Page 53 - Print21 November-December 2022

Packaging
me, they can handle an artwork change in little more than a day on traditional presses. If the brand owner’s marketing sign-off takes days or weeks, is it possible that the bottleneck is as much a business systems problem as a technological one?
Brands need to become as agile as digital presses if they are to leverage their full potential – and they need to get used to making more decentralised marketing decisions. Harnessing the value of digital print will rely on integration into the wider value chain. “We often forget it, but packaging production is more than printing and part of a longer supply chain – from packaging design to printers, converters, packers, retailers (on- line or physical),” François Martin, senior communication advisor at Bobst, reminds us. “Printing digital will save a few hours, even a few days, in a process taking months. The entire packaging production chain needs to be rewritten. Digital printing will be part of the new Industry 4.0 packaging landscape, but the digitalisation of an entire process will be the most important
“There is a significant and growing packaging market space where digital print can add value.”
element.” As analogue technologies are adapted to function in the connected ecosystem, they will become quasi-digital.
Rewriting the rules
Digital print facilitates an altogether more intimate degree of consumer engagement, just as the broader digital transformation of our world is making consumers expect gratifying communication from brands across every moment of truth.
However, return on investment will increasingly require more sophisticated strategies than the now familiar ‘product with your name on it’. This is a new game, and the rules of how to create meaningful experiences through customised packaging are still being written.
“Personalisation goes far beyond customising or styling products,” suggests Jose Gorbea, head of Brands
Above
Tim Sykes: late stage customisation will become the norm
& Agencies at HP GSB EMEA (and formerly of Mondelēz). “It’s about intelligently curating and shaping the whole experience for those in our community: makers, designers and consumers alike.”
One industry shift is personalised storytelling, with mass customisation seen as the next frontier for global brands. With digital print, design runs that used to number in the tens of thousands can now vary unit by unit, making labels, cases, POS materials and
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