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A few Chinese luxury cigarette brands are already using the special BOPP film, but it remains practically unknown in other markets. Photo credit: Suzhou Image Technology Co. Ltd.
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Justin Tarbell (left) and Jerry Straub (right) posing with their Signal range. Photo credit: Ohserase Manufacturing LLC
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The full product portfolio of Ohserase Manufacturing LLC. Photo credit: Ohserase Manufacturing LLC
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Hu Zuyuan, c.e.o., Suzhou Image Technology Co. Ltd. Photo credit: Suzhou Image Technology Co. Ltd.
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Gong Chunyan, production manager, Suzhou Image Technology Co. Ltd. Photo credit: Suzhou Image Technology Co. Ltd.
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A film sample displaying the colorful embedded holographic images as it is held up against a backlight. Photo credit: Thomas Schmid
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“Signal”, front and back; scanning the QR code printed on the “freshness seal” and focusing the mobile device camera on the “native brave” design engages a surprising AR effect. Photo credit: Ohserase Manufacturing LLC
Brand security is becoming increasingly important in markets awash with illicit products. Tobacco Asia presents two mind-blowing add-on solutions.
Whether it is cigarettes, cigars, heated tobacco, or vaping products – brand security is getting increasingly crucial in the uphill battle against illicit and counterfeit products. As criminals become more sophisticated and creative, brand owners have no choice but to add ever more security layers of brand protection. But, they have to be cost effective.
Only tobacco and water
Signal is the flagship cigarette brand of US company Ohserase Manufacturing LLC. The firm is operated by Native American Mohawks and prides itself on its products’ authenticity.
“We are taking tobacco back to our Native American roots and how it was originally enjoyed – with no preservatives, coatings, casings, conditioners, or extra flavorings,” executive vice president Justin Tarbell told Tobacco Asia during a recent interview. “We honor our heritage by providing [a product] which contains only two ingredients [in its blend]: tobacco and water.” As such, Signal is in trend with growing demand for all-natural, organic products. Apart from Signal (which, by the way, is available as loose rolling tobacco and filtered cigars as well), the company presently also markets the cigarette brands Niagara’s and Great Country, the loose tobacco brand Farmer’s Gold, Ten-Pointer pipe tobacco, and loose tobacco and filtered cigar brand Dean.
QR code scans reveals a “secret”
But back to Signal. At a casual glance, its fliptop hardbox may look nothing out of the ordinary, the most prominent design element being that of a Native American warrior holding a lit torch in his outstretched arm. But it is exactly that warrior figure that holds a surprise, as it can be animated with a digital technology known as “augmented reality” (AR). To trigger it, the consumer uses a mobile device’s camera to simply scan a QR code emblazoned on a label pasted across the pack. While Ohserase calls that tag a “freshness seal”, it rather is what industry jargon would describe as a “closure label”.
In any case, the QR code opens a dedicated website; and magic happens. With the camera still pointing at the warrior, he suddenly begins to animate, waving his lit torch in a… well… “signal” gesture (get it?). The cigarette pack can be tilted and pivoted without losing the AR effect – unless the angle becomes too steep and obscures the warrior image. The important thing of note here is that no app needs to be downloaded and installed; neither does scanning the QR code prompt for such action.
“We discovered AR as a possible platform when we were looking for additional ways to dif-ferentiate Signal from other brands,” recalled Ohserase’s director of marketing, Jerry Straub. “And after researching that AR is expected to be in use by 1.73 billion individuals by 2024, we wanted to align our brand with this new feature to engage with consumers more directly.”
The magic behind AR
AR begins with a camera-equipped device – a smartphone, ipad, smart glasses, etc. – being pointed at a static image. The captured data is sent to the remote software in real time, its computer vision technology examining the streaming video received from the camera and recognizing a par-ticular object, e.g. that torch-wielding warrior on the Signal pack. While there exist various types of AR-capable programs, Ohserase chose a tracking (a.k.a. marker-based) platform. Marker-based AR requires prior knowledge and recognition of the environment – in this case Signal‘s warrior figure.
As the image is being captured, the AR application also tracks the subtle camera movements that occur while the user is pointing the smartphone lens at the design. The virtual content stored in the software – i.e. the warrior animation – subsequently is seamlessly “superimposed” over the static package design, giving the convincing illusion that the warrior figure begins moving. As the software continues tracking the camera image, the animation even adjusts as the tilt changes. The effect only fails once the angle becomes too flat, obscuring or distorting the tracked reference image.
Brand PR without annoying app download
The baffling AR effect is not the end, of course. A while after the viewer has been wooed and awed by the “brave” (as Ohserase calls the warrior figure), additional tabs appear at the bottom of the screen, linking to a brand video, the company website, and the “Join the Tribe” loyalty platform. The user then has the option to click those links “in order to learn more about the brand and get more information around promotions and items of interest, such as Native American culture,” according to Straub. “We also have other AR features in the planning process for 2023, with an updated 3D version and additional links to help drive more brand awareness and engagement,” he added.
Meanwhile, Justin Tarbell said it was important to point out that the AR software does neither access nor store any personally identifiable data. “Among the only information the application gathers are the device location, the number of times the [QR] code has been scanned and when, as well as the operating system of the device that reads the code,” he assured. Tarbell also said that from Ohserase’s perspective, not needing to install an app for viewing the AR feature and other information was “a very positive thing.” “We believe it is critical that our consumers have extremely easy engagement with the brand… and asking them to download an app is cumbersome and intrusive.” Not to mention that it also is annoying (at least in the opinion of this writer), as seemingly every mom-and-pop store, every gas station and every online shop nowadays solicits for installing their apps.
