Alliance Franchise Brands Project of the Year: Fleurage Experience Engages All Five Senses

When Allegra Print — located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa — was tasked with creating a box showcasing new baking products for Lesaffre Corp., located in France, the full-service marketing and print communications company didn’t just focus on one sense. Instead, it set out to create an interactive box that engaged all five senses.

That effort also garnered the franchise a Marketing & Print brands “Project of the Year” award and cash prize, which was announced during the recent Alliance Franchise Brands convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

What ultimately resulted was “an opportunity to pair our capabilities in print, promo, and fulfillment,” according to Eric Van Kerckhove, co-owner of the 18-employee shop. “It was a true team effort to ensure all the working pieces came together at the right time.”

The goal of engagement through all five senses to showcase the French client’s line of new baking products was accomplished by the variety of products that were included within the box, as well as the box itself.

A lot of pieces did, indeed, have to come together in order to bring the box — called the Fleurage Experience Project — to fruition. However, as a company that offers marketing consultation, printing services, promotional products, and more, Allegra was well-equipped to handle the job. “The goal of engagement through all five senses was accomplished by the variety of products included within the box, as well as the box itself,” Van Kerckhove notes. Let’s start with the first thing the receiver experienced:

Touch: Each recipient received a two-piece Keepsake Box from Keepsake Products USA that featured soft-touch lamination to give the box a velvety feel. The exterior had full-color printed artwork, while the interior features gold foil text and a custom insert liner to house the items.

See/Touch: Upon opening the box, the customer was greeted with a booklet printed on white Domtar Cougar 80-lb. cover stock. “The booklet provided the steps for engaging the five senses as the recipient [went] through the products enclosed while also supplying information on the new specialty flavor toppings being introduced and highlighted,” Van Kerckhove says.

Beneath the booklet was a sheet of Neenah Touche cover stock in black with the Fleurage logo in clear UV gloss.

See/Touch/Taste/Smell/Hear: As recipients moved through the printed items, they were met with the fresh baked bread, rolls, and crackers produced by Lesaffre; sample bottles of each flavor topping with labels and fulfillment done by Allegra; a satin blindfold from Via Kit Co.; a Crumbee vacuum from OrigAudio; and an H2Go Rincon Bottle from ETS Express. “The labels for the sample product bottles were printed on Arlon DPF 8200X with our roll-fed Roland wide-format printer,” Van Kerckhove explains.

This project wasn't without its challenges. The biggest one was timing, due to the fact that some of the product was provided by the client.

All in all, there were about 250 boxes created for the client. “Rather than simply sending testers in a standard kraft shipping box, our client wanted to create an experience for their customers, while simultaneously introducing and providing the samples,” Van Kerckhove says. He notes that while Allegra employs 18 people at the Cedar Rapids location, it took four to achieve that final experience with the box.