Diageo Adds Enhanced QR Codes to Ketel One, Pilots Johnnie Walker Lightweighting
Two Diageo brands are rethinking their packaging to be more inclusive and environmentally friendly.
Ketel One is adding enhanced QR codes to a line of ready-to-serve cocktails. The codes are designed to make it easier to identify the products and access product information for consumers who are blind or have low vision.
The accessible QR (AQR) codes can be detected by accessibility apps like Microsoft Seeing AI, Be My Eyes, and Envision. Upon scanning, the user's phone uses text-to-speech and enhanced font sizes to announce the product category and its physical distance from the user.
Product details, specific allergens, and recipe suggestions can also be found in the app, and the company joins such CPGs as WK Kellogg in using such technology to enhance packaging inclusivity.
Johnnie Walker completed a five-year pilot with its Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra bottle which has resulted in the development of its lightest bottle to date.
The new design meant the brand had to rethink its classic square shape to have more of a teardrop design. A limited number (888) will be available in select retail markets.
Though the company noted that the technology is not yet available to launch the bottle at scale, more beverage manufacturers are experimenting with lightweighting glass, as it reduces both manufacturing and transportation costs and resources.
Indeed, the move aligns with Diageo’s broader sustainability goals, which include reducing the weight of glass used in its packaging, and it’s applying pilot learnings across its portfolio. As part of this, it’s making available a license to its lightweighting patent for other companies that wish to leverage the technology.
The company has been actively experimenting with paper-based bottles as well.