AR feature’s cost “does not outweigh its benefits”
The brand security value of AR lies in the difficulty to design and reproduce it, of course, including the “software applications needed for creating visual effects,” as Straub observed. But although he conceded that “it is not difficult to copy a QR code,” he also added that even if that happened, it “always will point the user to the content that we control.” In other words, misappropriating an existing QR code is a pointless exercise for any would-be scammer. “Of course, we could build in a secondary authentication factor [into the code] to authenticate the product from counterfeits,” Straub said. “But the main reason why we put the QR code on our ‘freshness seal’ [instead of printing it directly onto the hardbox itself] is because that makes it more difficult to reproduce.”
So… how expensive is the integration of an AR feature as an added brand security measure? Well, while there indeed are incremental costs associated with the process, in the opinion of Straub they “do not outweigh the benefits.” However, he also emphasized that in the case of Signal, this was not a “one-and-be-done” marketing campaign. “For us, it is an embarkation into an ongoing engagement with the consumer. Content is key, and the goal is to take [customers] on a meaningful journey into the brand. Other companies are looking to cut costs, but we want to invest in features that differentiate us from our competitors while highlighting the authentic nature of Signal.”
A very attractive BOPP film feature
BOPP (biaxially oriented poly propylene) films are widely used in the industry for packaging, including shrink-wrapping individual packs and boxes, whether for cigarettes or any other tobacco or electronic smoking product. Chinese outfit Suzhou Image Technology Co. Ltd. (SIT) has been in the laser optical imaging business for well over a decade, primarily supplying government agencies, certification institutions, and the financial sector with specialized security solutions such as holograph-enhanced lamination foils and films. One of the firm’s latest offerings is a BOPP film in which images of any kind - for example brand logos or decorative patterns - are “embedded” in the actual material structure.
“It’s a new and creative technical product that few people [in the to-bacco sector] have heard about, although it is not too expensive,” SIT’s c.e.o., Hu Zuyuan, told Tobacco Asia. He confirmed that while the specialized film was already widely in use as a security feature for official documents such as optical shrink ID cards, passports, bank cards, even banknotes, it is so far still ”very uncommon” for tobacco product packaging. This may have to do with the fact that people continue to be under the misconception that heat-sensitive shrink-wrapping film and heat-generating laser beams do not make for good bedfellows.
It’s all in the micro nano structure
However, Gong Chunyan, SIT’s production manager, dispelled these concerns. “We have overcome the difficulty in ‘marrying’ BOPP film with laser optical imaging,” she assured. “Firstly, we improved and optimized the performance of BOPP raw materials so that no ‘shrinkage effect’ occurs during the initial hot-forming of the micro nano structure, the difficulty being in the matching of the structural frequency and shrinkage,” she elaborated. “In fact, BOPP film with embedded holographic patterns now can meet the requirements of high-speed packaging shrinkage after being heated twice.”
To embed the selected image in the modified BOPP film, the artwork first must be converted “into engineering drawings that can process micro nano structures,” according to Gong. “Due to the large amount of data, we usually need software programming to achieve this,” she said, “and the production of the master plate is often similar to that of the semiconductor lithography process, in which the laser is just an energy release device, with which a metal impression template is formed through electrochemical deposition.” The resulting master plate is then coated on a steel molding roller while the film surface is formed with the same micro nano structure as the master plate by heating and pressurizing. “This micro nano structure is colored to form specific graphic information; in other words, the now embedded image,” said Gong,
Electron beam processing equipment is used because the already mentioned lithography process often has to be adjusted in line with the constantly improving resolution of micro and nano structures in the security printing arena. “It’s extremely sophisticated hardware and operating software,” asserted Gong, adding that “it is said that the security and anti-counterfeiting performance [of such equipment] is therefore very high.” But, the process and material settings deployed are also crucially important. “For BOPP optical shrink film, the molding temperature should be as low as possible so to keep its packaging shrinkage rate intact,” Gong pointed out.
Practically impossible for counterfeiters to reproduce
In Gong’s opinion, the specialized film is ideal to serve as an additional brand security layer for product packaging – that is, where it is permitted. Obviously, in markets where plain packaging is mandatory for tobacco products, a shrink film embedded with brand logos (or “attractive design elements”) would be a definite no-go. Yet, where it can be lawfully applied it provides brand security of the highest level, its production being so complicated and requiring such technical expertise that no counterfeiters in their right mind would dare dabbling with it. However, Gong also admitted that, depending on order volume, this type of BOPP film is “about 1.5 to 2 times more expensive than regular film, because the manufacturing cost of the micro nano structure master is relatively high.” However, she also asserted that the master plate’s service life “invariably is very long, thus setting off its production cost when large volumes of the film are ordered.”
The circumstance that apart from some Chinese cigarette brands practically no tobacco product brands anywhere else are presently using this advanced technology could be an attractive reason for trying it out. After all, “beside its high-level security function, we should not forget that this optical shrink film also lends a brand an enormously colorful, dynamic, and 3D packaging style, which helps it stand out on the shelves,” suggested Hu Zuyuan. “It’s, as we say, a very eye-catching effect.”