Our research showed that consumers are unwilling to engage with technology built into drinks bottles unless it offers a seamless experience. NFC provided the best solution from both an implementation and a user experience point of view.

When a consumer tapped the sunset on the front of the bottle with their NFC-enabled Android phone, they were taken to a custom microsite, featuring five content experiences, with no need to download an app.

Shoppers could enter an instant-win for a set of UE Boom speakers, upload a 'Summer You' snap to win a holiday to Barbados, download a playlist, find a list of local bars (higher temperatures brought bars with beer gardens to the top of the results) or look-up cocktail recipes.

The instant win saw users shaking their phones to release coconuts from a tree before they broke open to deliver prizes, while the playlists differed according to consumer location.

45,000 connected Malibu bottles went on sale across 1,600 UK Tesco stores from 1 September, 2016. Each bottle was transformed into a unique direct marketing, digital touchpoint, with the ability to drive localised content, providing an entirely new way to communicate creatively with consumers.

The user benefited from a simple and seamless experience to interact with compelling Malibu brand content via their smartphone.

Removing the need to download an app or scan a QR code by opting for a tag-based solution meant that any NFC-enabled Android phone could be used to instantly unlock five different mobile content experiences.

To encourage interaction, Malibu strategically based the language in its communication around ‘tapping’. This, coupled with the compelling branded content offer, plus the ease of access, drove successful mobile interaction and consumer adoption. The number of units made this the largest global deployment of NFC on consumer packaging in alcohol to date.

In just three months, the microsite recorded 2,376 visits via mobile devices (50% entered the Instant Win). The NFC interactions equated to over and above typical rates for mobile engagement in the drinks sector (2% versus 0.5%). Almost a quarter downloaded a recipe or accessed a playlist, while 5% went a step further and uploaded a ‘Summer You’ snap for the chance to win the Barbados holiday. The results also provided key insights into what Malibu consumers are most interested in, as well as large swathes of purchasing and demographic data (28% of interactions came from London, with the remainder spread evenly across the UK).

Parent company, Pernod Ricard is now replicating our connected bottle technology across other brands in international markets. On 14 February, 2017 Jameson Irish Whiskey (also a Pernod Ricard brand) launched its connected bottle offering prizes including the Ultimate Jameson St. Patrick’s Day Experience in Dublin.