How's It Hangin'? A Pouch at the World Cup Is the Ultimate Althletic Supporter

By David Luttenberger

World Cup fans in Germany embraced the convenience of the "alcohol-on-a-rope" innovation from BagStage Drinks.

I know exactly why the United States was (again) blown out of the FIFA World Cup—our fans could use but one hand to demonstrate our disapproval rating to the referees for dishing out so many yellow and red cards. The other hand, in true Yankee fashion, held tight to a plastic cup of Budweiser, the oddly official beer of the World Cup.

European fans, on the other hand, were literally "wearing" their favorite beverages around their necks. This freed both of their hands to applaud their German, British, Italian, and Dutch powerhouse clubs roundly and loudly.

Thanks to the package design genius of Netherlands-based BagStage Drinks, sports fans the world over can support their favorite teams while enjoying an alchoholic beverage from a spouted, Doyen-style pouch affixed to a lanyard they can hang around their necks. This "soap-on-a-rope" concept was created by BagStage Drinks managing director and package designer Gerben Borsje to look like back-stage pass.

"Everyone wants to get backstage at a concert or sporting event," says Borsje. "The lanyard-pouched cocktail emulates the back-stage pass experience." He adds that consumer acceptance of the lanyard pouch has been a "Charlies' Angels meets James Bond sort of experience" in terms of curiosity. Borsje did not elaborate on that comparison, but then again we are talking about a consumer demographic that considers David Hasselhoff to be the second coming of Elvis.

The lanyard pouch is a four-layer laminate with an IPN-supplied reclosure. The pouch is filled through the spout with 14.5% alcohol vodka and martini conconctions on Volpak horizontal form/fill/seal machines. Selling at retail for about $1.95 as a single, the uniquely designed pouch can also be snagged from point of purchase displays in six- and 12-pouch master bags.

Besides sports venues, where it has enjoyed a 20% penetration among 25- to 35-year-old consumers, the BagStage Drinks pouched brands have skyrocketed to 50% penetration at dance clubs—a popular testing ground throughout Europe for new products and kitchy packaging.

Showing its own brand of national pride, BagStage Drinks custom-printed for distribution at World Cup matches a number of the pouches and lanyards in vivid orange—the national colors of The Netherlands. But national colors aside, and forgetting how badly the U.S. national team stinks (again), this little pouch can saite package designers' and brand owners' thirst for innovation and differentiation —giving it world-class "Wow!" factor.

David Luttenberger, a certified packaging professional (CPP), is the director of Packaging Strategies, an intelligence briefing service for packaging markets, technologies, and businesses. He can be reached at 610-436-4220 ext. 18 or dluttenberger@packstrat.com.