Packaging: the new media darling

Packaging has long played a supporting role in advertising – the pack shot is a staple of most adverts for FMCG brands – but art, design and copywriting tend to nab the starring roles. Today, however, packaging’s star appears to be on the rise – increasingly, brand marketers have brought their products’ packaging to the fore of brand communication, not just in visual terms, but by building advertising strategies on the packaging itself.

There are various reasons for this, such as the increasing aesthetic sophistication of packaging and its growing relevance as a branding tool. At the forefront of the trend, though, is an issue that today is virtually impossible to avoid: the environment.

Significant pressure has been placed on manufacturers to cut the environmental impact of products by reducing CO2 and waste through packaging initiatives, and as technologists develop greener forms of packaging, there is a growing case for marketers to communicate these developments to consumers. With so many brands now promoting their environmental agendas, it is rapidly becoming a commercial imperative.

Here Packaging News looks at three big brands that have recently launched campaigns in which packaging takes the lead role.

STELLA ARTOIS

Last July, InBev-owned Stella Artois launched a typically tongue-in-cheek advertising push in the UK under the tag line “Recyclage de Luxe” – an ongoing campaign informing customers of its environmental initiatives.

The premium lager brand’s campaign was a response to growing pressure on mass-market brands to improve their green credentials by showing they “care about doing the right thing for the environment”.

Over the past 12 months, Stella Artois has taken various measures to lessen its environmental impact, making its packaging greener and engaging consumers in recycling initiatives.

Since the start of the campaign, all Stella Artois’ cans have been made from at least 50% recycled aluminium, the brand is working with its suppliers to ensure all its bottles are above the industry standard of 75% recycled glass, and its corrugated Stella Artois boxes are made from 100% recyclable paper.

When it went live in July, Recyclage de Luxe comprised three executions across media, including TV and the press. Each focused on a different aspect of packaging – the corrugated packs, recycled bottles and recycled cans.

At the end of the month, the brewer launched its Hedge Fund on-pack promotion, a bid to boost sales with eco-incentives for consumers. Consumers buying some of the larger packs would be investing in an actual hedge, which would be grown to three times the size of the pack itself.

Andreas Hilger, InBev UK’s marketing director, says that the campaign would help “replenish Britain’s depleted hedgerows, which are critical to the existence of many plants and animals”.

“The Hedge Fund promotion enables Stella Artois to help consumers take those small steps and together reduce the rate of climate change,” he says. “One kilometre of hedgerow will absorb one tonne of CO2 a year.”

The on-pack campaign was backed by poster and print advertising under the Recyclage de Luxe banner, as well as in-store marketing activity. It was also endorsed by TV presenter and environmental campaigner Ben Fogle, The Tree Council and the National Hedgelaying Society. Stella Artois estimated that it would lead to 365,000 saplings and 8,500 hedgerow trees being planted by the end of 2009.

Finally, in November last year, Stella Artois launched two further advertising campaigns focusing on its use of compostable carton board and highlighting that its beer is brewed using just four ingredients.

Stella Artois says that the overarching campaign has so far “been very successful”, but is unable at this stage to divulge internal data proving this. It says that its marketing has been “very motivating for consumers”.

InBev has pledged to continue taking measures to improve the environmental credentials of its packaging and will continue to use advertising to communicate developments to consumers.

KENCO

When Kraft Foods devised a new packaging format for its Kenco instant coffee, the group deemed it important enough to form the backbone of a £7.5m marketing push.

In October last year, Kenco kicked off the campaign to promote its Eco Refill pouches – a format that weighed 97% less than its traditional glass jars. The marketing activity spanned media including TV, billboards, in-store and digital and called on consumers to switch from jars to the new refill packs when buying the brand.

The idea behind the Eco Refill pack, which is available in 150g re-sealable bags in Kenco’s Smooth Roast and Rich Roast variants, is for consumers to buy the packs and use them to refill glass coffee jars that they already have at home.

Rather than preaching, the campaign was deliberately tongue-in-cheek. The TV ads depicted a world with absolutely no packaging, in which shoppers were plagued with problems such as their instant coffee spilling to the ground. The message was that 100% less packaging did not work, so Kenco had settled for 97% less.

