The association marks its 25th anniversary next year in 2018 and plans to build on its work with the Chinese authorities to address the problems.
'Commercial potential'
It claims it will see an increased integration of holograms alongside other authentication and track and trace technologies to deliver overt and covert protection and while Europe and North America will continue to ‘offer opportunity’, the hotspots of Asia, where counterfeiting is systemic, that offers commercial potential.
"Countries across Asia, notably India and China, will continue to offer unprecedented scope for growth for holograms in the battle to stem the tide of counterfeit goods flooding onto the market,” said Manoj Kochar, chairman, IHMA.
“We will continue to see over the coming months increased integration of holograms in these territories as part of brand protection strategies being adopted by government and security agencies looking to tackle the problem.”
Kochar added counterfeiting cannot be defeated in isolation and it is pushing its Hologram Image Register as a priority as well as added-value authentication technology, in response to ISO 12931, to verify the authenticity of a legitimate product.
“We have seen holographic features on ID documents grow hugely over the last few years, and there’s now a suite of products that incorporate ‘opto-digital’ functionality,” said Kochar.
Refresh existing brands
“Eye-catching holograms add design appeal to brand packaging, so 2018 will see extended success in a sector where companies have to invest in new products or refresh existing brands to meet consumer demand.”
The IHMA also predicts more activity for holographic optical elements (HOE) for wearable head displays and smart devices.
“While we have seen some fantastic industrial uses of this technology, we are yet to see significant consumer adoption, mainly due to price,” added Kochar.