Labelzine: Message on a bottle

Do you ever tap your fingers on a tabletop between sips while drinking a bottle of water or juice? Well, believe it or not, advertisers now want to communicate with consumers in those few seconds as well!

Mini magazines or booklets, known as Labelzine, which can be pasted onto product packs with product information and advertising, reach out to consumers as a new marketing tool in India.

Labelzine is a trademark of On Product Publishing (OPP) International, Melbourne, Australia. The award winning innovation converts the space on a product into a media and communication space, bringing the worlds of packaging and publishing together.

With Labelzine, brands can emphasise product visibility on the shelves, attract shoppers through innovation, offer surprises and rewards to consumers and achieve reach since people tend to get rid of the usual direct marketing leaflets but not the actual products.

Manisha Sharma, general manager, strategic planning and development, Select Group, tells afaqs!, "Today's consumer is looking to get more value for his money. It has thus become imperative for brands to create a distinct image for their products versus competition and thereby stand out. Labelzine gives brands this platform as it allows a brand to interact effortlessly with its consumer and create greater engagement value."

Labelzine allows a four to 32 page glossy removable magazine to be included inside the label of consumer goods packages. It can be adapted to suit packaging on most media, be it PET and glass bottles, or cartons. Brands may run innovative and extended on-pack promotions or even partner with a publisher and have a popular magazine on a product.

For example, in April 2007 in Europe, Coca-Cola joined hands with Sanoma Magazines to create the world's first soft drink combined with a magazine. Coca-Cola Light 500ml PET bottles on sale in Belgium had a free copy of a special mini edition of GLAM*IT magazine attached to the bottle (GLAM*IT being Belgium's leading young and glamorous fashion title). L'Oreal in Denmark had also successfully carried out a Labelzine promotion with a prominent magazine.

In 2009, vitamin drink pro-v tied up with a lifestyle magazine, Time Out Delhi, in India. One of Labelzine's recent and bigger FMCG users in India has been Marico for its Parachute Advanced Hair Oil, where it created a mini magazine during the festival of Holi, giving hair care tips for the season.

About Marico's experience while using the on-product medium, Sameer Sathpathy, head, marketing, Marico, says, "Labelzine gives us a great medium to speak to our consumers and offers good flexibility. It allows us to micro manage consumers."

Sharma suggests, "Labelzine allows the partner brand to creatively reach its consumers, where one can enclose a fridge magnet or promotional coupons as well. This is also a very effective medium for alcohol brands, allowing them to stick interesting cocktail booklets on their bottles, which will surely have a retain value for consumers."

She also shares that depending on the size and number of pages in the magazine, the cost of each label starts at about Rs 2-3, going up to Rs 15 per label; this includes everything such as printing, paper and sticker rolls. An advertiser needs to order a minimum of 10,000 copies.

The size and shape of the Labelzine depends on the product it needs to be placed on. Once the Labelzine size is finalised, the company/brand/FMCG or publishing entity mutually creates the Labelzine artwork and sends it to the Select Group for further specialised printing at the factory.

Once printed, these are delivered at a client's factory for application on the product in roll feed form, which means that these are made to fit production lines and are not pasted on manually. The OPP Labelzine can be printed only in 15 printing facilities across the world, including one in India at Ahmedabad.

For now, Labelzine is a novel advertising medium, still in its nascent stages of gaining ground in India. Sharma reveals that the year 2010 looks good and the company plans to undertake interesting promotions nationwide with a few beverage and FMCG leaders.