Evolving market dynamics, such  as COVID-19, regulations,  customer expectations and the  growing sustainability agenda,  have elevated the push for  product digitization higher than  ever on C-suite agendas. 

Packaging can make even passive  products become smart and  connected products, enabling  brands to weave a ‘digital thread’  for multi-directional interactions  throughout the product lifecycle. 

This can ensure a route to the  creation of a virtuous loop of  downstream and upstream value  generation and data sharing. 

As Managing Director of the global  Active & Intelligent Packaging  Industry Association (AIPIA), I see  significant growth potential for  this industry and many new and  interesting business cases coming  up. AIPIA’s original mission to  decimate supply chain costs,  reduce waste and increase its  members’ profitability through the  implementation of smart  packaging technologies is still  relevant. But new market  dynamics are creating both a push  and a pull for more smart  packaging solutions. 

Over the last 10 years, our industry  was very much driven by the  smart technology solution  providers, which is typical for a  relatively new industry. Today,  brands are taking much more  notice of how smart connected  packaging relates to these  shifting market dynamics. 

But knowing how to utilize this  understanding and effectively  implement these technologies  may not be immediately apparent. 

The basic technologies used for  much smart packaging such as  RFID, NFC and QR codes are  already long-established in the  market. Sadly, myths about smart  connected packaging have  created misconceptions about  their capabilities and cost  effectiveness. These myths are  now being dispelled and brands  are beginning to see real value  creation potential. They have  fewer and weaker reasons for not  digitizing their product  experiences though packaging  innovation. Indeed, many are now  seeing this as an imperative. 

In this report, Accenture has  collated the evidence showing  that brands initiating smart  connected packaging are  achieving much better results  than those who aren’t – across a  range of outcomes and business  functions. Readers will be left in no  doubt that CxOs should be  shifting their perceptions of  packaging from merely functional  to truly transformational – reinventing how packaging is  perceived and how it is utilized – just as the title of this report  suggests.