Nivea-The perfect match

A specialist in folded carton and transparent packaging, Schut Packaging designs 10 to 12 gift packs per year for Nivea’s parent company, Beiersdorf. Most gift packs are for special occasions such as Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas and Valentine’s Day.For years now the material of choice for Beiersdorf and other companies has been 270 gram BillerudKorsnäs White. Paul Witjes, senior account manager at Schut Packaging, explains: “We usually work with this type of cartonboard when designing cosmetics packaging. BillerudKorsnäs White is easy to process on our machines. The material is sturdy and yet easy to fold. It also has a nice coating and a white interior, giving it a stylish look. It has the appearance of a premium cosmetics product.”

You could say it was love at first sight when Nivea laid eyes on the Valentine’s Day gift box designed by Schut Packaging for Beiersdorf. Nivea wanted the gift packaging for three small tins of Nivea Creme to be creative and functional, and that’s exactly what they got.

“Valentine’s Day is about love, of course, so naturally our first thought was to have heart-shaped packaging.” Witjes says. “The heart design was a direct hit.”Wilbert van Leest, point of sale manager at Beiersdorf, says: “We have been working together for about five years now. I’m always happy to see Paul because he always comes up with innovative ideas.”

Beiersdorf weren’t the only ones taken by the design. The packaging was also nominated in the Beauty and Cosmetics category at the 2014 Pro Carton ECMA Awards, an annual showcase for Europe’s best sustainable packaging solutions.

“The gift box was nominated for the originality of the packaging with three Nivea tins in the shape of a heart,” Witjes says. “We also managed to limit the amount of packaging and made it easy to fill and close. Thanks to a combination of good design, packaging and printing, it’s easy to see which Nivea product is inside and that it’s specifically designed for Valentine’s Day.”

Last year, Schut Packaging won the ECMA Award for Most Innovative Carton with its Deltaclip® design for cardboard paperclips, but this year lost out to the Issey Miyake perfume Pleats Please L’Élixir. “When you enter a competition of course you want to win,” Witjes says. “But there can only be one winner. We’re extremely proud to be the only Dutch firm nominated for the second consecutive year.”

One of the things that Warneke likes about the untreated board is that it’s a bit unpredictable. “It gets a bit darker where it’s not covered by the wrapper,” she observes. “Some people would immediately be worried about that, but for me that fits the “It is as it is” aspect of the brand – it shouldn’t be too perfect.” For Warneke, the key to bringing the brand alive is to bring together contrasting experiences such as the play of uncoated and coated cartonboard. Adding to this effect is the fact that the blue ink looks completely different depending on whether it is on the treated or untreated board: not too perfect but convincing – just like a man.