Digital labels help Singapore mark 50 years of independence

During the spring of 2015, Shrinkflex was asked to take part in a branding and celebration initiative for the 50^th anniversary of Singapore’s independence. This brought together Singapore’s South West Community Development Council (CDC), bottled water supplier Dr Who Waterworks, Shrinkflex (Thailand) and HP Indigo.

This initial stage of the project required six different shrink sleeve labels each featuring one of the letters from the word ‘happy’ and ‘SG50’.

The labeled bottles were handed out during a celebration and parade, with participants looking to collect the letters, make their own messages, take photos and share them on social media. The mayors of Singapore’s five CDCs, along with guest of honor Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, led a 5,000 strong-parade along the city’s historic locations.

HP Indigo said the initial phase of project was a huge success and has continued with a second phase seeing a wider number of labels each featuring a letter from the phrase ‘happy birthday Singapore’. A total print volume of 180,000 water bottle labels is expected to be printed for the Golden Jubilee year festivities. Further, the use of the logos of Singapore’s five districts and 14 different design variations have equated to nearly 6,000 versions of the PVC labels.  

‘The variable data capabilities of the HP Indigo WS6600 handled the data easily and we printed the whole job in one day, and finished it in two,’ said Michael Tsoi, managing director of Shrinkflex (Thailand). The labels were then shipped to Dr Who and applied to bottles in a further day, meaning an end-to-end production cycle of just three days.

‘When you compare that to the 20-25 days needed for a gravure-printed product, it shows the power of digital printing,’ added Tsoi. ‘This job could not have been done any other way.’

Daniel Leong, business development manager for Southeast Asia at HP Indigo, described the project as, ‘just some wild idea that we had always been mentioning whenever we talked about variable data and campaigns to our customers’.

‘It was an opportunity that fitted this idea perfectly.’ he said. ‘Ms Low Yen Ling (Singapore South West CDC mayor) loved the idea as it could bring the ordinary bottled water to life and also serve as a tool to achieve their organization’s goal.’

‘The project to help Singapore celebrate its 50th birthday was a perfect way to demonstrate what is possible with digital printing,’ concluded Tsoi. ‘We expect the results to cause a lot of buzz in the market and add to the fun and excitement of the SG50 celebrations.’