Lucozade Energy, one of the most recognised and successful energy drinks brands in the UK, is using Domino’s D320i scribing lasers to produce permanent unique codes directly onto its bottles as part of the ‘YES Project’, an interactive cross media promotional campaign.
The ‘YES Project’ was the brainchild of the marketing team at newly formed company Lucozade Ribena Suntory.
Explains Rick Oakley, Digital Marketing Manager at Lucozade Ribena Suntory, “Our brand is one of the most recognisable in the UK with an 80-year heritage, but as a digitally centric marketing team we are always looking to adopt the latest technology and ensure that our brand has continued consumer appeal. Linking our pack with technology such as mobile and social media is essential to engaging with this group of tech savvy “digital natives.”
With the promotional concept in place, the marketing and operational teams started to review how best to execute the initiative. This required the management, processing and printing of clear, highly visible unique codes directly onto the filled Lucozade Energy bottles at high production speeds.
Central to the success of this operation, was that the application of these unique promotional codes would cause no interruption to production output at its bottling plant in Coleford, Gloucestershire. The company therefore turned to Domino for a solution.
Says Rick, “We’ve worked with Domino for several years and I’ve always been impressed by their expertise in this area. Their team are very knowledgeable and added a lot of value at the solution design stage when we were reviewing the best options available to us. They were also very flexible during implementation and went the extra mile to integrate the solution with our digital marketing agency’s system.”
Following a series of consultations, four Domino D320i scribing lasers and DPX1000 extraction systems were installed onto the out-feed conveyor of the bottling lines. The lasers are connected to a networked software solution which automatically downloads the unique codes to each laser from a centralized server. The lasers then etch the permanent codes directly onto the bottles at speeds of up to 50,000 bottles per hour, before they receive their outer sleeves.
The compact nature of Domino’s D-Series lasers allowed for easy integration into the bottling production line, while its flexibility enables it to produce high quality text as well as graphics and 2D data matrix codes in any orientation.
Equally of importance to the marketing team was the quality and consistency of the printed codes. This was vital to encourage greater consumer participation in their promotion.
“From a marketing perspective, we are very pleased with the performance of the Domino lasers which have contributed to the success of the ‘YES Project’ promotion,” adds Rick. “The text is crisp, sharp and clear, which makes the code easy to read when our consumers peel back the label on the bottle.”
“This project has enabled us to generate insight into the Lucozade Energy demographic, their product purchasing behaviour and enabled us to drive digital engagement from our product packaging.”
Lucozade Ribena Suntory has already placed a second order for three more Domino D320i lasers to further increase its coding capabilities at its Coleford bottling plant, which will be installed in the coming months.