MGI achievements in printed electronics honoured with coveted European packaging award

During the prestigious annual Oscars de l’Emballage (Oscars of Packaging) ceremony held November 25 in Paris, France at the Elysée Biarritz Auditorium (just a stone’s throw away from the famous Champs Elysées Boulevard), the MGI Digital Technology Group was awarded the 2019 Oscar in the Printing and Digital Technologies category for its Enhance Your Brand interactive smart-packaging application model. This is the second consecutive year that the MGI Group has been honoured with an Oscar de l’Emballage Award.

The judging panel also highlighted the value of MGI’s technical inkjet contributions to the worldwide packaging industry with a grand prize award. The significance of MGI’s invention of new NFC, RFID and LED “direct-to-packaging” applications with digitally printed electronic innovations impressed the judges as a major advancement for the international converting industry, as well as the global brand marketplace. Created in 1954, the Oscars de l’Emballage are one of the most sought-after industrial awards in the combined international printing industries. Each year a jury composed of professional experts in various packaging sectors gathers together to recognize top business leaders and technology innovators for the most important new products and technical accomplishments.
MGI Group’s breakthrough Enhance Your Brand smart-packaging application
Originally presented at the 2019 LuxePack Monaco exhibition (the premier European packaging event for creative packaging innovations), MGI’s Enhance Your Brand application process consisted of directly printing an NFC antenna electronic circuit on a package with conductive ink, and then placing on it a strip of radiant LED circuits. This unique, patented MGI technique makes it possible for the first time to “print” internet connectivity directly onto a package for tracking supply chain status, automatically generating retail transaction data, and implementing security, anti-counterfeiting protection procedures – with an interactive illuminated surface to catch consumer attention and drive purchasing in store-shopping environments. With MGI’s technical process, this can all be accomplished without batteries to maintain long-term intelligence for major brand owners and their target customers. All of these capabilities represent a landmark step forward in the concept of “smart packaging” applications – and the rapidly accelerating movement towards new print manufacturing and product distribution models that can integrate commerce and information with online, mobile and physical shopping locations.

At the Oscars de l’Emballage presentation ceremony, Jean-Marc Dahan, MGI France Sales Director, warmly thanked the jury for the award, emphasizing the fact that MGI, as a French company and world-leading manufacturer of digital printing and embellishment equipment, generated 93% of its annual revenue in 2018 from exported products – and invested nearly 20% of those funds directly back into R&D and new-product development.

Frédéric Soulier, Director of MGI Digital Labs, explained that MGI, in addition to its various current hardware products, was also developing new software applications, IT cloud services and data analytics programs in parallel with its unprecedented digital printed electronics technologies. The strategic goal is to facilitate future relationship-building communications between brands and their customers in the marketplace and throughout the entire supply chain.