28 April 2020 – (Gent, Belgium) Consumers are demanding sustainable, safe and healthy packaging. However, marketing and design are still very important. With the help of HYBRID Software’s CLOUDFLOW and PACKZ, O-I : EXPRESSIONS is building highly personalized, distinctive and beautiful glass packaging, building brands and driving consumer interest.
O-I : EXPRESSIONS, a service provided by O-I Glass Inc. (O-I) creates new marketing opportunities for brands through customization and personalization by sculpting glass bottles into multi-dimensional works of art, enabled by digital printing. They enable brands to create this packaging at flexible volumes, industrial speeds, and good value, with an unprecedented range of color and design possibilities, compared to traditional decoration solutions. O-I : EXPRESSIONS RELIEF, a premium offering, adds customized tactile effects, such as clear and color embossing.
A year and a half ago, when O-I : EXPRESSIONS began developing digital designing for glass packaging, their mandate was to collaborate with all their customers and employees within one multi-device platform—simple to use without requiring hours of training. O-I : EXPRESSIONS transitioned from a legacy paper-based system to a digital one, with the help of HYBRID Software’s flexible platform. There are no longer paper and exchanges of email, and fewer customer sales representative (CSR) calls. Using HYBRID CLOUDFLOW, O-I : EXPRESSIONS can leverage a cloud service and integrate new people into the system wherever they are within a day. A customer could be in Germany, the CSR in the UK, and production in France. They have online, two-way collaboration.
With HYBRID PACKZ, designers focus more on design, and less on repetitive tasks such as trapping, imposition, and color management. With a native PDF file format workflow decision makers can easily view a file, review it, and approve it before production.
With the new digital system, O-I: EXPRESSIONS can quickly create many different designs for review. They may not have empirical evidence of improved productivity yet, but their designers are managing an exponential increase of work. Meanwhile, others in the organization can learn how a colleague completed an interesting project elsewhere. Everyone will be able to see any project, have a backup, and receive 24/7 graphics design services. Customer assistance will be global.
“Variable data is a key feature in digital printing. My focus is the people. The technology lets our people add value,” explains Apostolos Pratos, Global Sales & Marketing Digital Transformation Leader. “For example, we have done some work sending car owners a personalized gift with their names. That was a small, manual project. We prefer an automated system. With HYBRID CLOUDFLOW and PACKZ, O-I : EXPRESSIONS designers can focus more on design, and less on the repetitive things.”
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