“Oh, the places you’ll go,” kicks off the decidedly whimsical pitch for Tetra Pak’s latest aseptic liquid container. A bright, fun dimensional mailer promises CPG brand managers the opportunity to take their customers on the kinds of adventures the exceptionally large demographic of drink (and soup, and smoothie) consumers crave. It’s a roundabout way to pitch the merits of a new design, the DreamCap, which sits at a slight angle for easier drinking and fewer nose-to-container collisions.
Tetra Pak marketers reasoned that if its communications focus solely on the technical merits of the new cap design, potential clients will see the food packaging and processing company as nothing more than a packaging supplier. “We didn’t want to tell [prospective clients] about a package. We want to talk about what millennials are doing, thinking, and buying, and offer a solution to meet those needs,” says Larine Urbina, communications manager at Tetra Pak US and Canada. “We want to demonstrate our broad expertise in marketing and product formulation, not just sell a package.”
Prospects who received the mailer had to go on a bit of an adventure themselves: The product sample—a square-base, octagonal-bodied half-liter package—is buried several layers deep in the dimensional mailer. The coated-paper aseptic package and plastic cap have negligible weight, so the mailer’s inner box is larded to give the overall package an intriguing heft.
More eye-catching is the ample use of whitespace and bright colors, and an accordion foldout with a variety of images of millennials leading active lifestyles and generally having a good time. Designed by gyro, the foldout is meant to mimic an Instagram feed in style and substance. “This is a hyper-targeted campaign where we’re talking to just a few people who feel they’ve seen, heard, and done it all in their industry,” says Mike Tittel, executive creative director at gyro. “We worked very hard to turn the creative into something unexpected, but also something that the [prospects] don’t have to decipher.”
The mailer is the jumping-off point to a content marketing portal that offers additional design concepts, lifestyle illustrations, and product features. The heavy emphasis on reaching Millennials is consistent throughout, both to help brand managers crack the nut of securing more market share from the outsize demographic, and to recognize the reality that millennial-age individuals are increasingly key decision-makers on the job. “We want [prospective clients] to be able to envision their product in our package, knowing that they need to stand out to the Millennial market,” Urbina says. “And we are consciously aware that many of these marketers are millennials themselves.”
Investing in the oversize, design-heavy DreamCap campaign was well worth it for Tetra Pak, because the company is up against a powerful wave of consolidation in its target markets. That makes it more important than ever to make a strong impression with every marketing touch. “We may target multiple brands under one [holding] company, but in most cases we don’t target more than one person per brand,” Urbina says.
That’s why shipping only 72 sample kits to qualified leads rates as a success. Including click-throughs from two associated emails about DreamCap, Tetra Pak’s campaign garnered more than 500 responses from its target audience. “Getting a sample package in the mail can be really dull if it isn’t executed well,” Urbina says. “Whoever you’re marketing to, even in the B2B space, everyone’s a consumer and you need to keep it interesting.”
