On March 31st, UPM Raflatac hosted a webinar to reflect on how the global pandemic has changed the way people interact with their everyday environment, and how it has lead to new behaviours.

Featured in the session are Richard Waltzer from Mars Wrigley , Jenny Greenwood from Butterfly Cannon , Adam Ryan from Pentawards and Eliisa Laurikainen from UPM Raflatac , who shared their views on the different trends that will shape the future of packaging and design in the new normal.

Here are some of the key themes discussed and highlights:

The impact of Covid-19

Over the last year, we have seen:

• An increased consciousness of waste which is driving people to make changes in how they live. UPM Raflatac have seen a yearly 25% increase in enquiries related to sustainability.
• There has been a significant rise in e-commerce which has resulted in people shifting to a planned purchasing approach rather than impulsive buying.
• The pandemic has accelerated already existing trends in the industry such as sustainability and e-commerce.
• An increased adaptiveness from brands and consumers.

E-commerce

• An increased need to consider how the product looks both on the shelf and the screen, where it is even harder to stand out from the crowd.
  
• An increased need for brands to build engagement and loyalty around the brand rather than products by creating enjoyable and customisable experiences. Mars Wrigley's M&Ms Cardboard Dispenser was shown as an example of distinctive experiential packaging.
  
• The importance of using labels to tell the story of the brand and give more information to the consumer (i.e. through QR codes).
  
• An increased need to create top-notch user-journeys by considering before and after unboxing as well.

Sustainability

Over the last year, the guest experts share what they been working on:

• Pentawards introduced the first ever Sustainable Design Jury for its annual competition
  
• Butterfly Cannon reveals the Conscious Design approach: a bespoke design process to ensure everything they create is as sustainable as it can be. Butterfly Cannon shows the Climatic Table, a tool which helps them prioritising areas of sustainability that clients should focus on.
  
• UPM SmartChoice & SmartCircle: products they work on belong to one or more of these categories: Reduce, Recycled, Renew, Enhanced Recycling.
  
• Mars Wrigley discusses examples of sustainable packagings from M&Ms: Balisto paper-based packaging, new projects for biodegradable packaging, Slim Pouches reducing plastic packaging.

To find out more and to watch the full 'The Future of Packaging Design' webinar from UPM Raflatac, head over to Youtube here . And for any future events by UPM Raflatac, see here .