Glass packaging institute announces its 2005 clear choice

Glass continues to be the preferred packaging material for premium new consumer packaged goods.

12/05/06 The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) named the winners of its 2005 Clear Choice Awards during the Clear Choice Awards Presentation and Reception at the Palmer House Hilton on May 3, 2005. The only awards program that recognizes consumer product goods (CPG) companies that package their food, beverage, cosmetic and fragrance products in glass, the Awards Presentation recognized eight CPG companies and their achievement in expanding the frontiers of glass packaging design.

"Glass continues to be the preferred packaging material for premium new products," said Mary Ellen Reis, GPI’s spokesperson. "Both the entries and the winners displayed forward and fresh new product innovation."

"The consumer product goods (CPG) companies have also succeeded in creating head-turning new brands and responding to consumers’ demands for taste, freshness, and product protection."

The following are descriptions for this year’s winners.

Beer

Winning Product: Budweiser Select

Manufacturer: Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

Glass Container Supplier: Anchor Glass, O-I and Saint-Gobain Containers

New Product Trend: Beers that focus on a "clean aftertaste"

Packaging Description: For the rollout of the new Budweiser Select, Anheuser-Busch chose a long-neck, amber glass bottle featuring the Budweiser Crown icon.

Carbonated Beverages

Winning Product: BAWLS Guaranexx

Manufacturer: Hobarama Corp.

Glass Container Supplier: Vitro Packaging

New Product Trend: Energy sodas that feature high caffeine and no sugar

Packaging Description: This unique glass bottle invites the consumer to look closer and pick up the product. Hobarama introduced its Sugar Free BAWLS Guaranexx in a clear glass bottle to distinguish it from its regular cobalt blue bottle.

Cosmetic and Fragrance Products

Winning Product: DKNY Be Delicious Eau de Parfum

Manufacturer: Estée Lauder

Glass Container Supplier: Vitro Packaging

New Product Trend: Holiday promotions through "color-coordinated" packaging

Packaging Description: DKNY’s Be Delicious Eau de Parfum is a contemporary interpretation of the timeless apple. The green-colored glass bottles and the fluid lines add sensuality and sophistication. Vitro Packaging manufactured red- and amber-colored bottles in time for Estée Lauder’s Valentine’s Day and Father’s Day promotions.

Distilled Spirits

Winning Product: Island Breeze

Manufacturer: Bacardi Bottling Corporation

Glass Container Supplier: Saint-Gobain Containers

New Product Trend: Flavored rums with half the calories of traditional rums and other spirits

Packaging Description: The clean, elegant shape of these glass bottles invites a desirable tropical experience. Photographs of real fruit on pristine, pressure-sensitive labels communicate "all natural" flavors.

Flavored Alcoholic Beverages

Winning Product: Bistro 8

Manufacturer: Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

Glass Container Supplier: O-I

New Product Trend: Malternatives with sophisticated flavors

Packaging Description: This citrus flavored, malt beverage is packaged in an upscale, champagne bottle-shaped glass bottle.

Non-Carbonated Beverages

Winning Product: Rose’s Cocktail Infusions

Manufacturer: Mott’s

Glass Container Supplier: The Glass Group

New Product Trend: Mixers for cocktails coming in eye-catching glass packaging that feature innovative shapes, bold colors, and popular cocktail flavors.

Packaging Description: These wavy, head-turning bottles add shelf impact to the increasingly popular mixers section.

Overall Package Design

Winning Product: Starbucks Coffee Liqueur

Manufacturer: Jim Beam and Starbucks

Glass Container Supplier: Saint-Gobain Containers

New Product Trend: Big brands working together to deliver innovative products and create niche markets.

Packaging Description: The dark color of the glass bottle conveys a rich coffee flavor. The shape was inspired by a cocktail shaker to communicate the "mixability" of the product.

Packaged Foods

Winning Product: Fruit Lovers Strawberry-Raspberry Jam

Manufacturer: e.d. Smith

Glass Container Supplier: O-I

New Product Trend: Alternative lower-calorie formulations of full-calorie foods

Packaging Description: This eight-sided glass jar conveys "bursting with big pieces of fruit." The redesign of this product (formerly a signature square glass jar) has allowed e.d. Smith to produce a more consumer-friendly, larger mouthed jar that invites consumers to "spoon out" this irresistible spread onto their favorite breads and crackers.

Success Story

Winning Product: Bud Light

Manufacturer: Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

Glass Container Supplier: Anchor Glass, O-I, and Saint-Gobain Containers

Success Story: Although glass bottles only represented about 40% of the Bud Light pack mix, Anheuser-Busch began emphasizing the long-neck glass bottle and changed the old paper label to a contemporary clear pressure- sensitive label. Sales responded with a 3% increase which was over four times the industry average in 2004.

Wine

Winning Product: Camelot Mead

Manufacturer: Oliver Winery

Glass Container Supplier: Vitro Packaging

New Product Trend: Alternative wine flavors

Packaging Description: This head-turning glass bottle features an embossed bee and flower image on the shoulder, as well as more images of enlarged flowers and bees seen through the bottle.

Clear Choice Award Judge Linda Jackson, Principal at Pear Design, commented, " I was impressed by the open-mindedness of the CPG companies, the packaging designers, and the glass companies—and their combined efforts to create a ‘culture of innovation’ which initiates new product trends rather than simply following surviving trends. "

"No other packaging material says, ‘Pick me up, hold me, take me home,’ as convincingly as glass," said Patrick Henry, Editorial Director of Package Design magazine. "And glass has the highest touch quotient compared with other high touch packaging media."