Don Simon unveils 100% sustainable smart packaging

Spanish juice brand Don Simon has unveiled its first ever 100% environmentally friendly and smart packaging in partnership with its packaging supplier Elopak and creative technology studio Appetite Creative.

Don Simon has incorporated a fun and interactive connected experience to help educate consumers about the benefits of the new Pure-Pak eSense packaging, for both consumers and the environment.

The smart packaging utilises a web app based connected experience accessed via QR codes to inform consumers about the benefits of the new aluminium-free carton. It utilises a transparent cap made from renewable plastics, and the unbleached Natural Brown Board and easy folding enables convenient recycling and reduces food waste.

With the new packaging, Don Simon has reduced its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40%, the packaging is also 4% lighter than market alternatives and 90% renewable, according to the company.

At this year’s Connected Packaging Summit, the García Carrión family, explained how they believe packaging has moved on from just being a container.

“Connected packaging allows us to establish a bidirectional and interactive communication channel with consumers. We can now learn about what really matters to them,” they said. “Through connected experiences, we have the opportunity to make consumers part of our brand journey, transforming passive products into experiential and interactive touchpoints.”

The Don Simon connected experience offers a range of interactive games linked to sustainability, giving consumers an engaging way to learn about its plant-based drinks and benefits of the new packaging. The games include creating packaging from sustainable materials, creating products from plants and carton recycling, a quiz plus much more. They are timed, and each new level becomes more difficult. Users participate to collect points, which they can exchange for coupons and win a range of prizes.

Don Simon is also using the connected experience to find ambassadors for the brand who will get a first look and taste of new products and packaging – to help immerse consumers in plans to minimise its environmental footprint and contribute to its ‘zero waste’ and ‘zero net emissions’ objectives.

“It’s essential for brands to consider all aspects of sustainability and this campaign not only puts sustainability front and centre, but it makes it easy and fun for consumers to recycle. We’re also giving them an opportunity to get involved via the ambassador competition – which offers incentives for consumers who want early access to new products and other brand updates – helping Don Simon find its most engaged influencers to share their passion for the brand,” said Jenny Stanley, managing director at Appetite Creative.

The web app tracks real-time interaction, such as buying habits, product preferences, average engagement time, location, scan rate, number of visitors, return visitors and social media shares, including GDPR-compliant personal data to enable the brand to optimise its marketing and better understand consumers.

The new aluminium-free aseptic carton Pure-Pak eSense, created by Elopak, reduces its carbon footprint by up to 50%, unlocks the potential to be fully renewable and simplifies the recycling process, as the new polyolefin barrier enables a one operation separation of the fibres and the polyolefin layers.

The new packaging, connected experience and competition will be available from November.

Related content