How do you introduce an unfamiliar product when consumers cannot see what they are buying?
Signature Mixers needed to attract attention inside an environment where hundreds of products compete for a few seconds of consideration.
The packaging contained four bottles, but remained closed on the shelf. That created an information gap.
A consumer could see the pack, but could not easily discover each flavour, understand how the different mixers could be used or explore the story behind them.
For something new, discovery mattered.
The challenge was therefore not simply how to advertise Signature Mixers.
It was how to turn curiosity at the supermarket shelf into immediate product understanding.
The physical packaging had limited space.
The digital experience did not.
Putting more information on the box would not necessarily solve the problem. More text could make the packaging harder to understand. Screens installed around every retail location would create another layer of infrastructure.
And in 2019, QR-code interaction had not yet become the widespread consumer reflex it would become after the pandemic.
We saw another possibility. Smartphones already contained technology capable of connecting a physical object directly with digital information.
NFC could remove several steps from that interaction. The consumer would not need to search for the product online or manually enter an address.
Instead of fitting the entire story onto the packaging, the packaging could open the door to the story.
Connect the supermarket shelf directly to the digital product experience.
BAMHUB conceived a connected packaging experience using an NFC chip integrated into the Signature Mixers pack.
The retail presentation was designed to attract attention to the new product and invite shoppers to interact with it.
By bringing their smartphone close to the packaging, consumers could access the corresponding digital experience directly.
The application could then reveal what the closed box could not: each bottle, each flavour, its characteristics, how it could be mixed, cocktail inspiration and recipes, the story behind the different creations, and additional information difficult to communicate clearly on the physical packaging alone.
One physical gesture connected the shelf with an entire layer of product information.
Discover the product before opening the box.
The experience was designed around the moment of hesitation in front of the supermarket shelf.
A shopper notices something unfamiliar. Stops. Interacts with the packaging.
And immediately moves from seeing a box to understanding the products inside it.
Rather than creating a generic Coca-Cola destination, the interaction was conceived to take users directly into the relevant Signature Mixers experience.
From there, they could explore the four bottles individually and understand how each one could be used.
The smartphone effectively became a temporary extension of the packaging.
Physical retail generated curiosity. Digital interaction provided depth.
The consumer did not need to open the box to begin exploring what was inside.
A digital idea had to work inside the constraints of real supermarket distribution.
The concept needed to function beyond a presentation or prototype.
It had to coexist with physical packaging, supermarket environments, consumer smartphones and the realities of retail distribution.
BAMHUB therefore considered the complete interaction between the physical point of sale and the digital application: where the interaction begins, how someone understands what to do, how quickly the experience opens, where the consumer arrives, how four products are presented, what information matters at the moment of purchase, and what Coca-Cola can learn from those interactions.
The resulting concept connected packaging, NFC technology, interface design, product content and measurement into one retail experience.
The technology mattered only if it made discovering the product easier.
The experience connected Coca-Cola's product with retail, packaging, technology, content and digital interaction.
Coca-Cola brought the Signature Mixers product, its brand universe and the requirements surrounding its distribution.
BAMHUB developed the connected retail concept and digital experience around the moment consumers encountered the product in supermarkets.
The work required thinking simultaneously about physical packaging, NFC interaction, interface, product information, recipes, content and data.
The objective was not to add technology simply because it was available.
Every layer needed to solve the same problem: help someone standing in front of a new product understand why they should explore it.
A physical retail product gained a digital layer.
The concept transformed the Signature Mixers packaging into a gateway towards a richer product experience.
Consumers could move from the physical pack towards information that could not be communicated as effectively on the box itself. Different flavours could be explored individually. Recipes and potential uses could be explained. The people and thinking behind the products could become visible.
And the interaction itself created a measurable digital touchpoint within a traditionally physical retail journey.
The experience accompanied the product within its distribution context, including markets in Spain and Portugal.
A supermarket shelf became both a physical and digital point of contact.
The interaction created value on both sides of the packaging.
For consumers, the connected experience reduced the information barrier around an unfamiliar product.
Instead of making a purchasing decision based only on what could be seen on the outside of a closed box, they could explore the products and their potential uses before buying.
For Coca-Cola, the interaction created another opportunity. A conventional package provides limited visibility into what happens after somebody looks at it. A connected package can create measurable interactions.
NFC engagement could provide information around how and when people accessed the experience, giving Coca-Cola an additional digital signal around consumer interest and retail engagement.
This created a bridge between physical supermarket distribution and measurable digital behaviour.
A behaviour that still felt unusual in 2019 soon became normal.
The project was conceived before the COVID period transformed consumer familiarity with contactless and scan-based interactions.
At the time, asking supermarket customers to use their phones to unlock information from physical packaging was still a relatively unfamiliar behaviour. That context influenced the choice of NFC.
The objective was to make the interaction as immediate as possible rather than depend on a behaviour consumers had not yet widely adopted.
In the years that followed, connecting physical environments to digital experiences through smartphones became considerably more commonplace.
QR codes became ubiquitous. Contactless interactions became familiar.
Connected packaging became easier for consumers to understand.
What required explanation before 2020 increasingly became an everyday behaviour afterwards.
Innovation is useful when it removes friction between curiosity and understanding.
The Coca-Cola Signature Mixers project was not fundamentally about NFC.
NFC was simply the technology that made sense for the behaviour and context at that moment.
The real question was about the customer journey. Someone sees something unfamiliar. Something makes them stop. Curiosity appears. Then there is a very small window in which that curiosity can either disappear or become understanding.
Our role was to design what happened inside that window.
That principle remains relevant regardless of whether the interface is NFC, QR, a display, an application or a technology that has not yet become mainstream.
The technology changes. The opportunity remains the same: make the next step feel obvious.
Bring us an idea, a problem, a property, capital, an existing business or a project already in progress. We first understand what is already there and then explain what we think should happen next.
The first conversation is free. If we believe BAMHUB can add value, we explain what we recommend, why we recommend it and what it would involve before sending a proposal.