Parmalat uses digital for seasonal yogurt packaging

With 13 yogurt flavors customized with 16 different Disney characters, producing the Christmas special editions involved the development of more than 200 pieces of artwork across a total production volume of three million yogurt cartons.

GPP Industrie Grafiche, a specialist in folding carton packaging and the only Italian printing company equipped with an HP Indigo 30000, used its proprietary NeXtep system to create the packaging. Alongside the sheet-fed digital press, NeXtep involves the use of HP Indigo's Mosaic technology.

‘The NeXtep system, which we launched in mid-November 2015, enabled us to realize this complex campaign, which presented many challenges,’ said Roberto Nardini, managing director of GPP Industrie Grafiche. ‘This campaign had to be produced to very high quality standards so that the special edition packages could be displayed next to the normal, non-festive ones, with no perceivable difference in printing, and all with very short production times. With our system, we were able to hit all the deliverables, and meet Parmalat's needs.

‘This campaign is an example of what NeXtep technology allows us to achieve and shows how by using it in the service of the visual brand communication, it can make a real difference when it comes to renewing, reinterpreting, revolutionizing that image of a brand, aligning it with emerging trends and opening it up to new business opportunities.’

Parmalat is a global player in the production and distribution of milk dairy products and fruit beverages. The Parmalat yogurt Christmas editions launched in stores in Italy in mid-November with the collectible cutouts, including a Christmas decoration or a placeholder. The campaign is part of a long-term strategy started by Parmalat at the beginning of 2015 aimed at redefining the position of the Parmalat yogurt brand and appealing more to its target audience of families with children.

Rosanna Cappello, yogurt and dessert product manager at Parmalat Italia, said: ‘To create a connection to our target consumers, we decided to use the packaging as a vehicle for a recreational activity that children and parents could share during the holiday season. To make the experience of our brand even more engaging, we decided to make the cutout items collectible.

‘To do this, we embarked on a co-marketing activity with Disney, but the issue of how to produce and print the packs still remained. Opting for a traditional printing process proved economically unviable and too complex from an operational point of view. Without GPP Industrie Grafiche’s advanced technology we would not have been able to create a packaging campaign that has delivered on budget and to the highest possible standards of quality and finish.’

Parmalat said the customized Christmas special editions created ‘tremendous buzz’ around its offering when first launched, which led to the campaign being extended into an online, website-based experiential marketing campaign for parents and children based around digital engagement.

‘On November 24 we launched a website, with a Christmas video showing the cutouts featured on the packaging and inviting people to complete the collection,’ continued Cappello. ‘In addition, we decided to offer another series of cutouts online, different to those found on the yogurt packaging, that could be downloaded, cut out and added to their existing collection, as well as a Christmas-themed contest. This was all designed to raise their awareness and interest in the products and encourage them to seek them out in store.’

Based on the success of this campaign, Parmalat is now planning to implement more customized special edition packaging campaigns.