Glass bottles in innovative designs are key to creating successful brands, attracting consumers’ attention and setting new trends. This has been demonstrated recently by a number of award-winning glass bottles produced by O-I, the world’s largest glass packaging manufacturer. The awards have been won across many different segments – NAB, beer and wine – around the world, showing the flexibility of glass as a packaging material. With the continuing trend towards premiumization and individualization, new design features – such as O-I’s innovative internal embossing technique – are gaining in importance.

Among the glass bottles to be recognized for their innovation and creativity is the Gize-bottle, which is produced by O-I for the Gize mineral water from Canadian Mineral Water S.A. (CMW). It has this year received a total of ten national and international awards, including the Gold Pentaward 2011. The Gize glass bottle triumphed in the “beverages” category, beating almost 1,000 competitors from five continents. It will be displayed in the exclusive Paris DesignPack Gallery and published in “The Package Design Book”, available worldwide.

Design underlines quality of the product insideThe Gize bottle design was the brainchild of advertising agency “Zweipunktnull”, working in close collaboration with O-I. The product is presented in a bottle with an elegant shape, featuring clear lines, a slim, tapered waist and a shoulder and base of the same diameter. 

“The awards Gize has received demonstrate the unrivalled level of design, which underlines the unique quality of the product and the exceptional taste of the mineral water,” says CMW spokesperson Sibylle Erler. “They also show that glass is clearly the right choice for our high-end product. It is pure, inert, and it perfectly preserves the aroma and minerals of our water.”

Awards for O-I innovationsO-I has also won a number of recent awards for its own innovations, developed proactively to differentiate its customers’ brands in the marketplace. A Gold Pentaward 2011 went to the Vortex® bottle - one of the first examples of O-I’s new proprietary internal embossing technology, which enables specially designed grooves to be applied to the inside of the bottle’s neck. Earlier this year, the Vortex® package also received an Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) from the Industrial Designers Society of America. Amongst others, Vortex® is used by US brewery MillerCoors for its Miller Lite beer, Australia’s Gage Roads Brewing Co. for its Wahoo Premium Ale and New Zealand’s DB Breweries for its Tui Blond Lager. 

Other recent design innovations from O-I to receive high profile recognition are its patented Black Glass and its Lean+Green® lightweight range. Independent Distillers’ Three Kings range featuring O-I’s Black Glass recently won the Silver Award in the Beverage category at the 2011 Australian Packaging Design Awards, while O-I’s Lean+Green® wine bottle range was honoured in the Innovation and Supplier of the Year Awards by the Wine Industry Suppliers Australia (WISA).

Advocates from all over the world Earlier this year, O-I launched a global marketing campaign, called Glass is Life™, showcasing the unique qualities of glass packaging, and its unmatched ability to build successful food and beverage brands. The campaign features individuals around the world – CEOs, brand managers, chefs, environmentalists, designers and other opinion leaders – explaining in their own words why glass packaging is so important to them. 

The Italian designer Francesco Lucchese, for example, has a particular soft spot for glass: “It’s beautiful” he says. “The way it catches light, the forms you can make, the way it feels in your hand… there is something eternal about glass.”

Brand/ Glass Packaging produced by O-I Awards in 2011

Non -alcoholic beverages

Gize mineral water bottle produced for Canadian Mineral Water S.A. (CMW)- Gold Pentaward - iF communication design award - iF packaging gold award - red dot award: communication design - finalist award as “Best new food or drink packaging innovation” at the Gulfood Award 2011, Dubai

Bru “water dedicated to the table” mineral water bottle- Bronze Pentaward

Cisowianka - “Luksusowa Marka Roku” (Luxury Brand of the Year) award in Poland

ZUH Robico for its dairy products in glass packaging- Food Industry Award in the “Innovation of the Year” category

Beer

O-I’s Vortex® bottle for MillerCoors’ Miller Lite beer, Gage Roads’ Wahoo Premium Ale and DB Breweries’ Tui Blond Lager - Gold Pentaward- Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) from the Industrial Designers Society of America

Wine

Lean+Green® lightweight wine bottle range developed and produced by O-I - Innovation award by the Wine Industry Suppliers Australia (WISA)

Cross-category and Mixes

Black Glass by O-I for Independent Distillers’ Three Kings Brand- Silver Award in the Beverage category at the 2011 Australian Packaging Design Awards

275mL O-I glass bottle for Diageo Australia’s Classic Mixes range - Gold Beverage Award at the Australian Packaging Design Awards

You will find further information on O-I’s Glass Is Life^TM-campaign on the internet at http://GlassIsLife.com and all of the campaign’s video statements at www.youtube.com/user/GlassIsLife.