Pro Carton launches intelligent packaging portal

Pro Carton, the European association of carton and cartonboard manufacturers, said more consumers are adopting a digital lifestyle, giving packaging a key role to play in transmitting the quality and brand values of a product, first on a screen and then at home.

This includes shopping online and greater use of mobile telecommunication devices, with new technologies transforming how consumers view packaging. In addition to being a showcase and vehicle for goods, consumers see packaging increasingly containing innovations that offer high levels of interaction and engagement.

Retailers, brand owners and suppliers are also exploring ways to utilize next-generation packaging to: enable consumer engagement with packed products carrying digital devices delivering additional content; allow identification of products beyond the barcode, allowing more detailed information to be carried on the pack; and to act as a physical delivery system for the digital world, which is based on responsibly managed raw materials.

Cartonbaord, Pro Carton said, enables intelligent packaging systems that are creative and innovative, and produced using a sustainable substrate.

The new website, at www.new-technology.procarton.com, includes details on mobile digital marketing, emerging technologies and added value applications.

Pro Carton said: ‘Cartons can deliver all of these attributes, as well as other solutions that are driven by new technologies, benefiting the brand owner and retailer as well as the consumer. For example, food safety through the use of food contact-approved additives and other raw materials, low migration inks, barriers and coatings, and anti-counterfeiting systems on items like pharmaceutical cartons.

‘New technologies enabled by the digital world can be applied onto cartonboard packaging, making these new developments more eco-efficient, since cartons are recoverable, recyclable and continuously being light weighted so that lighter packs perform to ever higher specifications.

‘Resource efficient and coming from a natural raw material, cartonboard packaging can help to create value, convenience and sustainability in the supply chain, while delivering the new digital technologies currently being explored by brand owners and retailers.’