Packaging Design & Innovation 19th Oct 2011

As many of you may know, as well as running Design Cognition, I am Chairman of the East Midlands Packaging Society (based in Nottingham UK) and in that role, my main focus this year is to entice more of you, our valued members, to take part in events and also to encourage ‘new blood’ into the industry.

We’ve got some fantastic events lined-up, in which you could participate in a number of different ways and at a number of different levels – it’s up to you how far you want to get involved.

Much of it will be FREE and could directly benefit you personally and your business.

You may want to participate yourself, or you know someone else that could be interested. Either way, I’m looking for partners and I’d love to hear from you. The aim of the whole exercise is to help raise the profile of packaging but also to facilitate the integration of academia and industry for everyone’s benefit. So this is applicable to:

Students – who may want to learn & enhance career options

Universities – looking for business avenues/partnerships to help commercialise their ideas

Product development companies, packaging suppliers & design agencies – wanting to keep up with latest technology & also identify high calibre students for job placements & opportunities

The first of our events is on 19th October at Nottingham Trent University, 4.30 – 8.30pm with a free buffet and refreshments (see flyer attached).

All are welcome, members and non-members, but pre-registration is essential – just drop me an email to: chris@designcognition.com

Come along and listen to some exciting & leading-edge talks from the university & from the packaging design industry. Network with industry & academic experts – with various table-top demonstrations, discuss your design projects in an informal atmosphere and get practical mentoring help & advice.

Some of the highlighted topics will include:

Smartphone technology & how it can enhance the consumer experience

Using packaging technology to tackle counterfeiting

University research into brand design

Display technology for packing applications

Design of packaging for reuse / recycling

You can find out more about this and other East Midlands Packaging Society events on our ‘ning’ site:

East Midlands Packaging Society website

and also on our LinkedIn Group & Facebook Pages:

EMPS LinkedIn Group

EMPS Facebook page

This is the first of three planned university partnership events during the next 12 months, so whether in academia or business – You decide how you want to get involved, which could be as a speaker, sponsor, exhibitor, trainer or as a participant – how could it best benefit yourself? I really do think that ‘everyone’s a winner’ with this. More details to follow in future blogs.

If you’ve got any other ideas yourself, let me know.

Chris Penfold

Chairman – East Midlands Packaging Society

chris@designcognition.com

00 44 115 846 1914

Cadbury UK, the confectionery giant which is now part of Kraft Foods, is believed to be ahead of it’s competitors, having created the first interactive chocolate bar using ‘markless image recognition technology’.

It has announced plans to use Augmented Reality (AR) technology to engage consumers by enabling them to play a digital game when their chocolate packaging is viewed via a smartphone camera.

The ‘Quaksmack’ game, devised by Blippar, who are a UK-based technology firm, recognises Cadbury’s packaging in a similar manner to a QR code and transforms the packaging itself into an interactive game. The app is available in Android and Apple versions.

Check out this video to preview the game:

Players choose to be a ‘Spot’ or ‘Stripe’, before ducks appear from either side of the chocolate bar. They have to ‘smack’ the opposing team’s ducks by tapping the screen.

The game, is part of the Cadbury brands ongoing Spot V Stripes London Olympics initiative  and will be available across all Cadbury chocolate bars, except for Creme Eggs and Wispas.

Commenting to Packaging News, Kraft Foods digital head Sonia Carter said: “We loved Blippar from the moment we saw it in action. We were blown away by the technology and we’re certain consumers will be. With one in three UK adults owning a smartphone the potential market for initiatives like this is huge and we are proud to be bringing this incredible technology to the masses….It doesn’t seem all that long ago we were all marvelling at what QR codes could do but Blippar’s ‘markless image recognition’ technology takes the experience to a whole new level.”

Blippar chief executive and co-founder Ambarish Mitra, reinforced a deep-help belief of mine that: “Image-recognition enabled Augmented Reality is far from a ‘gimmick’ and will fundamentally change how consumers interact with their favourite real-world brands.”

Thanks to Packaging News for bringing our attention to this article. You can read further related packaging AR and technology articles here: Related technology articles

Chris Penfold