Drinks cans are a practical form of packaging, offering a durable and infinitely recyclable way for brands to store their products. But as the drinks can has evolved, it has become much more than this. Cans are now 360-degree billboards offering a direct way to promote a brand’s messaging to customers with eye-catching designs.
The world’s first free online drinks can design app ‘CanCreator’, which has been launched by the UK Can Makers, aims to make it easy for designers to create and share their can creations in 3D.
Whether it’s the latest soft drinks company or an up and coming beer brand, the app offers a variety of tools to create new can designs which will grab consumers’ attention and differentiate the products on-shelf.
As technology has developed, innovative printing methods such as thermochromic inks have become available to designers. These heat-sensitive designs reveal messaging as the temperature of the can changes and can be created as part of the app.
Thermochromic designs, which have been used by a number of brands, transform drinks cans into powerful marketing tools. The tactile element of these designs encourages consumers to engage with a brand at the point of purchase and interact physically with the can and the company’s messaging.
As consumers shop for drinks they are faced with a vast number of products, so it is vital that drink brands use striking packaging to clearly distinguish their products from others on-shelf. Research from Integer Group shows that 90 per cent of shoppers buy items that weren’t on their shopping list when they first entered the store, so it is clear that engaging packaging can prompt consumers to make an unexpected purchase.
By making can design accessible to anyone, the ‘CanCreator’ app means the next ground-breaking can design could be created by you.
The app is now available for free online and to download for Mac and PC at www.cancreator.com.