Paulig & Magic Add show how to engage millennials with smart coffee packaging

Speaking at this year’s AIPIA (Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association) Americas Summit in New Jersey (June 4-5) Samuli Manninen, co-founder, Magic Add and global head, RafMore, UPM Raflatac Finland, and Teemu Tommila, senior manager, strategic marketing, Gustav Paulig, Finland, roasted coffee company, said Magic Add unlocks the untapped potential of labels attached to products in a variety of ways.

Packaging that communicates

The cloud-based data and content management via Magic Add enables packages to communicate with people. 

It partnered with Paulig last year to create codes embedded into its coffee packaging to boost consumer engagement by providing new ways to tell the brand’s story. For example, the code embedded in a label can be linked to digital content that evolves as the consumer journey progresses.  

RafMore also allows brands to track and trace products, improve inventory accuracy, verify authenticity and protect against counterfeiting.  

Manninen said Magic Add was created in 2011 with the idea of creating self-cooling soda cans, intending to include a “digital experience” such as a QR code for marketing purposes to off-set the price of a can.  The initiative with soda cans didn’t take off due to the need for further technological advancement, but an interest in smart packaging remained. 

Huhtamaki cups

An example is its collaboration with Huhtamaki to include a label on its hot beverage cups, printed with technology to connect the packaging with digital content. 

The coffee cups were distributed among Finland’s ABC service stations. Once the customer purchased a beverage then connected the code to the Internet via their mobile, they were rewarded with two months of free usage of Nelonen Media’s Ruutu+ on-demand video service.

“Magic Add’s growth area is within the supply chain process of packaged goods where coding can be unique to each product and highly scalable​,” said Manninen.