the consumer journey first. Partner specialists it could be someone like us, it could be, you know, a production company, but somebody who's going to be able to help you design that journey. I think the biggest mistake is only think about this as one or the other as well, so it's not just a marketing initiative. This can involve operations, supply chain, legal, so kind of think about the different areas that might be interesting for the business and for the consumer, and then everything you do, just measure it. It's a journey, make sure you're measuring it. Connected packaging, of course, course, is a media channel that allows us to be able to uh track many things more than even digital um, if you, if you want to say about the time of, of, of um consumption and things like that as well. So connected packaging gives you data. Traditional packaging, of course, never could so definitely use it as an opportunity to learn and iterate. So start simple, but get started.
Speaker 2:Great advice. Thank you very much. And just finally, how does anybody connect with you? What's the best way to connect with you? Your website, your LinkedIn account? We'll put some links in the show notes anyway.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely. I'm on LinkedIn, appetitecreativecom creativecom. So, yeah, feel free to reach out or catch us on one of our many webinars fantastic.
Speaker 2:Well, listen. Thanks so much for joining us, jenny. Really interesting stuff. That was a really good uh whistle stop tour of where to get going packaging brilliantly done. Thanks for joining us. Um yeah, and all the very best in uh leading this revolution thanks to you, marcus.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, you can subscribe now for more great audio content coming up and visit futureprinttech for the latest news, partner interviews, in-depth industry research and to catch up on content from Futureprint events. We'll see you next time on the Futureprint Podcast.
