Coca-Cola gets personal with individually designed labels

Each one of a kind, the bottles were sold in supermarkets, stores and restaurants across the country in the summer of 2014.

The printing project included shrink sleeves on glass bottles and wraparound labels on plastic containers.

From 23 original designs, millions of variations were created using HP’s patent-pending SmartStream Mosaic technology in HP SmartStream Designer. Digital printing on the HP Indigo WS6600 digital press was conducted by label converter S.L.R. Printing Industries in cooperation with analog printer Loboprint of Israel, producing labels and shrink sleeves for three different bottle sizes.

Shrink sleeves for 0.35 liter bottles were produced as a combination of gravure and HP Indigo on PETG clear substrate using analog silver, black, Coca-Cola Red and white with digitally printed with HP Indigo ElectroInk CMYK, White and Coca-Cola Red colors in reverse print mode.

Wraparound labels for 0.5/1.5 liter bottles were produced on a metallized BOPP substrate using CMYK + White and HP Indigo ElectroInk Coca-Cola Red.

Each bottle featured a tracking number that identified the specific design of their label. Through a dedicated website, customers are able to enter that number and order specialty items that feature the pattern.

Personalized merchandise includes T-shirts, collectible glasses, iPhone covers and canvas bags. The campaign included billboards, folding cartons and point-of-purchase (POP) signage displays.

These items were also printed using VDP technology offered by HP digital printing.

See how L&L readers are reacting to and sharing their personalized copies of Labels & Labeling, issue 1, 2015 here