Melinda, an Italian-based consortium of 4,000 apple farmers, has used HP digital print technology to engage with its farmers with a new personalized marketing campaign. Using an HP PageWide T1170 Press, Melinda worked with corrugated packaging converter Ghelfi Ondulati to print 1000 farmers’ photos, each with a personal message, on 3.2 million carry-home apple boxes.
The objective of the campaign was to reinforce the brand image of quality apples through the story of quality farmers. The campaign concept called for photos of their many farmers, together with a personal quote, to be printed on the smaller, take-home sized boxes. Before embarking on the project, Melinda validated the concept through a neuro-engagement study, which showed that fruit boxes featuring photos of people’s faces attracted more attention, handling and purchases that boxes without the photos.
“Transparency is essential. We want to enable consumers to look at the face of the producers, to see real people selling real products. It couldn’t be models or actors”, said Andrea Fedrizzi, Marketing and Communications Manager, Melinda.
The 1000 different versions of boxes have been printed on high-quality on the top liner, which the print service provider then converted and finished, using food-safe true water-based inks. “We needed the right partner to be able to print the photos and quotes in a dynamic way on the boxes. It was obvious to us that HP technology would be the best for the job”, said Fedrizzi.
This campaign follows a hugely successful 2016 package marketing campaign powered by HP PageWide printing technology solutions, which combined digitally printed boxes with social media to raise money for earthquake-devastated families.
Melinda plans to expand the campaign to include even more farmers in the near future, featuring as many of the remaining 3,000 farmers from the consortium who want to participate. Melinda is also working on a mini-website, due to launch with the expanded packaging campaign.
The HP PageWide T1170 is a six-colour PageWide ultra high-volume inkjet web press for pre-print corrugated packaging that helps packaging converters enable more flexibility and meet fast-changing brand needs.
