Coincident with the last two March 8 International Women’s Days, Hershey Brazil has been actively leveraging the power of digital printing in a campaign that uses chocolate bar packaging to promote and value female talent. Partnering with Hershey in developing the campaign is agency BETC Sao Paulo.
Hershey Brazil has capitalized on digital printing of flexible film as a way of celebrating female talent during International Women’s Day.
The converter printing the flow-wrap packaging on an HP Indigo 20000 is Camargo Cia de Embalagens Ltda. The structure is a reverse-printed polyester laminated to white BOPP. The roll-fed 20000 is capable of handling media thicknesses from 10 to 250 microns and web widths to 30 inches at speeds to 19,500 sq ft/hr in four-color mode. It produces print quality that rivals offset and gravure. And because it’s a digital press that requires no printing plates, it opens up numerous opportunities for short-run quick-change production.
In some ways the springboard for this campaign was the simple recognition that embedded in “Hershey” are the pronouns “Her” and “She.” Seizing on this fortuitous coincidence, Hershey developed a campaign called #HerSheGallery that transforms a chocolate bar’s otherwise humble flow wrapping into a space to expose and celebrate the work of female musicians, illustrators, poets, and photographers during the month in which International Women’s Day falls.
Printed for the “Her/She” campaign in 2020 were 30,000 chocolate bar wrappers with the work of six artist/influencers: Illustrators Ana Flávia (@affnana) and Alessandra Lemos (@loleland);. writer Luiza Mussnich (@luizamussnich); poet Camila Lordelo (@euliricas); and musicians Yzalú (@yzalu) and Bruna Mendez (@brunamendez). The packaging artwork for the two musicians included a QR code linked to their current singles. Yzalú (@yzalu) is also the voice behind the video promoting the campaign (pwgo.to/6061).
 | Watch a "Take 5" video with Matt Reynolds on Hershey's Her/She Campaign. |
For the 2021 “Her/She” campaign, Hershey expanded considerably, as 320,000 chocolate bar wrappers were digitally printed with the work of eight new female artists. “We also added a Virtual Reality component to bring an emotional tone to the campaign,” says Larissa Diniz, Hershey LATAM Marketing Director. “It was a QR Code that led to virtual content highlighting each artist’s story of challenges they had to overcome, thus creating a connection to the reality of thousands of women.”
For both campaigns, the chocolate bars in their digitally printed wrappers were available for a limited time in select stores of Grupo Pão de Açúcar and through Hershey’s e-commerce platform at www.hersheys.com.br. To broaden the reach of the campaign, Hershey populated the featured artists’ work throughout its social media network. The brand also encouraged other women to post their work using the hashtags #HerShe and #HerSheGallery.
PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO (Sept. 27-29, Las Vegas Convention Center) will reunite the packaging and processing community, offering new products, technologies and solutions, while implementing up-to-date protocols for a safe and successful in-person event. Attendee registration opens in May.
Felipe Toledo, Business Director at Camargo Cia de Embalagens, says the Hershey campaigns provide a perfect example of what brand owners can accomplish through digital printing. He notes that one other Hershey project, quite separate from #HerSheGallery and executed in 2020, was the HEROES campaign. This was a run of 5,000 chocolate bar wrappers that went to frontline workers battling COVID-19. Go to pwgo.to/6062 to view a YouTube video.
One of Hershey’s digital printing campaigns in 2020 honored the many first responders battling COVID-19.
According to Diniz, the three digital printing campaigns that Hershey has executed so far taught the brand a lot about distribution, logistics, and deadlines. “We want to bring more and more initiatives like this in the years to come,” she adds. “Our goal is to take part in the discussion of relevant topics to our society and raise the audience’s attention to positive conversations in the search for relevant change.”
