Multi-pack Combines Two Seemingly Inconsistent Bottles

Originating from Pilsen in the Czech Republic, Pilsner is the most copied and most popular beer style in the world. Like most brewers in the world, Heineken classes its lager as a pilsner.

Being a pale lager of 5% alcohol by volume, the beer is the flagship product of Heineken International and the green bottles are also well-known in the USA. The beer is made from malted barley, yeast and hops, it is then force carbonated.

But what do you do, when you want to sell your beer in the country where pilsner is originated and which country has a long heritage of brewing the best beers in the world.

With the Holiday Season in mind, Heineken decided to go for a gift pack, they brewed a Premium Speciality beer in a 1,5 litre champagne-like bottle and wanted to add 6 standard 0,5 litre bottles of Heineken. And with this marketing decision they created a packaging problem: Design a promotional Multi-pack containing two different types of bottles. The 1,5 litre bottle with the dimensions: 100 mm (4”) diameter and 380 mm (15”) height and the 6 half-litre bottles each with a diameter of 70 mm (2.75”) and a height of 268 mm (10.55”). 

Ondřej Navrátil, a box designer with Smurfit Kappa Olomouc s.r.o. in the Czech Republic came up with a beautiful solution for a multi-pack. The Smurfit Kappa Group is a leading manufacturer of paper based packaging in Europe and Latin America, and headquartered in Dublin/Ireland.

Smurfit Kappa Olomouc constructed a multi-pack from three layers corrugated B flute board with inside dimensions of 321×141x383 mm (12.64”x5.55”x15.08”). Note, that all bottles stand upright. The box height is the height of the premium bottle, the box width the sum of the diameters of two small bottles, and the box length the sum of the diameter of the premium bottle and the diameters of three small bottles.

To secure the bottles and in particular the premium bottle a window was created at one of the corners of the box. By pushing the material inside the insert for the gift bottle became part of the packaging and allowed visualization of the bottle itself. The pushed-in insert also secures the six smaller bottles in the pack.

To solve the problem with the differences in bottle height, Smurfit Kappa created a crate-like top with double folding flaps, which lie on top of the 6 small bottles and feature a hole to secure the large bottle once more.

This attractive and original promotion multi-pack for the 2008 New Year celebration was easy to handle due to the carrying handles, had a good fixation of the bottles, and allowed for a high load capacity enabling optimal palletisation. This multi-pack perfectly combines two seemingly inconsistent types of bottles.

The original construction solution and the interesting graphic design from CD Ogilvy & Mather in Bratislava/Slovakia and printed in offset in four colours and locally dispersed varnish, make this packaging attractive and practical, turning the multi-pack container into an ongoing billboard for the brand.

The packaging was awarded in the prestigious national packaging competition “Obal roku 2008” (packaging of the year 2008) in Czech Republic and by the WPO (World Packaging Organisation) as well.
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