Absolut's unique worldwide splash - with 4 million different bottles
Absolut Vodka has begun distributing nearly four million bottles across the globe - every one of them different - in a project called "Absolut Unique."
The new" limited edition" of uniquely designed and numbered bottles is available now in airports across the world and will be with local vendors from next month, says the company in a video accompanying the launch.
The project meant re-engineering the company's production plant in Sweden, the magazine AdAge reports.
Splash guns and colour-generating machines programmed with complex coating, pattern and placement algorithms were set up "to ensure that -- like snowflakes -- no two bottles are alike." Absolut calls it "carefully orchestrated randomness."
Jonas Tahlin, VP-global marketing for Absolut , said in a statement cited by the US mag, "Absolut Unique feels a bit mad scientist, a bit street art. When the bottles first appeared on the conveyer belt, we cheered. By that point the production line looked more like an artist's studio than a bottle factory."
He added: "A lot of world-class creators have made their interpretations of our iconic bottle. But this time Absolut was the artist."
The bottles will be individually numbered and sold in 80 markets including Britain, the U.S., China, France and Germany. Absolut is a division of Pernod Ricard.
The unique designs incorporate 38 different colors and 51 pattern types. There will be print and digital ads and promotions at stores and bars. Credits go to Swedish-base companies Family Business of Stockholm for creative, packaging print and below the line; Digital Great Works for Digital and Jung Relations, for PR.
The Absolut initiative certainly gives a bold new twist to the phrase "limited edition", Previous limited editions from the company have included Absolut Glimmer, with crystal pattern glass, and city designs such as Absolut London, Absolut Miami and Absolut Brooklyn. Then there was Absolut Naked, a bottle with no label and no logo .
The Absolut Unique promotion carries the slogan "One of a Kind. Millions of expressions." You have to assume the robot designers have been instructed to make sure that appears on all the bottles.
As Tahlin put it, "Anyone could do one or two unique products. We're making close to 4 million."