Beer-can tote scores

Award: Gold for Packaging Excellence

Winner: Miller Lite “Chill Bag” (Miller Brewing)

A bag construction from Curwood (www.curwood.com), marketed by Miller Brewing Company as the Miller Lite Chill Bag, won for Packaging Excellence. The tote bag is said to be an entirely new, flexible style of promotional beer-can carrier that is able to hold and comfortably transport a whopping 18 12-ounce cans of beer and up to 0.02 kilograms of weight.

The tote can double as a pail or tub replacement, is water-resistant and has room for adding ice, so it can be used as an on-the-go, portable cooler. It also features rugged, nylon coextruded handles, a wide-mouth opening for easy access to the cans and a slider-zipper closure for reclosability.

Incorporating a glitzy metallized polyester film top layer and edgy graphics in Miller Lite's blue, gold, red and lime color scheme, the tote makes a striking impression on the store shelf.

Curwood will only describe the packaging material for its ExpressTote, or the Miller Lite Chill Bag, as a sturdy construction featuring 218 liter metallized polyester layers.

Curwood gravure-prints the bagstock in seven colors and supplies completed bags to Miller. Miller says the Miller Lite Chill Bag can be reused after the cans of beer are depleted. Thus, the bag provides ongoing brand exposure.

States Jeff Garwood, project manager for new product development at Miller, "We tested the package in February of 2006 and then launched it in May with a major retail partner, and we subsequently conducted another promotional program with the same retailer in August. We also tested a twelve-pack configuration that held bottles.

**Our thanks to our sister publication Packaging Digest for this article.