The 'one size fits all era' is over: Building sustainable brands through creativity

Everywhere we look we're seeing brands launching and executing sustainability campaigns with original marketing that gets consumers talking. Brands are pushing creative boundaries but to keep up with the market pace, even the most popular brands are looking for new and innovate ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. However, the creativity journey is one that takes time.

One of my favourite quotes comes from Pablo Picasso surmises this perfectly: "Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist."

That ignites a story of skilled creatives knowing the exact time to throw away the rule book, challenge creatively and conjure new and exciting ideas. For brands, if we follow this same sentiment, we can produce memorable brand experiences for years to come.

Easier said than done, right? As a former marketer myself and having worked with some of world's most recognisable brands, we are all inspired by creativity and looking to bring memorable ideas to the table by means of enhancing and growing more sustainable businesses. We are constantly searching for the next best concept that exceeds expectations, gets consumers talking and is that lightbulb moment that just makes sense. Which is why so many brands are now turning to digitally printed packaging to unleash their creativity. Let's say, it's the electricity that sparks the light in that lightbulb moment.

Unleashing creativity

Brands have the potential to conceive creativity through co-creation. For digital print, co-creation is at the heart of its technology and is the key to providing meaningful interactions with consumers, co-delivering content in a way that is relevant, timely and authentic. In fact, according to research, memorable and engaging campaigns generate between 10-30 per cent of incremental earned media across digital. What I like to call ‘technology at the service of personalisation'.

Through personalised packaging, brands can drive engaging community campaigns to market at speed, bringing brand purpose to life on pack and sparking deeper and more meaningful engagement with their consumers. Through co-creation brands, creative agencies, designers and marketers have the potential to unlock human-centric storytelling, placing sustainability and social purpose front and centre, on pack.  

Digitally printed packaging as a platform to drive brand sustainability and growth

HP Graphic Arts have partnered with some of the world's biggest and most innovative brands and have proven that digital print unleashes creativity and allows brands to drive sustainable behaviours and build reputation. Whether it's saving endangered elephants with Amarula or giving our underrepresented Covid heroes a voice with Dettol, it is through the adoption of digital print that brands enter their unique journey to unleashing that creativity.

Global brands that have adopted digitally printed packaging, as part of their marketing strategy are becoming category leaders within the industry. Take leading coffee brand Nestle for example. As one of the world's largest coffee brands, selling in over 180 countries worldwide, consumers enjoy the quality, natural goodness, and convenience of its coffee beans. But as a brand, they were faced with the challenge of speaking to a wider audience.

Then came millennials: a generation seemingly always on the lookout for new and exciting experiences. By simply turning its famous coffee jar into a gift that speaks to younger generations, Nescafé created 3,000 customized labels featuring the most common New Year's resolutions made in Mexico, to help them connect with its customers over the festive period and beyond. After the phenomenal pilot success of the campaign, the brand has scaled production with more than 20 million jars, with the combination of these 3,000 different labels, that have been sold via an array of retailer partners.

Brands pioneering change

Digitally printed packaging consistently helps brands across the globe to achieve purpose at the heart of their content, re-emerge with better physical experiences and enable personalization through co-creation. With HP Digital Print, brands have the potential to double ROI through consumer engagement via personalisation and co-creation, a journey that makes consumers feel united and ignited by a sense of belonging.

Jose Gorbea is HP Indigo head of brands innovation at HP Graphic Arts.

Be a catalyst for change today and check out more on HP Graphic Arts at www.reinventing-creativity.com.

This article is sponsored by HP Graphic Arts.