Epson label printer provides ideal solution for in-store activation

In 2016, the Lindt & Sprüngli South African office appointed creative advertising agency 34° to manage a consumer campaign for the Lindt HELLO range of chocolate bars. The campaign aimed to position the range as an accessible, premium, fun and aspirational lifestyle brand that can be shared with friends and family.

In assessing the Lindt HELLO target audience, 34° developed a campaign concept that spoke to the inter-connected and sharing nature of “always-on” young consumers.

In order to bring the campaign to life, 34° approached Bottomline Interactive, an experiential activations agency that worked with them to define the proof of concept and develop a way that custom-made labels could be printed in-store onto Lindt chocolate bars.

Mall activations were set up in three regions around the country, in which shoppers could enter colourful interactive phone booths and print personalised labels for Lindt HELLO 100g chocolate slabs that could then be presented as gifts to friends and family.

Shoppers were encouraged to tweet as well as share photos of their experiences using the official hashtag, #ShareHELLO.

In a further initiative to encourage sharing, consumers who participated in the campaign could enter a competition to win one of ten Lindt HELLO hampers worth ZAR5,000. Consumers entered the consumer promotion by printing or posting to social media with the hashtag #ShareHELLO.

The printing booths that were set up at each of the mall activations were an integral part of the campaign, and 34° needed a quick and efficient printing solution to make the campaign a success.

Bottomline Interactive researched a range of printer brands that would provide high-speed, high-quality printing, with little-to-no personal maintenance required on-site.

After seeing a live demo of the printer in action, Bottomline Interactive selected the Epson C3500 label printer as the ideal solution.

Compact enough to be housed in each of the Lindt HELLO printer plinths, the high-quality printer could be easily integrated into already existing back-end systems to allow shoppers to print their custom-designed chocolate bar wrappers in no time at all.

In addition, the ease of use of the C3500 meant that minimal training was required for non-technical staff on site. This enabled a seamless setup and swap out of consumables, ensuring that the activation continued without any unnecessary technical issues or delays.

Shoppers were encouraged to design their unique labels using their mobile phones or Samsung Galaxy tablets provided in the phone booths. All they had to do was bring their Lindt HELLO 100g chocolate slabs to the mall activation stand and present it to the Lindt HELLO sampler at the entrance of the stand. They were then directed to a phone booth to personalise their labels, using the Lindt HELLO microsite.

Shoppers had the option of using their phones to take a picture or choosing an existing photo to personalise and design. Once on the microsite, consumers were prompted to scale the photo, choose a frame, a Lindt HELLO emoti icon, a message and lastly, upload their email address where a QR code/8-digit pin and their final image was sent to them to confirm the process. If they were happy with their labels, they clicked ‘print’ and then went to the printing station to fetch their labels to paste onto their chocolate slabs.

The Epson ColorWorks C3500 label printer was the perfect partner for the #ShareHELLO campaign.

Designed to print at a low cost per label, the C3500 features high-quality print speeds of up to 103mm/sec using individual pigment ink cartridges, resulting in labels that can be easily and cost-effectively printed on demand.

Labels printed using the C3500 are highly-detailed and fast-drying, as well as smudge, water and fade-resistant, which allowed Lindt HELLO consumers to print their personalised labels without hassle or time constraints something that proved highly beneficial when traffic volumes to the booths increased.

The overall #ShareHELLO campaign was a huge success. The vibrant mall activations and social media engagement increased brand awareness and generated an increase in product trials.

A total of 4,187 creations were generated, and over 2000 labels were printed using the Epson ColorWorks C3500 over a period of nine days.

As a result of the success of the campaign, Lindt & Sprüngli have expressed an interest in rolling out further print activations in other regions across the country.