Premium Paper-Tube Packaging for Martin Millers Gin
Martin Miller’s Gin was launched in 1999 and is widely considered to have ushered in the gin renaissance. Now the world’s most awarded gin, it is made using a unique twin distillation process, with the gin subsequently blended with Icelandic Spring Water – the purest in the world – for a smooth taste and uniquely soft mouth feel.
To add further distinction to its product, Martin Miller’s Gin required a composite tube packaging solution to house individual 70cl bottles of its super-premium ‘England Iceland Gin’. To fulfil this requirement, the brand’s Marketing Manager reached out to Smurfit Kappa Composites, whose customer account manager Nic Bridge, was delighted to work closely with Martin Miller’s Gin, to produce the packaging design and finalise the artwork.
Due to the angular and tapering shape of the bottle, the decision was made early-on to use an oval-shaped tube as this best fitted the product and gave ample print area. Once the size of the tube was approved, it was time to discuss the packaging artwork and print embellishments.
“Martin Miller’s Gin wanted us to replicate a photograph of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) and the iconic Icelandic landscape, right around the tube. This presented us with what turned out to be quite a challenge, as we had to convert the existing imagery into a printable entity, when we are usually presented with layered, final artwork files. But there was nothing that we were unable to achieve, in the end”, said Nic Bridge.
Over the course of a couple of months, several fully-printed mock-ups were produced & refined, before an agreement was reached on the print and additional print finishing techniques.
Due to the level of detail involved in the packaging artwork, the Martin Miller’s Gin tubes were ‘two-pass’ litho printed on Mirri Pak bright silver board. The first pass included a spot primer, opaque spot colours, CMYK & ‘dewdrop’ inline spot UV and a spot gloss blockable lacquer. The second pass included a spot matt blockable lacquer and was finished with the luxury embellishment of ‘Scodix’ to give the tube the most premium of finishes.
Throughout the artwork approval process, the base and lids for the tubes were also being developed. The lids were branded, in relief, on the central panel and coated to match the colour of Martin Miller’s Gin’s, hue of ‘blue’. This, combined with the high-resolution photo quality artwork, resulted in an exquisite tube packaging design, delivering the most memorable of experiences to the consumer.
From conception through to the finished product, it took around 8 months for Martin Miller’s ‘England – Iceland Gin’, to arrive in store (Waitrose). We are pleased to share that Martin Miller’s Gin was absolutely delighted with the result.
Jamie Stewart, Country Manager UK & Ireland Martin Miller’s Gin says, “We wanted to create a distinctive gift box for Christmas and the winter months, which paid tribute to the dual heritage of the Martin Miller’s Gin brand, which sees our England-distilled gin blended with pure Icelandic Spring Water. We found an image of the Aurora Borealis by celebrated night sky photographer Babak Tafreshi particularly inspiring and challenged Smurfit Kappa Composites to use this to create something that would really stand out on the shelves. We were thrilled with the result and the gift box was a great success amongst our valued buyers, consumers and media.”
“This year, Martin Miller's Gin is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. Our client has opted to re-release this iconic brand for the 2020 festive season, once again, in a beautiful tube from Smurfit Kappa Composites.” – Nic Bridge.