05 Mar 2015 Diageo creates a “smart” Johnnie Walker bottle
How smart? Well, smart enough — with the help of a smart phone — to detect if the it’s been opened or not, and then send to relevant, personalised messages to consumers who read the bottle’s sensor tags with their smart phones.
“Until recently, a bottle has been a container for liquid,” says Venky Balakrishnan, global vice president of digital innovation at Diageo. “We see the possibility for the bottle to do something much more before, during and after purchase.”
When the bottle is unopened: The digital messaging might try to entice shoppers with special deals. When the bottle has been opened: The digital message might offer special serving suggestions.
This, without having to read an often hard-to-scan QR code. For the technology to work, the smartphone only needs to be waved near the bottle, not over a specific part of it.
While this bottle isn’t on store shelves just yet, its prototype will be introduced next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Mobile marketing — though often tricky to execute and sometimes confusing — is on a growth tear. Gartner, the technology research specialist, estimates it reached $18-billion in 2014 and could rocket to nearly $42-billion by 2017.
The “smart bottle” innovation was created by Thin Film Electronics in collaboration with Diageo Technology Ventures. A special technology allows Diageo to track bottle movements across the supply chain to the point of consumption. With the tap of a smartphone, it also can detect if the bottle is still sealed or open.
“People are increasingly expecting more out of their devices,” says Balakrishnan. “When the environment our are bottles are in gets more intelligent, our bottles have to rise to that level of intelligence.”….