Tetra Pak employs QR code-based personality tests to boost consumer engagement

24 Apr 2023 --- Tetra Pak, in partnership with creative technology studio Appetite Creative, has launched an interactive smart packaging experience for a European fruit juice producer.

The smart packaging utilizes QR codes to give customers access to an interactive personality test. The companies focus on passion fruit, pineapple and mango flavors in the one-liter range.

“Personality tests have been popular since teen magazines in the 1990s – and always offer a fun and entertaining way to find more about yourself and your friends,” Jenny Stanley, managing director at Appetite Creative, tells PackagingInsights.

“We felt that combining this fun approach with creative drink suggestions would give customers a new reason to try the fruit juice drinks and keep coming back for more. Ideally, with their friends and family, too. It also offers a great way to better understand customers’ behaviors and product preferences.” 

Jenny Stanley, managing director at Appetite Creative speaks to us about the rise of connected packaging.Connecting to the consumer 
The connected packaging looks to uncover the best juice drink to fit any personality type and inspire users to mix juices to create beverages or cocktails. The connected experience generates alcoholic and non-alcoholic recipes tailored to the results of the personality quiz, including product preferences and the time of day a customer usually consumes the drink.

Stanley says that using connected packaging offers many new opportunities that should be a “no-brainer” for brands implementing it. 

“It’s a flexible media channel that can interact with customers in real-time, find out more about who they are and track product preferences. It’s easy to keep regularly updated – and can be used time and time again to build positive brand associations with customers. It’s also a sustainable channel with universal potential for brand loyalty, recognition and rewards and data collection.”

The app tracks real-time interaction, such as buying habits, product preferences, average engagement time, age, location, scan rate and the number of visitors. From the visitors, it tracks who is returning and social media shares, including GDPR-compliant personal data. The companies say this all helps to enable the brand to optimize its marketing and better understand consumers.  

“We see a 14% scan rate/click-through rate (CTR), much higher than a digital advertising campaign, usually around 0.01% CTR. Consumers are increasingly open to the branded experience that goes beyond a particular product’s day-to-day consumption and they’re keen to share these positive experiences with their friends and family,” Stanley continues.

Smart marketing
The connected packaging campaign will be supported by in-store shelf wobblers and other point-of-sale (POS) materials to communicate product information to the consumers at the POS. Digital and social media will also be used in the campaign to reach more customers and increase awareness about the brand.  

“Packaging is extremely targeted marketing. It’s a direct gateway to a customer who has already bought the product or is in the store aisle about to buy something similar,” asserts Stanley.

“Most consumables are never decanted, so the packaging it’s bought in becomes part of the consumer’s ongoing engagement and experience with the product and the brand. It’s marketing that keeps on communicating throughout the product use, so connected packaging has a much longer shelf life than other media channels.”

Users can enter a raffle to win a Thermomix TM6 all-in-one blender by completing the in-built quiz or sharing content on social media. Appetite Creative has designed a summer and winter version of the connected experience with seasonal-specific content that can be swapped out in real time.

The smart packaging connected experience and personality quiz will be available from this month in Austria and in Germany until the end of May. Tetra Pak and Appetite Creative make an interactive quiz for a juice brand.

Connected packaging trend
Appetite Creative recently conducted a survey revealing that connected packaging has experienced a rise in popularity in the last 12 months, with 81% of those surveyed stating they have used connected packaging, compared to 54% in 2022.  

Forty-eight percent consider connected packaging essential to help educate customers.

Over four-fifths (88%) of the respondents claim to be planning a connected packaging campaign this year. Most (92%) consider connected packaging increasingly crucial to the packaging industry in the next 12 months and beyond. These numbers have risen yearly, with only 59% in 2022 citing plans for a connected packaging campaign and 85% considering it important for the industry. 

“Connected packaging educates and engages the consumer. It offers an efficient and cost-effective way to collect first-party data, understand consumer preferences, develop products, run loyalty programs and communicate directly with customers in real time, and a simple way to improve credentials. With an ever-growing need for brands to act responsibly, connected packaging and the wider technology supporting it provides a smart solution,” concludes Stanley.

By Sabine Waldeck