In a world saturated with digital noise and fleeting consumer attention, brands are rediscovering the power of physical experiences. This resurgence isn’t rooted in nostalgia but in reinvention, driven by the evolving capabilities of digital print technology. Abel Sanchez and Guy Bibi of HP Industrial Print, experts at the intersection of technology, creativity, and brand strategy, shed light on how digital print is transforming marketing by enabling agility, emotional connection, and personalization.
### Bridging the Gap Between Technology and Strategy
Abel Sanchez, who leads HP’s Brands and Agencies Innovation Platform across EMEA, emphasizes the need to “humanize the technology.” Many marketers still rate their understanding of digital print as low, but once they grasp its creative and strategic potential, the conversation shifts from cost to value. Traditional procurement views print as a budget line, but strategic marketers see it as a media channel, engagement tool, and ROI driver. Guy Bibi, who manages HP’s “Creativity Power Pack,” focuses on making digital print not just flexible but expressive, helping brands turn ideas into tangible packaging with speed and precision.
### Personalization: A Game-Changer
Personalization has emerged as a mega-trend, with campaigns like Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” demonstrating its power. By featuring individual names on bottles, Coca-Cola created a campaign that was both emotionally resonant and commercially successful, leading to its revival. Bibi explains that personalization allows brands to change the story, not the product, creating significant value. For example, a personalized Marmite jar sells for over £12 compared to the standard £3.60 price point. Even smaller brands, like a Lithuanian water company celebrating its 100th anniversary with 100,000 unique labels, can leverage digital print to make a big impact.
### Agility at Scale
Digital print enables brands to move quickly from idea to execution. Sanchez recounts an open house where a brand walked out with printed prototypes within an hour, showcasing the technology’s ability to collapse timelines. Tools like HP’s SmartStream Designer and HP Spark allow for sophisticated design automation, enabling brands to adapt packaging dynamically by region, language, retailer, or even individual consumer preferences. This agility at scale provides both creative freedom and operational efficiency.
### The Resurgence of Physical Experiences
In an age of digital overload, consumers are craving tangible experiences. Research from the Cannes Lions shows that physical experiences are now the second most effective marketing channel, outperforming social media and online video. Bibi highlights that everyday interactions with products, like pouring milk or picking up a cereal box, offer valuable engagement opportunities. HP’s analysis of over 50 million social media conversations identifies six emotional drivers—pride, community, nostalgia, gifting, social impact, and self-expression—that connect people to personalized physical experiences. Campaigns like Hershey’s “Her for She” in Brazil, which featured female artists and changemakers on limited-edition packs, demonstrate how packaging can be both personal and purposeful.
### Smart Print Meets Smart Strategy
HP’s technology goes beyond aesthetics, integrating logic, AI, and even weather data into packaging. A German winery, for instance, used HP’s digital print to create labels reflecting the climate conditions at the time of bottling, turning a perceived limitation into a unique selling point. Toblerone’s UK gifting campaign, which featured different “quirk” personality traits on each chocolate bar, showcased customization without chaos. Sanchez emphasizes that the technology’s value lies in how brands use it strategically.
### Rethinking ROI
Packaging-led campaigns are proving to be highly effective. According to WARC, they deliver twice the ROI of traditional media-led campaigns and excel in softer metrics like brand equity, PR, and word-of-mouth. Sanchez notes that brands embedding personalization and co-creation into their media mix are driving greater emotional and financial impact, with packaging becoming a platform for engagement.
### Getting Started: The Garage Effect
For brands looking to explore digital print, HP offers the “Garage Innovation Workshop,” a 24-hour sprint from ideation to printed prototypes. This hands-on approach ensures brands leave with tangible results, not just ideas. The workshop aims to create a “quadruple win”: brands innovate, agencies get more work, printers secure more jobs, and HP’s presses are utilized.
### Reimagining Print’s Potential
Bibi and Sanchez stress that HP is offering more than just printing presses—it’s providing a suite of creative and strategic tools. Brands can personalize, regionalize, securitize, and emotionally resonate with their audiences, all with speed and beauty. Packaging is no longer just wrapping; it’s a media channel, an engagement tool, and a moment of magic in a distracted world.
The question for brands isn’t whether digital print works but whether they’re ready to harness its full potential to create meaningful, impactful experiences.
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