MGI Receives 2019 Oscar de l’Emballage Award

During the annual Oscars de l’Emballage (“Oscars of Packaging”) ceremony on Nov. 25 in Paris at the Elysée Biarritz auditorium, 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.

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 and global brand marketplace.

Created in 1954, the Oscars de l’Emballage is 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 gather together to recognize top business leaders and technology innovators for the most important new products and technical accomplishments with these prestigious prizes.

This is the second consecutive year that the MGI Group has been honored with an Oscar de l’Emballage Award. The 2018 judging panel also highlighted the value of MGI’s technical inkjet contributions to the worldwide packaging industry with a grand prize award.

Originally presented at the 2019 LuxePack Monaco exhibition, MGI’s “Enhance your Brand” application process consisted of directly printing an NFC antenna electronic circuit on the package with conductive ink and then placing a strip of radiant LED circuits as well.

This patented MGI technique makes it possible for the first time to “print” internet connectivity directly to 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 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, thanked the jury for the award, underlining the fact that MGI, as a French company and 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 the unprecedented digital printed electronics technologies. The strategic goal is to facilitate future relationship-building communications between brands and their customers in the marketplace throughout the entire supply chain.