Laava and New Zealand’s J3 Freshstore team up to deliver avocado traceability
Laava is rapidly becoming The Global Mark of Trust™, with Laava Smart Fingerprints® now featured on a wide range of products around the world. We’re protecting and authenticating everything from fresh produce, wine and beverages all the way through to fast-moving consumer goods, artworks and NFTs, across the United States, Europe and Asia.
And we’ve just expanded into New Zealand; our first customer from across the Tasman is fresh food supplier J3 Freshstore and Pole to Pole. In collaboration with our partners FreshSupplyCo and Gravitas Media, Laava has enabled an innovative, connected packaging traceability and customer engagement experience for J3 Freshstore’s sustainably grown avocados.
Based in the Bay of Plenty, J3 Freshstore grow top-quality produce. They also partner with local commercial and family growers to deliver sustainably produced, high-quality and freshly picked New Zealand produce, including avocados, feijoas, kiwi fruit and more. J3 Freshstore’s brand promise is ‘bloody good fruit… delivered fast, fresh and tasty to you’. To deliver on that promise, the team passionately believe in making sure their fruit is traceable and their supply chain is transparent. To J3 Freshstore, providing their customers with proof of provenance and food safety assurance is of the utmost importance.
All these factors were critical to our collaboration.
“Food safety is important to us and to our customers. We have partnered with Laava to bring assurance and show the journey from orchard to bowl.”
Julia Third, J3 Freshstore
J3 Freshstore recognised the inherent engagement possibilities of transforming their product labels and packaging into a highly valuable connected digital asset, enabling their customers to hear directly from the growers as they tell the rich stories behind the fruit.
Each box of J3 Freshstore avocados now features a unique Laava Smart Fingerprint® on the label, creating the secure gateway to a digitally connected packaging solution. Laava Smart Fingerprints® are the upgrade from the QR code. Developed in collaboration with Australia’s premier scientific and cybersecurity organisations – CSIRO and AustCyber – the Laava Smart Fingerprint® utilises patented, next generation, optical Fingerprint technology. Secure by design, the Laava Smart Fingerprint® provides the ‘on packaging’ authenticator for unique customer experiences accessing blockchain, traceability data, digital stories and exclusive content.
A unique digital experience for customers
Simply by scanning the Fingerprint with their smartphone, J3 Freshstore’s customers can access a digital experience that will:
- Authenticate their J3 avocados as ‘genuine’.
- Provide proof of provenance.
- Trace the journey of that box of avocados, from the orchard all the way to the bowl, with transparency of key data points surfaced from across the supply chain. These data points include locations and dates where the fruit was picked and packed, as well as batch, grower and food safety identification numbers.
- Share exclusive content, stories and discounts.
- Invite them to conveniently re-order more avocados, with J3 Freshstore’s e-commerce integration.
- Encourage them to enter an exclusive competition to win a year’s supply of avocados.
Scan now: compelling calls to action
For J3 Freshstore, telling their traceability story, proving provenance and demonstrating supply chain transparency is only one half of the equation. Being masters of brand engagement, they understand that, to really connect with their customers, the call to action must be compelling. That invitation to scan the Laava Smart Fingerprint® must be simple yet strong.
With this outcome firmly in mind, J3 deployed A/B/C testing on their carefully designed labels to determine which call to action would generate the strongest scan response. On J3 Freshstore’s labels, right next to the Laava Smart Fingerprint®, a strong call to action invites customers to do one of the following:
- ‘Scan to Verify’, so they can confirm the authenticity of the product and be assured that the avocados they’re buying are the real thing.
- ‘Scan to View’, offering a range of avocado based recipes. Who doesn’t love ‘The Perfect Guacamole’?
- ‘Scan to Win’, (our personal favourite), inviting them to enter a competition to win a year’s supply of avocados!
So what has resonated most strongly with J3 customers?
Based on the Laava Smart Fingerprints® scanned so far, the strongest call to action has been driven by the competition. If you’re an avocado fan, that will not come as a surprise!
The opportunity for customers to enter the draw to win a year’s supply of J3 avocados accounts for almost 70% of the scanning activity so far. This strong result was followed by ‘Scan to Verify’ (authenticity and provenance) and ‘Scan to View’ (avocado recipes).
While the project is still in its infancy, these early results offer a big insight: a compelling call to action is a strong motivation for customers to scan the Laava Smart Fingerprint® on the label.
The best call to action generates the buzz you get from an exclusive deal. Customers are then motivated to digitally connect, and to forge that strong bond with the brand story, which leads to customer loyalty and repeat purchasing behaviour.
A collaborative effort: introducing Laava’s project partners
To enable J3 Freshstore’s connected packaging experience, Laava worked in a strong and collaborative partnership with:
- FreshSupplyCo, who power the blockchain integration behind the Laava Smart Fingerprints®. This involves displaying the key data points that demonstrate to customers the avocados they purchased are the real thing: proof of provenance, traceability and transparency of the supply chain for each box – from orchard to bowl.
- Gravitas Media, who provided the label design expertise, pre-press and digital file set-up work for J3 Freshstore’s highly creative product packaging, which beautifully incorporates the Laava Smart Fingerprints® and accompanying calls to action.
“We are so proud and grateful to partner with FreshSupplyCo, Laava and Gravitas Media to bring security and food safety throughout the supply chain.’’
Julia Third, J3 Freshstore
Laava is incredibly excited to work with J3 Freshstore – a customer that embraces innovation and is passionate about bringing security, transparency, traceability and food safety assurance to their supply chain. Together, we’re protecting both their local Bay of Plenty grower network and their customers in New Zealand and beyond.
To learn more, contact the Laava team today.
In the news
We’ve been excited to tell FruitNet all about our collaboration with J3 Freshstore. Check out the article.
See how the announcements played out on Laava’s LinkedIn feed:
