According to McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect personalised interactions. When you consider a global population of around 8.2 billion, it’s no wonder buyers are craving genuine engagement. A blanket approach simply won't cut it anymore. Individuals want to feel valued. And, to combat this, companies are starting to reach out on a more intimate level with digital printing and customised packaging. Here, Delga explores how market leaders are making it work, and how you can too.
Packaging now engages more than the eyes. That soft, satisfying crackle when peeling off the sticker from an Apple iPhone or iMac box, featured in ASMR TikToks with millions of views, proves how iconic even sound has become in unboxing experiences.
Why Personalisation is Back in the Spotlight
As a specialist in high-quality print and packaging, we’ve witnessed how influential experience-led concepts like this can be. Personalised and variable print is a tool fast becoming a must-have. With endless options at their fingertips, time-strapped end users simply don’t have the hours to browse every product with a fine-tooth comb. They’re picking the ones that resonate the most. And, when your presentation feels like it’s specifically crafted for your customer, you’re the brand they’ll remember.
This degree of customisation is powered by digital printing, which provides businesses with the flexibility to personalise packaging at scale, turning everyday items into something that feels tailor made.
Say My Name
A case in point is Coca-Cola. Recently revived, the fizzy-drink heavyweight’s ‘Share a Coke’ initiative – which uses variable data printing (VDP) to swap its signature branding for common first names – has returned to Britain’s shelves 12 years after its original launch. To put its impact into perspective, the number of litres sold in the UK jumped by 2.9% year over year in the three months following the campaign’s debut.
Recognised as a cultural phenomenon, Coca-Cola’s success with consumer-specific design hasn’t gone unnoticed. From Dairy Milk and Toblerone bars to Nutella and Marmite jars and Heinz goods, plenty of brands are harnessing the benefits of VDP. Evidently, the strategy is especially effective in the food and drinks space and, much like Coca-Cola’s reintroduction, it aims to form authentic connections in an increasingly online world.
VDP, collage and mosaic designs are just a few digital printing methods offered by Delga. Below, we explore the ways brands are using these to generate compelling personal messaging:
Variable Data Printing (VDP)
VDP doesn’t stop with printed names – although Coca-Cola showed how powerful that one detail can be. With the ability to alter aspects of artwork from one print to the next without stopping the press, the possibilities are only restricted by your creativity.
One standout demonstration of mass personalisation is the Absolut Unique campaign. The bold move by the spirit brand saw almost 4 million individual bottles produced. While bottle colours and patterns were applied using automated processes, the labels displayed distinct serial numbers, a classic illustration of how you can use VDP.
For smaller-scale jobs, the tech is ideal for tailoring variables like numbers, locations, barcodes and imagery. A great example is Cadbury’s alliance with Liverpool FC on the Champion’s Bar, where wrappers showcased assorted player titles, chants and fan messages.
Much like Cadbury, we’ve tapped into the advantages of VDP for our own marketing, printing chocolate bar sleeves that pictured various Delga team members to hand out at trade shows. It’s a simple gesture, but one that gets people talking.
Collage: Custom Prints from Basic Elements
Collage printing lets you take a handful of visuals – for instance, emojis, icons and small images – and mix them up in various ways. Each item can be randomly placed, rotated, resized or recoloured.
Picture a scene with coffee beans, a steaming mug and an open book. In every print, the beans can change colour, the mug could flip direction and the book may appear in an alternate position, meaning the same base assets provide an ever-changing canvas.
Mosaic: Hundreds of Designs from One Artwork
Mosaic printing varies slightly. In this process, large base images are chosen and manipulated by zooming in to small sections or scaling out to larger areas, rotating, shifting or cropping. This results in dozens, hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of one-of-a-kind layouts, all drawn from one image library.
Smirnoff has embraced the trend in collaboration with award-winning design studio Yarza Twins and HP. The partnership involved thousands of varied bottles with a visual comprising 900 bodies and hats, nine colour variations, 21 assorted faces, representing diversity, and 21 patterns taken from the shape of the vodka giant's logo.
Making Digital Print Accessible to All
Initiatives like Absolut’s 4-million-bottle limited run and Smirnoff’s thousands of custom, colourful products may sound like big-league moves. But, you don’t need to be a huge label to harness the benefits of digital print. In fact, it’s growing among scale-ups, challenger brands and those managing diverse product ranges who want standout packaging to rival bigger players – all without the hefty overheads.
We make this accessible to all. Our HP Indigo press supports VDP, collage and mosaic printing, so you can create packaging with zero repetition. It’s well-suited to personalisation in scale, yet remains flexible enough for shorter-runs and complex multi-SKU projects, so you’re not tied into large-volume commitments or rigid schedules.
‘Tis the Season for Personalisation
Seasonal campaigns and gift-giving occasions like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, as well as Mother’s and Father’s Day are the perfect time for companies of all sizes to embrace variation. During these periods, digital printing comes into its own, with its quick turnarounds. From festive flavours and exclusive colours to new gift sets, you can adapt packaging to suit seasons without overcommitting on quantities.
Let’s Make Your Packaging Personal
At Delga, our HP Indigo lets you act quickly and stay flexible with low-volume, high-variety print runs that allow you to stick out in a crowded market. Whether it’s VDP or mosaic and collage techniques, we can help bring personalisation to your packaging.
Curious About Digital Printed Packaging Costs?
Prices vary from project to project, but getting a fast, tailored, no-obligation quote is free. Talk to our team today to get yours.