Imagine walking into the liquor store on a Friday night. You look past the brews you’ve already tried for something new. You spot a silver and gold capsule of a can, with a strange goggled figure on the label. The copy tells you this beer was formulated to fuel your journey through the multiverse, and it contains a sci-fi album as the soundtrack. To get the album, there’s a special hashtag. By tweeting it, you’ll receive a message telling you what you’re doing right now in a parallel reality, and a link to the music. Curiosity piqued, you bring it home, crack it open, take out your phone, and experience audio, visual, touch and taste in a single moment in time.
The T.R.I.P. album release beer is the first time a new studio album has ever been released on a beer can. The challenge that prompted the unique project was to figure out how to get people buying new music again, while helping a small indie band reach new fans. The solution: Pair the band with a brewery and turn the beer aisle into the next record store. The Lights Out wrote an album about traveling through parallel realities, and Aeronaut Brewing Co. developed a beer to pair with the songs. “A lot of the same people who once walked the music store aisles every weekend are now going to the beer store at least that often, with the aim of discovering something new. Most beer decisions happen in front of the cold case. The opportunity for someone to discover a band there caught our curiosity,” says Adam Ritchie, owner of Adam Ritchie Brand Direction and guitarist for The Lights Out.
T.R.I.P. used design in a creative way to solve a decades-old music industry problem, give consumers a complete sensory experience with visual, touch and taste, and restore music fans’ physical relationship with new music. The campaign resulted in a new way for music to be discovered, generated international attention and caused the product to quickly sell out. “Adam’s team created a tremendous launch experience which completely transcended the ordinary and set a new standard for how these things should be done,” says Aeronaut Brewing Co. co-founder Ben Holmes. “It’s a game-changer that succeeded beyond our wildest expectations.”
The packaging paper product from Koehler Paper provides ideal protection for “einpott” ready-to-eat meals thanks to its extraordinary oxygen, mineral oil, and grease barrier properties. pack&satt products are available in three flavors: “Tomate Linse” (lentils and tomato), “Curry Linse” (lentil curry), and “Rote Bete Kartoffel” (red beet and potato). pack&satt ready-to-eat meals were originally bottled in returnable jars. However, customer feedback, coupled with a general overhaul of the product, led the company to look for alternative packaging options: “Our customers frequently told us that if they had an electric kettle, that meant that they also had bowls or cups available, making the jars redundant. And on top of that, we found out that using paper instead of glass to hold dry product would improve our environmental footprint! Given all that, we were tremendously happy when we found Koehler and saw that they offered the right packaging material for our needs,” explains pack&satt founder Sophie Gnest.
Smurfit Kappa has continued to demonstrate its leadership in innovative and sustainable packaging solutions by winning 13 WorldStar 2022 Awards. Innovative solutions including groundbreaking corrugated packaging for the transportation of fresh fish, a paper-based ceiling luminaire that replaces metal and plastic fittings and a space-saving, easy-to-assemble packaging solution for confectionery all received top honours in the 2022 awards. The Beverage category was one of the areas where Smurfit Kappa shone at this year’s awards. Its popular TopClip packaging solution, which is a sustainable alternative for the shrink wrap which is commonly used to bundle multipacks of cans, took home an award. TopClip is one of Smurfit Kappa’s Better Planet Packaging portfolio of products which have garnered considerable interest from companies seeking to reduce their environmental footprint.
Amcor’s premium Matrix paper-based and paraffin-free cheese packaging receives a Silver award at the 2020 Packaging Innovation Awards sponsored by Dow. This innovation of providing the right breathable barrier for soft cheese while removing paraffin has transformed a non-recyclable packaging material into a cheese wrap that can be recycled in the paper stream. Michael Zacka, President Amcor Flexibles EMEA, said: “Matrix’s breakthrough paraffin-free technology brings soft cheese packaging into the circular economy and we are pleased it has been recognised with a prestigious Dow award. Matrix is another move in the right direction for sustainability combined with performance – offering cheese manufacturers improved flavour control and recyclability.”
