Driving digital engagement: Data, adaptation and investment take center stage
21 Jun 2023 --- Packaging companies are increasingly turning to digital means as a way of increasing brand engagement. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, technologies like QR codes, near-field communication (NFC) and augmented reality have become mainstream. But the industry still faces hurdles when it comes to data regulations, sustainability legislation and investments.
According to Jenny Stanley, managing director at Appetite Creative, there is a misconception that consumers do not bother to scan QR codes and NFC on packaging.
“We see a 14% scan and click-through rate (CTR), which is much higher than a digital advertising campaign that’s usually around 0.01% CTR.”
One of the latest campaigns by the company with Swiss milk processor Emmi looked to boost engagement for four milk products via four mobile-enabled games. The campaign had over 35,000 users, 216,000 page views and an average time of almost two minutes of engagement.
“No other direct-to-customer marketing channel delivers this level of customer engagement,” says Stanley.
According to Innova Market Insights, 77% of global consumers are interested in engaging with connected packaging technologies on-pack via their smartphones.
Despite the success of such campaigns and the growth of digital technologies in the packaging industry, some key challenges lie ahead.
A simple and clear call to action makes the most impact, says SharpEnd CEO Cameron Worth.Keeping it simple
Cameron Worth, CEO of SharpEnd, says that most issues in boosting digital engagement lie in simplicity and contextualization.
“Companies need to deliver a clear message and not overcomplicate things. A call to action needs to be straightforward, not overly scientific and describe the end-user experience in as few words as possible. It’s important that consumers learn to trust brands they engage with.”
“This also leads to another consideration, and that’s to make your experience meaningful for consumers. Knowing your consumer intimately, including their technology preferences and where they spend their time online, will mean you can design a tailored experience for them,” he continues.
“Finally, brands need to design for context to meet their consumers at every stage in the customer journey with a relevant, connected experience. Whether you’re designing the experience to be fun, useful or just interesting, give it a strong call to action so interaction doesn’t just end there.”
Long term vision
Growing and adapting to digital technologies in the right way is essential to expanding brand engagement, emphasizes Stanley.
“Too often connected experiences are used in silo, but when they’re included as one media channel of many within a wider media campaign – the results show a demonstrable step-change with long-lasting value.”
“Connected experiences work best as part of a wider marketing campaign which drives customers to the experience for more information or benefits, for example, incentives such as vouchers or prizes,” she says.
“It can be used ad hoc, but we’ve seen the best engagement rates working with brands that utilize their connected experiences longer term.”
Adapting campaigns in real-time and using the data collected to inform product development, sales approaches and marketing campaigns is essential, she emphasizes.
Data barriers and opportunities
As consumers increasingly see QR codes as a normal way to access branded content, they are happy to share their personal data in exchange, Stanley says. 
Incentives like prizes can help raise digital engagement.
Mobile-based connected experiences give brands continual access to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant first party, making it a good alternative to using third-party data, she asserts.
“Brands now have direct access to consumers and an ability to collect data across a raft of topics and personal information which is entirely transparent, freely shared by the consumer and GDPR compliant.”
“From the data collected, brands can inform marketing campaigns, product development, retarget more efficiently and precisely and expand and duplicate the data stream through profiling.”
Appetite Creative uses first-party data collected through a connected experience and is displayed on a real-time Performance as a Service dashboard showcasing the data stream.
“For our brands using connected experiences, they’re able to sidestep the new regulations because they no longer need to rely on third-party data delivered via cookies.”
Worth says that with the rise of digitalization, brands can create dynamic, hyper-personalized experiences for their consumers.
“This can have a huge impact on boosting engagement and recruiting new fans. By using a platform such as SharpEnd’s io.tt, brands can manage and analyze billions of consumer touchpoints and leverage vital consumer insights to create experiences that are more personalized and tailored than ever before.”
QR-code engagement is rising fast.Preparing for sustainability legislation
With numerous government regulations coming into force on plastic packaging, such as the EU Single Use Plastic Directive and the ongoing negotiations for a UN global treaty, digital engagement provides an opportunity to educate consumers on the products they buy.
Appetite Creative is working with Tetra Pak, Elopak and Greiner Packaging, which are investing in ways to ensure packaging can become zero-waste.
“We’re helping them to educate and inform consumers in an engaging way via connected packaging to ensure the end user understands how and why to use and recycle the packaging,” says Stanley. “It’s all well and good tethering caps, for example, but if consumers don’t know why and separate the lids anyway, then it’s a wasted exercise.”
Digital engagement offers an efficient and cost-effective way to collect data, develop products, communicate with customers in real-time, and a simple way to improve a variety of business credentials, she continues.
Investment boom
Despite the cost-of-living crisis and global economic uncertainty, investment in connected packaging experiences continues to rise. Moving from a tipping point into mainstream usage this year, the perceived value of connected packaging has shifted.
A recent survey by Appetite Creative showed that increased investment in digital marketing spend is planned in 2023 by 88% of those surveyed compared to 59% in 2022.
Businesses plan to increase spending on connected packaging campaigns by between US$31,000-US$50,000, claimed by almost half of respondents (42%). This is more than double compared to 2022 when 40% planned to increase investment by less than US$18,000.
“We’re also seeing large brands such as Coca-Cola and Ab Inbev announcing global strategies for connected packaging. If brands can better understand consumers and their consumption, it’s easier to predict their behavior,” says Stanley.
“By using the data collected via connected packaging, brands are finding patterns and predictions invaluable to inform product development, marketing and customer targeting strategies which increasingly rely on these global strategies for connected packaging.”
By Louis Gore-Langton
