Interactive Holographic Labels Promote Wine Provenance and Fight Fraud
The Background
The National Office of Vine and Vitivinicultural Products (O.N.V.P.V. – Oficiul Naţional al Viei şi Produselor Vitivinicole) oversees national vineyard management and winemaking in Romania and supports the traditions in the production of wine in this designated geographical area.
Meeting the demand from consumers for quality products, the O.N.V.P.V. was looking to promote the provenance of its regional wines and protect drinkers from potential counterfeits.
Across the world, wine fraud is becoming increasingly prevalent, with online sales making it easy for fraudsters to trick consumers and replace genuine wines with fakes.
The Solution
ELTRONIS – Specialty & Security Printing worked with the O.N.V.P.V. to add new interactive holographic labels to wine bottles to both promote the provenance of the region and build protection against potential counterfeit.
The new holographic labels combine an instantly identifiable and visually pleasing holographic brand design with high-level security, including a unique code and serial number that enables verification online and via smartphones.
Consumers simply scan the QR code which is uniquely linked to each bottle of wine. This provides access to a wide variety of information on the wine’s pedigree and production, as well as confirming that it is genuine. If the scanned label contains an invalid or duplicate code, the O.N.V.P.V. is automatically alerted.
ELTRONIS – Specialty & Security Printing used its experience of holographic techniques and materials gained from protecting high security identification documents in the production of these latest holographic label. The design contains multiple security features, making it impossible to reproduce, while the label material allows it to be applied to a variety of different substrates.
With high thermal, mechanical and chemical resistance the label cannot be removed without damaging it, thus making it impossible to reuse on other products. In addition, a special sub-surface printing technique is used for the variable data, making the label both more durable and extremely resistant to potential alteration.
The Results
The new holographic labels from ELTRONIS – Specialty & Security Printing provide a clear brand identity for the O.N.V.P.V., which is easily recognizable on labelled bottles and products within a retail environment.
With the new label design, consumers can interact much more easily via their smartphones, giving them access to the latest information on their wines. This has proved very popular and already led to the annual volume used by winemakers more than doubling – and this upward trend is expected to continue.
The use of holograms to identify and protect products of geographic importance is well known due to their highly visual effect and instant recognition by consumers and with the addition of the QR code, not only are the labels delivering greater brand impact on shelf, their security has been taken to another level, combining the best of physical and digital protection.
