AuraVeo, the connected packaging platform from Koenig & Bauer, is working with creative agency Appetite Creative and speciality coffee producer El Caficultor to turn each coffee pack into a digital customer engagement and sales channel. The initiative connects retail purchases with direct subscriptions and will be presented exclusively at London Packaging Week on 16–17 September.
Retail and food service brands often lose visibility of consumers as soon as a product is purchased. They may have little information about who bought the item or whether that customer will return. El Caficultor is addressing this challenge by using AuraVeo to connect the physical pack with a direct digital relationship.
Every El Caficultor SKU carries an individual code. After scanning it, consumers access a mobile experience that explains the coffee’s provenance, from its farm and growing altitude to its processing method and tasting profile. The journey then introduces a discounted subscription option.
This connection between packaging and digital content enables El Caficultor to communicate with consumers while they have the product in hand. It also creates a pathway from a single retail transaction to repeat direct revenue. The first phase covers the company’s 100% Arábica range: Cerrado Dulce from Brazil, Sidamo from Ethiopia, La Vereda from Colombia, and its flagship Selva Negra coffee from Nicaragua.
Hosted on AuraVeo’s cloud platform, the experience provides information on cupping scores, varietals and flavour notes before offering a 10% discount on a recurring subscription. Subject to consumer consent, each interaction can also generate first-party data. This gives El Caficultor practical insight into purchasing behaviour across physical retail environments, supporting broader food and drink consumer trends and data-led food and drink marketing.
Unlike a conventional static QR code, AuraVeo enables brands to manage and refresh content in the cloud without producing new packaging. The platform also records and attributes scans to specific products, allowing El Caficultor to assess how consumers engage with each SKU and its associated content. This type of connected packaging reflects wider food and beverage industry trends, including the use of food processing technology and digital tools to strengthen customer relationships.
Appetite Creative developed the label system and connected consumer journey. Instead of positioning the code discreetly on the reverse of the pack, the agency incorporated the AuraVeo QR code into the country-map artwork on the front. A prominent call to action, “ESCANEA Y AHORRA” (“Scan and Save”), explains the benefit to shoppers.
Sandra Wagner, CEO of AuraVeo, said: “Brands put a great deal of valuable information into their products, but much of it disappears once those products reach the shelf. El Caficultor’s packaging is no longer just a container; it’s now a sales channel.
“The important point is that the QR code is not simply a link. It gives the brand a way to keep the experience current, understand consumer behaviour, and give an interested customer a clear next step. For El Caficultor, that means using the story already behind each coffee SKU to create a route from discovery to subscription.”
Julián A. Lozano Sánchez, General Manager at Indian EcoTrade / El Caficultor, added: “Someone buys our coffee, enjoys it, and then we lose them; that has always been the frustration of selling through retail. Now the moment they scan the bag they can read the story of that specific origin and subscribe at a better price, in the same thirty seconds. We go from an anonymous sale to a customer we actually know, and they go from buying once to receiving coffee they love every month.”
Jenny Stanley, Managing Director at Appetite Creative, said: “Most QR codes on packaging are printed at the size of a logistics barcode and hidden on the back next to the recycling symbols. Nobody scans those. We moved it to the front, sat it inside the country map so it reads as part of the design rather than a compliance mark, and put a reason directly underneath it, escanea y ahorra. Before you’ve even lifted your phone you know where the coffee is from and what you get for scanning. That’s what drives scan rate, not the technology behind it.”
The project demonstrates how food and drink industry innovation can combine provenance storytelling, food and drink packaging and subscription commerce in one consumer journey. It also highlights the growing role of digital engagement in food manufacturing trends and food distribution trends, alongside developments in food and drink sustainability and food and drink regulations.
For further information, visit https://aura-veo.com/.
