Constantia Offers Packaging for Digital Age

Published: November 16, 2017

VIENNA, AUSTRIA | Constantia Flexibles announces Constantia Interactive, a solution for interactive packaging in the food and pharmaceutical industries that is said to open up a multitude of digital communications and marketing opportunities. The company says it now offers to take on the printing and the implementation of the contents as well as the data management.

Alexander Baumgartner, CEO of Constantia Flexibles, says, “Besides protection, the role of packaging is also to attract the attention and the interest of consumers. With Constantia Interactive, we provide a packaging feature that is an important marketing tool, one that meets the needs of the end customer and supplies additional information in a simple way.”

He says the unique character of Constantia Interactive is in its combination of digitally readable packaging material with a digital platform for data management and a smartphone app customizable to a wide range of customer needs. The advantage is the control over the data collected, which can be provided directly to the customer as a part of the comprehensive solution. The digital features span from purely informative, such as instructions for use, through videos and games, to contests that can be individually selected by the customer.

In regard to pharmaceutical products, patients must have access to adequate information. The Constantia Interactive app has created additional services by offering the patient direct access to additional information at any time and making it safer to take medication. The chat bot allows patients to ask individual questions about the product that may not be easily answered by the packaging insert. The package insert itself is also accessible in a digital format through the app—if the printed version is ever lost or mislaid, patients will also have it digitally. Using the search function, the text can be combed through for a certain term or terms, and the font size and language can also be adjusted. In addition, a personal calendar function reminds users to take the individual medication and even to refill prescriptions.

In combination with a digital anti-counterfeiting identification such as watermark or another digitally readable code, Constantia Interactive is also said to be an effective means of identifying counterfeit products. Using a smartphone app developed specifically for each brand, the consumer scans the packaging for a variety of identifying features such as image analysis, digital watermark, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, etc., which then appear in augmented reality.

“In this way,” says Baumgartner, “the application is personalized to the respective company or brand and corresponds to the respective brand design. The company itself controls what features are shown.”

According to a survey conducted in Germany by Constantia Flexibles, 69% of those surveyed would rather buy or at least take from the shelf food with interactive packaging than a similar product without an interactive feature. Interactive packaging also influences product brands in general, the company says. Of those surveyed, 66% consider a brand with interactive elements included in its packaging to be ‘in step with the times.’

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