This year's Pride In Print Awards highlighted the diversity and depth of the New Zealand print industry-and demonstrated that marketers can get a great print job done, just about anywhere in the country.

And while we can reason that consumers don't buy packaging-they buy what's inside-it's the packaging that moves stuff off the shelves. Having the pick-me factor isn't hard. "Just be a little braver," says Annie Dow. "Today it's about taking brands further, being bolder." Dow, director of Dow Design, says marketers need to be looking ahead. "Be aware of what your competitors are doing and be brave enough to move forward and stand out."

By moving forward with its client Robert Harris, Dow Design recently won Gold for Packaging at the 2008 Summit International Creative Awards in the US. Its design, for Barista@Home coffee, involved an enormous makeover of the brand. Only the red and black colour scheme and the brand values remain, says Dow. "You've got to understand these, particularly if the brand has been in the market for a long time. But you can easily nurture those values and move them forward by delivering great designs."

Design consultants Designworks has also received recent international accolades for branded packaging. At the Design Week Awards in the UK, its work for Comvita skincare range Huni, received a commendation and was praised by judges for a 'bold personality that reflects its roots in New Zealand'. The packaging also won Gold at the Designer's Institute BeST Awards in October last year.

Jef Wong, who was CD on the Huni project with Geoff Suvalko, says the brand was conceived as a sexy alternative to the more earnest products in the same market.

He's another who would like to see marketers get a bit more daring with their packaging designs. "They're actually very, very conservative," he says. "The good thing is that companies have fewer layers here so it's easier to get to actually talk directly to the people who make the decisions."

Developments in print technology are making it a lot easier for marketers and designers to express a brand's personality through the packaging. Digital print is opening up whole new areas and the continuing development of digital is exciting, says Malcolm Allan, PMP Print managing director. "The ability to produce offset quality in very short runs, cost effectively and with variable data, provides endless opportunities for marketers." As ACP Innovate's Andrew Kurth puts it, "The long vaunted digital revolution is finally starting to make an impact."

In a world where industry is increasingly focused on reducing the size of its carbon footprint, the printing and packaging industries are taking serious steps to reduce their environmental impact.

PMP Print has achieved EnviroMark Gold status at its Christchurch site and is working towards Platinum status. Its Wiri and Warkworth sites are set to follow.

"Being certified to the EnviroMark Gold Standard means we have robust systems in place to ensure best practices in waste and energy, while ensuring any by-product from the printing process doesn't harm the environment," says Malcolm Allan.

And APN Print NZ has signalled an early commitment to the Ministry for the Environment's EnviroSmart and EnviroMark campaigns with general operations manager Dan Blackbourn saying in spite of costs involved, the company believes, overall, accreditation will benefit the environment and help its cause commercially.

But while there's a universal awareness that environmental options exist, people are not yet walking through the door demanding an end product that's recyclable or from a sustainable source, says Goldfields Print MD Marc Potter. "What we do as printers and manufacturers of packaging, is try to align our perception of a client's ethos and marketing message with what we recommend to them.

"For example, for customers doing marketing products such as healthcare or organic foods or holistic medicines, we would certainly recommend they get some kind of environmental credentials off their packaging to be consistent with their marketing message."

Hally Labels reports the increasing demand for alternative substrates is also flowing over into 'green' packaging options. CEO Rene de Wit says this is partly from companies with a desire to be seen to be green, and partly from those with a genuine sense of enviro awareness. "This trend has seen our raw material suppliers increasingly invest in the development of alternative pressure-sensitive material components that meet the demand."