Parksons-HP Indigo Onboxing idea pushes brands to think of packaging, differently

The Onboxing event hosted by Parksons Packaging and HP India was a breakout success for many reasons, but one prominent factor was how it easily lent itself to showcase some creative carton packaging.

28 Dec 2020 | By Noel D'Cunha

(L-r) A Appadurai, Umesh Kagade of HP Indigo India; Siddharth Kejriwal; Christian Menegon of HP Indigo; Ramesh Kejriwal

More than 250 brand representatives and creative agencies of all stripes descended at the Hyatt Grand’s banquet on 21 January 2020 and engaged in understanding the nuances of producing packaging that is capable of immersing the consumer into the product, in two sessions.

Last August, Parksons became the first company in India to take delivery of an HP Indigo 30000 digital press for folding cartons. The new investment will enable Parksons to produce high-quality, B2-format (20x30-inch format) applications allowing brand owners to communicate with end-users customers, provide a lean and agile supply chain, faster speed to the market, including on-pack messages.

Siddharth Kejriwal, director at Parksons, while discussing the Onboxing concept with PrintWeek, said, “Since the last four to five months since we got the machine, it’s been a great learning for us. It’s a mindset change to move from offset to digital printing. And as we're sharing the experiences of the strength this digital printing machine has and the capability it has to provide brand owners with new ideas and create new stories for their product, we felt that there was a need to get everyone together and share this experience in a forum like this, which will allow the brands to start thinking, differently. We believe it's not about just meeting the demand but creating a demand and an opportunity for the brand owners to explore this digital press and that is how this event was orchestrated.”

 

Unboxing videos and the experience of the customers opening the box and getting a wonderful product, has been doing the rounds. But Parksons went a step further and coined the word Onboxing, because according to Ramesh Kejriwal, chairman at Parksons, digital printing is all about what you can do ‘on the box’.

He said, “Imagine today that you are getting a box which is personalised, customised, it has your photograph, it has your name. The Indigo 30000 has got the capability to print every box differently. And that's what technology can do in terms of unboxing experiences. So I think it's a fun element, and as much as the end-users have enjoyed the experience of unboxing, we believe it now time to create onboxing experiences.”

HP India, Parksons’ partner in the Onboxing, has been at the forefront of engaging with the brands, promoting the capabilities of its digital presses. “With Onboxing, we will be adding more emotions, a memorable box, which is going to make the product pay for itself, and for the brands, it will add a lot of functionality. With digital printing, every micron of the box can be different,” said A Appadurai, country manager for HP Indigo in India. He added, “The brands really like to get the eyeballs of the consumer on its products, and Onboxing is a way to do it. That’s the message we want to deliver with this event.”