64 BREWING & BEVERAGE INDUSTRIES BUSINESS First there was the Kegstar 30ltr stainless steel kegs, then along came the 9G stainless steel casks and now Kegstar has a new addition to the portfolio. 50ltr s-type stainless steel kegs are available to order now and best of all, there are no additional fees for a limited time only, just to get you started. Kegstar introduces 50L kegs to its growing 30ltr keg and 9G cask portfolio Colourful world of cans from Crown CROWN Bevcan Europe and Middle East, a business unit of Crown Holdings, Inc, highlighted a range of innovations to help beverage brands foster interaction with consumers and attract attention at point-of-sale, at drinktec 2017 in Munich in September. It marked the launch of its new ‘Colourful World’ beverage can decorative finish range including a ground-breaking innovative Accents™ range, which uses variable printing technology to enable up to 24 different designs to be produced on a single print run. The new range of finishes is the culmination of bespoke design and development between Crown’s in-house design, printing and technology experts. Show attendees got an insight into how Crown is able to take design concepts from an initial idea through to final product using the expertise of the Crown Technology and European Design Studio teams. Shelf appeal is of ever-greater importance in today’s retail environment, with increasing choice across the beverage industry, brands must go the extra mile to convince consumers to purchase their products and Crown’s new advanced decorative finishes help to drive customer engagement even further. A key focus at the show was the CrownConnect™ family of technologies, which have been designed to help harness the interconnectivity of the digital space, including breakthroughs in Augmented Reality (AR) and the Internet of Things (IoT). The platform includes: • CrownSmart™, an interactive application that allows brand owners to interact with consumers via a unique code situated beneath the tab of a beverage can; • SeeThrough™, which leverages virtual reality to enable consumers to view the contents within a package; and • CrownSecure™, a code scanning system that assigns every package a unique and singular identity quick response (QR) code - helping manufacturers build a data trail to help prove authenticity to consumers and manage product recalls. Crown has worked closely with its IoT Smart Products Platform partner EVRYTHNG, a Platform-as-a-Service company that enables smart products and smart packaging to drive IoT applica- tions, and Zappar – UK-based creators of an app that uses augmented reality (AR) to help people recognise images and objects in the world around us. Matt Twiss, Marketing & Business Development Director at CROWN Bevcan Europe and Middle East, commented: “The major benefit of these technologies is the immediacy with which a brand can connect directly with a consumer. CrownSmart™, for example, begins the process at the very moment a consumer opens the can and scans the code. At this point, brands can start to gather valuable, real-time purchasing and consumption data, including who opened what content and when and where the code was activated. This information allows brands to connect with consumers in ‘real time’ and will, in turn, help brands tailor both current and subsequent campaigns to stay aligned with consumers’ behaviour, desires and needs.” News CONTAINERS www.kegnology.co.uk For more information visit: www.crowncork.com For more information visit: 64_Layout 1 10/11/2017 15:35 Page 1