18 February 2015

Coca-Cola points way to Labels & Labeling cover

For the Feb/March 2015 edition of Labels & Labeling, the special front cover was printed digitally on an HP Indigo 10000 press. Every subscriber’s copy of the magazine has a different design variation – and that’s 16,000 unique cover designs.

The project was inspired by Coca-Cola Israel’s astonishing marketing campaign which involved printing millions of Diet Coke labels with different variations of a kaleidoscopic design. Both projects make use of a groundbreaking piece of software developed by HP called Mosaic, which allows a vast array of color variations to be automatically generated from a starting design then fed directly to a digital press.

See a video of the production here.

The Coca-Cola project involved not only labels and shrink sleeves, but also a far-reaching marketing and social media campaign which allowed consumers to order a range of objects like T-shirts printed with their own unique label design.

This is not the first time Coca-Cola has pushed the limits of what’s possible with digital printing. Readers will remember the breakthrough ‘Share a Coke’ campaign which involved digitally printing millions of labels with combinations of first names in multiple European languages.

Both projects demonstrate the true value of digital, and why digital print accounts for almost 12 percent of the value of label sales despite being only 1-2 percent of label volume. As conventional presses get more efficient and make inroads into digital short run territory, this is exactly the kind of project digital label converters should promote to stay ahead of the game.

Be a part of it!

If you're a subscriber to the print magazine, share a photo of your custom front cover with us on Twitter (@LabelsNLabeling) using the hashtags #MyOriginalLL #StayExtraordinary. We also encourage you to email your photos of this special magazine for possible inclusion in the April/May 2015 edition.