5 Ways How 3D Printing Takes Marketing to a New Level

The advancement of 3D printing is unstoppable. After all, it offers wide-ranging possibilities for every imaginable purpose – be it bones, furniture, cultural assets or coral reefs. But did you know that additive manufacturing also benefits the marketing sector? In this article, we illustrate how this technology takes promotional activities from companies to a new level.

3D Printing’s Out-of-the-Box Solutions Might Revolutionize Marketing

Thanks to its gimmicky character more and more brands incorporate 3D printing into their campaigns. Marketing responsibles from companies such as Coca-Cola, VW, Nokia, Belvita, and DVV experiment with this technology for their creative campaigns and prove that this pays off!

Coca-Cola’s 3D-Printed Mini-Mes

Just take a look at Coca-Cola Israel! In order to introduce its new Mini Bottles in Israel the beverage producer started a contest that created consumer mini-me’s using 3D printing. Thanks to a mobile app Coke lovers had the opportunity to design 3D model equivalents of themselves which they had to care for similar to a Tamagotchi. Finally, a few winners were rewarded with a trip to the Coca-Cola factory, where they could 3D-print their mini-mes.

Become Your Own Car Designer with VW

Volkswagen also promoted its Polo with the help of 3D printing in Denmark. For “The Polo Principle” campaign people were allowed to take control of the 3D printer used to create the original car model via a website. Then, the consumers could create their very own versions. 40 ideas were finally 3D-printed and displayed in Copenhagen. Afterwards the designers had the chance to take their mini-car home – one of the ideas was even turned into a real-life Polo.

The Nokia 3D Printing Community Project

As part of Nokia’s 3D Printing Community Project the mobile phone manufacturer made available a 3D printing kit for its customers enabling them to print out customized covers for the Lumia 820. Additionally, they surprised several bloggers during the Mobile World Congress (LINK: https://www.mobileworldcongress.com/) with a 3D-printed case showing their blog’s Twitter avatars.

BelVita’s #MorningWin Campaign

Turning tweets into action was the motto of BelVita’s #MorningWin campaign. The breakfast biscuit company proved its innovative capability by asking its fans to tweet their #MorningWins. All participants could win a 3D-printed trophy depicting their tweet in action. Also, BelVita turned some submissions into a series of funny videos.

DVV Makes Insurances Fun with 3D Printing

3D printing can even make a dry subject such as insurance fun. DVV rolled out a new service called “Key Save” (LINK: http://www.keysave.be/) that is extremely helpful for its forgetful customers. Belgian insurance provider lets them scan their keys and save the data on a secure server. Whenever they lose their keys in the following they can import the data on a 3D printer and create a new one.

These are some really smart ideas, aren’t they? Do you think 3D printing will be integral to marketing activities in the future or is it a passing trend? Let us know in the comment section!