Smart Packages Ready to Put on a Show

What if the next time you walked into a music store, a compact disc sang to you? Or you reached for some beauty cream at the department store and the package began to glow, enticing you with a tiny video invitation to rediscover lost youth?

Wouldn’t you at least stop and think about buying those products?

International Paper Co. is betting you would.

The Purchase, N.Y.-based company has signed a licensing deal with an Israeli firm, Power Paper Ltd., that soon could bring light, sound and other special effects to the packages of some consumer products. The key is new ultra-thin flexible batteries that can be “printed” on packages like ink.

Both companies expect the disposable batteries to help product manufacturers use packaging more effectively to entice consumers.

“The No. 1 reason [for using the batteries in packaging] would be the marketing advantage that would allow you to reach consumers one more time with an advertising or marketing or promotional message,” said Jenny Boardman, an International Paper spokeswoman.

The batteries might be used in CD packages wired to play song samples when a customer picks them up or to enliven game cards handed out at fast food restaurants.

Packages powered by the new batteries could show up on store shelves by late summer. Boardman said International Paper is running trials but has not yet signed deals with any customers.

Power Paper says it is preparing to start Hong Kong-based production this year.

Neither company would comment on the terms of their agreement.

The new battery will be used first in novelty items but the idea is rooted in practicality. It began taking shape seven years ago when Power Paper co-founder Baruch Levanon was hired by a medical supply company to help develop a stick-on device to deliver insulin through the skin of diabetics.

The challenge was to find a power source strong enough to push large insulin molecules into the skin but small enough to wear comfortably. That half-inch-thick miniature battery soon will be on the market, Levanon said, though he wouldn’t provide further details.

But Levanon and his partners didn’t stop there.

They kept working on their own, developing a battery only about half a millimeter thick consisting of five layers of zinc and manganese dioxide.

The material can be printed on an ordinary press and is safe for disposal, said Levanon, whose privately held company is based at Kibbutz Einat in suburban Tel Aviv.

International Paper, whose packaging business accounts for 27% of industry sales, has tried to add zip to product boxes by adding holograms, embossing designs or die-cutting packages so they’re not always square.

The creation of e-packaging, complete with light and sound, continues that evolution, Boardman said.

The newfangled containers are part of a broad trend known as “smart packaging,” using technology to allow products to communicate with manufacturers, retailers and consumers, industry consultant Mark

Niemiec said.

Companies already use packages equipped with small devices to sound an alarm if an item is being stolen. In the future, such devices could be widely used to track movement of products or allow a home refrigerator to detect and respond to items placed inside, he said.

While innovations such as e-packages will be costly at first, he said the expense will decline over time and could make sense to consumer products companies who spend big on marketing.

“We are clearly at the doorstep of this new interactive type of smart packaging, and I think in the next decade we’re going to see tremendous developments in this area,” said Niemiec of Global Packaging Innovations in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

The new thin battery also fits into an industry trend, with manufacturers continuously miniaturizing products and looking for ever smaller power sources that fit inside, said Tom Chesworth, president of Seven Mountains Scientific Inc., the Boalsburg, Pa.-based publisher of Advanced Battery Technology magazine.

Chesworth said the new battery is the first flexible power source he’s seen but it’s not clear yet how useful it will be: “When I saw it, it was a solution looking for a problem and it may still be.”

But Levanon said there are myriad uses for his company’s batteries.

Eventually, he said, it could be used to power smart tags on products, allowing companies to track individual items as they are shipped and are placed on the store shelf. It also might be used for disposal products for medical diagnosis.

“Once you have a power source . . . that is thin and flexible, then it opens a whole range of microelectronics uses,” Levanon said.

Such utility will come at a price.

Equipping packaging with a battery and the microelectronics for simple audiovisual effects will add 20 cents to $1 to the cost of each item, Levanon said. That is substantially more than most packaging costs, but perhaps reasonable if seen as part of a company’s marketing budget, he suggested.