Ball Packaging Introduces New Can for Edeka Perquell

Edeka Hessenring grocery chain launches own brand with novel sixpack and augmented reality.

Sep 7 2011 --- Ball Packaging Europe has developed a promotion campaign of a very special kind for the Edeka Hessenring grocery chain. The chain’s new Cool Cola-Orange flavor part of the Edeka Perquell own-brand soft drink range hits the shelves in 33 cl sleek cans from Ball sold in an innovative triangular sixpack from Smurfit Kappa Baden Packaging and with the help of an animated 3D animal character. Appealing mainly to the 12-18 age group, the promotion invites youngsters to let out the toon in the can and pose with it in photos on a smartphone. Buying one of the sixpacks, or at least one of the cans, is the only way to join the fun.

This is how it works: A sticker on the triangular multipack draws attention to the Sprudeltier (Fizzy Beast), a cartoon animal character inside. Inside the pack are instructions showing how to let out the 3D animated figure. All it takes is a smart phone with the Junaio AR app. Point the phone’s camera at the eyecatching design on the Cool Cola can a zipper, the hallmark of the Edeka Perquell soft drink range and the cartoon figure poses in every photo taken with the camera. Friends can pose together with the apparently life-size figure. There is also an option to post the photos on Facebook.

An ideal promotional tool: Soft drink cans and augmented reality

“The unusual multipack from Smurfit Kappa Baden Packaging and the beverage can are great for retail promotion campaigns. The toon promotion grabs the imagination and makes for a real sales boost with young consumers,” says Frank Sasse, European Retail Director at Ball Packaging Europe. “As a form of packaging, beverage cans offer a huge amount of scope for inventiveness in design, and that makes them an excellent medium for new communication techniques like augmented reality, which is the technology behind our 3D cartoon figure promotion. It is an ideal combination: The can is the packaging choice for young consumers and now the can is being used with the new media favored by those same young consumers to promote a new product.”

The Sprudeltier figure made its debut at an event staged for store owners by Edeka Hessenring on August 27 and 28 at its headquarters in Melsungen. The new sixpack and the figure were presented to some 500 retailers. The Cool Cola-Orange product is already on the shelves on a test basis in 60 stores. From September 1, it is also available at many Edeka stores as a tray product (for sale as individual cans). The cartoon figure can also be activated by pointing the smart phone on one single can. Soon, the new design and the cartoon character will also be a feature with the flavors already in the range apple spritzer, orangeade and lemonade. Edeka Hessenring launched its Perquell own-brand soft drink range in sleek cans from Ball with a distinctive attractive design back in spring 2010.