(October 11, 2023)- Tag, the global creative production and channel activation partner to brands worldwide, announced the addition of a Packaging Center of Excellence (CoE) to its Marketing Centers of Excellence.

“Tag’s Packaging Center of Excellence seamlessly connects our many years of award-winning packaging experience with our in-house omnichannel experts,” shares Jan Stollerman, Tag Americas’ Packaging Subject Matter Expert (SME). He continues, “Through a single point of entry, brand marketers and heads of technical packaging have access to Tag SMEs at each packaging touchpoint, from design conception to interactive digital unboxing experiences, which equips them with a wholistic, strategic packaging solution to meet the desires and behaviors of today’s customer.”

With the customer offline and digital experience at the core of every custom packaging strategy, brand marketers have access to creative, design, language services, copy consultation, packaging artwork creation and maintenance, local regulatory compliance, sustainable sourcing, print production, digital content, AR/VR, social media influencers, retail activation, and more. This cohesive CoE approach helps eliminate two crucial packaging challenges brand marketers face: First one being a siloed packaging process where packaging design, sustainable sourcing, and production are often managed by multiple agencies and production partners, and second, how to best leverage the traditional offline unboxing experience with online unboxing engagement technologies such as augmented reality (AR), e-commerce, and user-generated content (UGC).

In addition to customer experience, sustainability continues to be a critical component in the packaging process, especially as the sustainability regulation landscape becomes more complex. Tag Americas Sustainability Director, Emily Stolarcyk, notes, “To achieve the best possible environmental and ecological outcome with packaging, we first consider our clients’ sustainability commitments, country regulations, and customer expectations within the entire packaging design process.” As CPGs contend with rising supply costs and increased environmental guidelines, Stolarcyk explains, “Socially conscious brand marketers and their procurement teams continue to look for design and material options that are sustainable and affordable, and accredited partners to support those needs.”

Brand marketers also need brand consistency sustained throughout the entire packaging process. Tag EMEA Head of Packaging Operations, Jonathan Sebine understands, “Because we understand that branded packaging artwork sits within the full path-to-purchase process, from concept to consumer, we align all concurrent services to deliver within a streamlined workflow, minimizing touchpoints, timings, without compromising quality. Sebine explains further, “The artwork stage regularly gets squeezed on timings so consideration and understanding of the full end-to-end journey ensure you generate the time to spend on producing best-in-class, print-ready packaging artwork from the outset.”

Lee Hill, Tag Director of Operations, Channel Activation (APAC), concludes, “Our global approach to packaging solutions is underpinned by Tag’s Digital Interact (DI) technology, which provides real-time updates throughout the project planning and management stages via DI Campaign, and sustainability management and analysis via DI Planet. As packaging evolves in design, sourcing, production processes, and connected experiences, Tag’s Packaging Center of Excellence is globally positioned to offer CPG brands the packaging design expertise they need, when they need it.”