Students help the digital brand to get physical: SPICE: 14
What would you say if you were given the task to create a packaging for a product that only exists in the digital world? Hell yea, it would be a true challenge. But it would be an incredibly good one.
In cooperation with BillerudKorsnäs, the Berghs School of Communication initiated the Sustainable Packaging & Innovation Communication Event (SPICE: 14)– a packaging design competition that aims at stimulating student creativity and highlighting the growing need for sustainable design solutions. This year the focus is on creating a physical packaging for no less than the popular digital music service Spotify.
While the incorporation of digital services seems very handy for brands, on the one hand, it is often connected to the fear of loosing direct contact to the consumer, on the other. As a matter of fact, there is a difference between a shop where you can actually set a foot in to physically experience the brand and its products and a digital service that is not really alive beyond the virtual window of the world wide web.
By creating an “experience” that can be taken on the road and used in promotion, the popular music service Spotify, wishes to make its digital product more tangible. The goal is to “engage existing users so that they become advocates and drive potential new users”. The intention to pack Spotify in a box seems bold, nevertheless, it is what makes the challenge so intriguing for the students.
Jimmy Nyström, Business Development Director at BillerudKorsnäs and Project Manager for SPICE: 14 says that ‘this is the first time we’ve been involved in packaging an internationally renowned digital brand, which shows that even digital brands need physical packaging to reach their target audience.’
The with excitement anticipated design process will be recorded on SPICE: 14, the campaign site that has been specifically set up for this unique project. To describe their experiences, the students will add more videos and blog posts up until the 29th of Octobre. That is the date, the winner will be announced, who may be lucky enough to see his or her design enter the market, yes the real world market.
