Love Wins bottles and cases sold out faster than anticipated, and the campaign generated enormous consumer engagement across social media.
“We were able to seamlessly extend the promotion from the bottle to the carton… Having this tool in our creative arsenal is a game changer for our packaging and promotions.”
Principal Packaging Graphics Director, DIAGEO
Diageo took promotional packaging to new heights with its Love Wins campaign for SMIRNOFF. In connection to its ongoing support of the LGBTQIA+ community, the company launched a limited-edition bottle of SMIRNOFF No. 21 for Pride Month in May 2017, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Human Rights Campaign. The Smirnoff campaign included an omni-channel plan across experiential elements, PR and social media. Each bottle had a unique design, wrapped in a shrink sleeve printed with a vibrant, holographic rainbow background and Polaroid-style photographs of real-life couples.
It was clear that such a stand-out bottle design demanded an equally attention-grabbing shipper display case, so Hummingbird worked with Diageo to create a carton that harmonized seamlessly. The team put its variable printing capabilities to maximum use, arranging the 10 Polaroid-style photos into 100 layout variations using the innovative HP SmartStream Designer’s Mosaic technology software. Each of those 100 variations were then printed onto a shifting rainbow background to create 50,000 unique shipping cartons. The agility and flexibility of digital print allowed for these 50,000 unique designs to be printed all on the same press run, with no costly plate charges or per design.
The end result was an attention-grabbing in-store display and a highly successful promotion amongst SMIRNOFF consumers. Love Wins bottles and cases sold out faster than anticipated, and the campaign generated enormous consumer engagement across social media.
“Hummingbird’s capabilities were a perfect fit for this campaign,” said Kevin Chop, Principal Packaging Graphics Director of Diageo. “We were able to seamlessly extend the promotion from the bottle to the carton in a way that would have been impossible using traditional print methods. Having this tool in our creative arsenal is a game changer for our packaging and promotions.”
Diageo executed a follow up campaign the next year featuring user-submitted photos to add an even greater degree of consumer engagement and personalization. Despite increasing its digitally printed carton order by 50 percent, the Love Wins bottles and cases once again sold out faster than anticipated.
