From:Packaging World

First came PET bottles with direct digital print for Martens' Dagschotel "talking bottles." Now comes a PET bottle capitalizing on this advanced new printing technology on Martens' own Pils.

Direct Print Powered by KHS™ is the name of the technology behind Bocholt, Belgium-based Martens’ notable initiative with its PET bottles. By eliminating labels, the brewery arrives at a more visually appealing and premium look that says “cool” while also scoring sustainability points with the elimination of extra packaging components.

“We are driven by innovation in new technologies, processes and products,” says Jan Martens of Martens Brewery. “Direct Print technology replaces the label of our standard Pils, and we are now creating a more premium look and feel for our own brand.”

With the packaging change for Martens Pils PET bottles, the Belgian brewer is taking its innovative approach to marketing one step further. In the summer of 2015 Martens introduced Dagschotel beer by breathing virtual life into its high-quality digitally printed PET-bottles with the help of a specifically developed smartphone app.

The app recognizes pixel patterns on the decorated bottles to bring enhanced virtual reality to packaging with animated bottles. Single bottles printed with characters from the Flemish TVsitcom “F.C. Kampioenen” brought some fun, and then scanning two bottles together brought lively exchanges between the movie characters printed on the bottles.

This Dagschotel campaign raised great interest in the beverage industry – innovative consumer interactivity magnified by the revolutionary technology Martens used to bring it to life: Direct Print Powered by KHS™, which is the first industrial-scale, digital printing process with low-migration LED UV-cured inks for foodsafe industry that KHS and their digital printing technology codevelopment partners have dedicated ten years to.

“We are pleased to see Martens switch from labels to Direct Print for their brand and really like the resulting premium positioning of PET with minimalist digital decoration,” explains Phil Johnson, Managing Director NMP Systems. "We greatly appreciate Martens innovation vision and look forward to even more digital decoration

consumer engagement ideas-- coming soon.”

The Direct Print team at KHS will be bringing new technical features to their next-generation equipment, which will go to Martens mid- 2016. This will bring even higher-quality decorations and the capability to individualize each bottle with variable image capability – at a higher level of industrial performance.