Imagine walking into the liquor store on a Friday night. You look past the brews you’ve already tried for something new. You spot a silver and gold capsule of a can, with a strange goggled figure on the label. The copy tells you this beer was formulated to fuel your journey through the multiverse, and it contains a sci-fi album as the soundtrack. To get the album, there’s a special hashtag. By tweeting it, you’ll receive a message telling you what you’re doing right now in a parallel reality, and a link to the music. Curiosity piqued, you bring it home, crack it open, take out your phone, and experience audio, visual, touch and taste in a single moment in time.
The T.R.I.P. album release beer is the first time a new studio album has ever been released on a beer can. The challenge that prompted the unique project was to figure out how to get people buying new music again, while helping a small indie band reach new fans. The solution: Pair the band with a brewery and turn the beer aisle into the next record store. The Lights Out wrote an album about traveling through parallel realities, and Aeronaut Brewing Co. developed a beer to pair with the songs. “A lot of the same people who once walked the music store aisles every weekend are now going to the beer store at least that often, with the aim of discovering something new. Most beer decisions happen in front of the cold case. The opportunity for someone to discover a band there caught our curiosity,” says Adam Ritchie, owner of Adam Ritchie Brand Direction and guitarist for The Lights Out.
T.R.I.P. used design in a creative way to solve a decades-old music industry problem, give consumers a complete sensory experience with visual, touch and taste, and restore music fans’ physical relationship with new music. The campaign resulted in a new way for music to be discovered, generated international attention and caused the product to quickly sell out. “Adam’s team created a tremendous launch experience which completely transcended the ordinary and set a new standard for how these things should be done,” says Aeronaut Brewing Co. co-founder Ben Holmes. “It’s a game-changer that succeeded beyond our wildest expectations.”
The two companies are strengthening their partnership by developing a 100% recyclable corrugated board solution. Reducing plastic packaging is a major issue in the CSR approach of La Coopérative Agricole de Noirmoutier, a group of producers of high quality potatoes located on the island of Noirmoutier (Atlantic coast). It is with the ambition to replace the plastic bags wrapping its potatoes that the Cooperative contacted DS Smith. With its experience and collaborative spirit, it is with enthusiasm that DS Smith organized several workshops bringing together members of the two companies. The main difficulty was to keep the potatoes in good condition despite the elimination of plastic. Thanks to the expertise of its designers, DS Smith has succeeded in developing a 100% recyclable corrugated board solution that guarantees the conservation and visibility of the potatoes.
Following the successful completion of a 15-month commercial technology validation of a polymer-based barrier replacing the aluminium layer, Tetra Pak is now moving to the next level of development - testing a fibre-based barrier that is a first within food carton packages distributed under ambient conditions. This step marks yet another breakthrough in the company’s long-term roadmap towards developing an aseptic package that is fully renewable, fully recyclable and carbon-neutral. The aluminium layer currently used in food carton packages plays a critical role in ensuring food safety; and even though it is thinner than a human hair, it contributes to a third of the green-house gas emissions linked to base materials used by Tetra Pak.
With the packaging industry preparing to meet EU recyclability targets, the demand for innovative and sustainable solutions is growing fast. In a recent co-creation project with SN Maschinenbau GmbH, a leading manufacturer of horizontal pouch-packaging machines, UPM Specialty Papers tested a range of heat-sealable barrier papers on SN Maschinenbau’s packaging machines. The goal was to create a recyclable, renewable, fibre-based pouch ideal for dry, frozen, and greasy foods. The sample will be displayed at Interpack 2023. As a world-leading manufacturer of packaging machinery, SN Maschinenbau seeks to deliver the best pouch packaging technology to its customers. In the light of current trends, this includes the capability to produce and process the recyclable and renewable packaging materials that customers are looking for. Working closely with partners, SN Maschinenbau is searching for new types of materials that, at best, can be seamlessly integrated into existing pouch packaging machinery.
