When customers want engagement, offer print worth engaging with.
Deborah Corn shares how three brands moved customers from purchase to participation to post. One made dinner worth documenting. Another turned Halloween into a head-turner. The third made the delivery part of the fun.
With simple finishing and an understanding of what makes people pull out their phones, these shareable print experiences deliver a massive payoff with minimal expense.
And you can, too.
The Feed Is Your Friend
Creating shareable print experiences doesn’t require a major investment. All you need is some imagination and a client who understands the value of engagement metrics in their results.
If you are spending time talking to clients about the value of print in their communication efforts or fighting to get projects back that are now manifesting through digital media, consider a “feed first” strategy that centers on shareable print experiences.
Print is a technology device that connects, communicates, educates, and sells. It can be engaging, personal, and a bridge to digital channels. It can also be a catalyst for creativity and fun; the foundation of shareable print experiences.
Enter the transformation.
I have been seeing more examples of brands using simple finishing techniques to create shareable print experiences from materials people can wear, play with, photograph, share, and keep. One cut, fold, score, or perforation can create an entirely different experience and make print shareable and feed worthy.
Here are three examples that inspired me to write this post.
Tear. Wear. Share.
SoDough Square is a pizza chain that recently opened a location nearby. They make Detroit-style pizza. As a New Yorker, I was curious to see what that was all about, so I ordered one. It arrived. I put it on my counter, got a plate, and opened the box.
It was NOT the pizza that caught my attention. It was the pizza box!
Pizza Bib Pizza Boxes create shareable print experiences
The interior of the box was printed and colourful. I already loved it. I had never seen that before. Then I realized there was more to it. The instructions said: Tear. Wear. Share.
A perforation was visible, and when I removed it, there was space for me to put the box top under my chin and become part of the box. I immediately went to social media and saw a feed full of people sharing pizza box pics.
Pizza Bib produces the boxes. They offer customized interior and exterior printing around their patented, perforated neck opening. Designs can change for seasons, events, partnerships, promotions, or whenever a brand wants to give customers something new to discover.
I also called my local SoDough Square to see if there were variations of the art and YES, you can collect different boxes. I have ordered three times, for research, of course, and only one box was different. There is a limited-edition box for Halloween that I will get my hands on no matter how much pizza I have to order.
And this is my point. Yes, the pizza itself is different and can’t be compared to another pizza place around here. But it’s the shareable print experience generated by the BOX that keeps me engaged and ordering.
Beer Meets Fear
Halloween is transformation season, and Pabst Blue Ribbon is giving beer drinkers shareable print experiences, something they can turn into a costume without a glue gun, sewing machine, or last-minute trip to the store.
Shareable Print Experiences Pabst Blue Ribbon Jason Halloween Packaging
PBR partnered with Horror Inc. for a limited-edition 2026 package featuring Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movie franchise. A Jason-inspired hockey mask can be cut out of the 12-pack carton and worn. If that feels like too much work after the beer is gone, the entire box can be placed over your head.
The promotion runs in the United States from September through November 13, supported by retail, digital, and experiential activations. But the printed carton puts the experience into people’s hands and, in this case, on their heads before it hits the feed.
Strategic cutting and structural design create the transformation. The connection to an instantly recognizable horror icon during Halloween season makes people want to participate. And to do that, they need to buy the beer.
Unfold an Unexpected Purpose
Not all transformations need to involve your head to become shareable print experiences.
Mattel worked with The Packaging Club to create printed shipping boxes that become play spaces when opened and flattened. The outside carries the branding and handles the delivery. The inside delivers the surprise.
Shareable Print Experiences Mattel Shipping Boxes
A Thomas & Friends box opens into a train-track play mat. Hot Wheels deliveries become roads for toy cars. Barbie boxes provide colouring and styling activities. Other Mattel and Fisher-Price versions become oversized colouring surfaces.
The transformation is achieved by opening corrugated boxes completely and using the printed interior as the play surface. The products arrive. The boxes unfold. The shareable print experiences begin.
The onramp to the feed is just a pic click away.
Feed the Feed with Shareable Print Experiences
These shareable print experiences don’t send people somewhere else to have an experience. Print IS the experience.
And when that experience is designed to be photographed and shared, it doesn’t stop with the person holding the package. It travels into their feed, reaches their friends and followers, and gives the brand visibility it didn’t have to buy.
That is where printers can help.
The value of shareable print experiences is that they give people something they want to put into the feed. Before producing another printed piece designed to lead someone to a digital experience, brainstorm how those materials could become shareable print experiences. What could make someone stop, interact, pull out their phone, and share it? It could be as simple as a perforation, fold, die cut, or unexpected printed surface that turns the recipient into a participant.
FEED LONG AND PROSPER!
Connect with Deborah on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahcorn/
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