e.bottle – The bottle of the future.
The German Design Council gave out the German Innovation Award GIA for practical, innovative products that are ground breaking and stand out due to their express user orientation with the intention of making everyday life better and easier. Steklarna Hrastnik received the highest, golden GIA 2021 award for the e.bottle smart bottle project. We convinced the strict panel of expert judges in the “Food & Drinks” category, in the “Excellence in the b2C segment” class.
The e.bottle smart bottle contains the so called electronic tag for multiple use, which combines communication with a smart phone, IoT sensor elements and RBG LED functionality. With these coherently integrated elements, e.bottle dynamically transforms its state as a response to various factors during its life cycle, thus providing a personalised user experience.
e.bottle gives brands a new and advanced opportunity to upgrade their stories, strengthen their brand, track their products, communicate with their end users in an innovative way, improve and upgrade the experience of end users and makes sure that their bottle will standout in any shop, bar or club.
With e.bottle brands will have direct contact with their end users and will be able to identify their user experience. With the support of analytical data, brands will have the opportunity to address individuals as well as groups or markets with different, personalised market campaigns. Brands will thus be able to plan their (digital) promotional activities, market campaigns and analyse the collected data. And they may choose among four different concepts based on their needs and requirements.
e.bottle smart solutions provide many different functionalities
In their explanation the judging panel wrote: “e.bottle is not merely a glass packaging. The smart bottle brings the world of brands to end users. It enables direct communication with consumers and creates an extended user experience that can strengthen the connection with the brand. e.bottle is an interesting, technically perfected marketing tool promising great versatility and the communication potential of modern brands.” The judging panel is composed by top experts from various fields of expertise and with the widest range of professional competences. In this manner professional and completely independent evaluation is ensured. The key criteria in deciding is the focus on the user. 680 German and international companies from numerous areas applied for the GIA 2021, and just being nominated is regarded as a great achievement.
e.bottle is not only a smart bottle or packaging. It is sustainable future. In glass. With the smart bottle you will soon be able to find out where a certain beverage was made, in which barrel it matured, etc. Interactive functions, such as beverage temperature and volume monitoring through the phone, bottle illumination with an integrated LED light in the colour of your choice or flashing of the bottle based on the music in the room – all these features mean added value for the buyer and are intended for special cases of use and promotions.
Peter Čas, Chief Executive Officer of Steklarna Hrastnik, added: “The goal of a project, such as e.bottle, is also to make a mental leap and responsibly raise awareness about the use of glass products and packaging, since this is an important part of the solution to an increasingly greater pressure on the environment with plastic and plastic particles. In the future, glass products must again become one of the main breakthrough factors in the development of circular economy. The integration of an electronic tag in the glass in a manner that also enables reuse, however, represents a novelty and has yet to be launched on the market.”
The bottle of the future will thus also represent a piece in the mosaic of sustainable development and development of circular economy, while glass products in general will have to become one of the breakthrough factors of the development of circular economy in the future.
Interest in finding more about the e.bottle? Click HERE.