The #BeSanta campaign ran on 700, 330ml glass bottles across Central and Eastern Europe, Japan, various countries of Latin America and Africa in December, bringing people together to celebrate the ‘spirit of Christmas’.
Light up on touch
The illuminated labels belong to Inuru's patented technology activating the Coca-Cola logo to light up on touch.
“We are certainly interested in future developments that could drive the cost of this kind of printed electronics down and eventually permit the use of this technology in at least seasonal or promotional mainstream packaging activities,” said Georgi Blaskov, senior brand manager, Coca-Cola CEE.
Marcin Ratajczak, CEO, Inuru, said the LEDs functionality comes within a thin piece of paper embedded with its OLED light on a digital printer. They are self-powered and there is no need to charge them with a plug or wires.
All4Labels
For the Coca-Cola #BeSanta campaign the labels were produced in two steps; first with label converting specialist, All4Labels, which used conventional inks and printing technology to produce pressure-sensitive paper labels bearing all the typography and colours typically found on a Coke label.
Then the rolls of these labels, including the release liner, were sent to Inuru, where the paper labels printed by the company were laminated on top.
“We print both the light source and the energy source. When the label is touched, it’s like a circuit is closed between energy source and light source, which causes the Coca-Cola label to light up,” he added.
Ratajczak said this is the first time it has brought an OLED product in a packaging application to a sizeable audience by a major brand.
“The potential of our technology lies in the fact we can scale the production easily to billions of units because our inks make it possible to print OLED at a fraction of the cost of technologies used in the production of electronics," he said.
“Not only can we get the price down to cents per package, these are organic electronics, which means the technology is environmentally sustainable.”
Talking about the statistics of the launch a Coca-Cola spokesman added some of the results in Central and Easter Europe show the campaign resonated well with young adults.
Overall, recognition of the campaign was on average around 85%, and the seasonal flavor of Coca-Cola with cinnamon proved to be exceptionally successful, with demand above expectations in all the markets who offered it, with a 76% positive sentiment in online reactions.
"The campaign was accompanied by an interesting packaging innovation, OLED labels which were used as a tactical touchpoint with influencers and similar exclusive audiences,” he added.