Kenco says that the campaign addressed two principles central to the UK government’s Waste Hierarchy: reduce and reuse. The energy needed to manufacture the refill packs is 81% less than that required to produce the same volume glass jar; while an empty 150g-volume Eco Refill pack weighs just over 9g, while a 100g-volume glass jar weighs 227g and a 200g-volume glass jar weighs 505.5g.

The Eco Refill pack itself is not directly recyclable – although Kenco said it is looking into ways of addressing this. Kenco has subsequently formed a partnership with eco-product manufacturer TerraCycle. The tie-up enables consumers to send their empty refill packs to TerraCycle, which will use them to make products such as bags and pencil cases.

Further measures
Digital display advertising was used to promote the campaign’s Waste Less Challenge. Consumers were directed to a dedicated website, where they could watch films starring actress Amanda Holden and designer Oliver Heath and enter a competition to win ‘eco-breaks’ and coffee canisters.

Toby Smart, brand manager at Kenco, says: “We believe that encouraging consumers to switch from jars to refill will have a positive effect.

“While the jar lid minus the wad is polypropylene and is technically recyclable, there are very few polypropylene recycling facilities in the UK, which means that in the vast majority of cases, the lid is sent to landfill.

“The Eco Refill pack weighs less than any of the jar lids alone, meaning that consumers who purchase the Eco Refill pack send less waste to landfill than those who discard the plastic lid of the glass jar.”

Kenco says that its research and development teams are continuously examining measures it can take to improve the sustainability of its packaging. Biodegradable and compostable packaging could be two possibilities for the future.

NESTLÉ

The UK’s Easter egg market is huge business for confectionery companies, with sales over the period representing about 10% of the country’s annual chocolate sales, so it was encouraging that when 92% of participants in a consumer poll said they wanted to see less overall packaging, Nestlé responded by rethinking its packaging.

In the months preceding Easter 2009, Nestlé UK scored an industry first when it announced that it would remove the plastic inserts from the majority of its Easter egg range and replace them with cardboard.

According to Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) data, around 4,500 tonnes of Easter egg packaging waste is produced every year in the UK and Nestlé wanted to become the first UK mass-market confectionery producer to address the issue.

Problem cracked
The company – which commands a 25% share of the UK Easter egg market – repackaged brands including Smarties, Kit Kat, Aero and Milky Bar, reducing the range’s packaging by up to 30% and cutting 700 tonnes of waste – a figure Nestlé equated to the weight of 100 double-decker buses.

Nestlé dispensed with the plastic inserts across 80% of its Easter egg range and replaced them with cardboard baskets; and the sweets contained inside Smarties and Milky Bar small eggs had their plastic packaging removed. The firm printed the new packaging with recycling information.

David Rennie, Nestlé Confectionery’s managing director, says that the move was partly a response to research revealing that consumers found plastic Easter egg packaging bulky and difficult to recycle. “We’re taking major steps to respond to consumer concerns about excessive Easter egg packaging,” he says. “Our ultimate aim is to remove plastic packaging from our Easter range all together.”

Press campaign
Nestlé built a £1.5m advertising campaign around the packaging reduction scheme, which saw full-page adverts appear in the national press and women’s magazines in the run-up to Easter 2009. The campaign was planned so that 70% of mothers would see the adverts an average of 4.7 times.

The ads featured the line: “Proudly putting our eggs in one basket” with additional copy highlighting the 25% packaging reduction and exclusion of plastic. Consumers were reassured that while the packaging had been reduced the chocolate had not.

The initiative was lauded by Wrap,
not least because it exceeded the confectionery industry agreement to reduce medium-sized Easter egg cartons by 25%. Wrap chief executive Liz Goodwin says it would make a “significant difference to the amount of rubbish going to landfill”.

Nestlé’s packaging reduction strategy was not restricted to Easter. Over Christmas 2009, the company replaced its plastic trays used in its selection packs with recyclable cartonboard – a 37% reduction in packaging compared with 2007. The company also launched an £800,000 ad campaign telling consumers about the move.

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