A battle for customers’ love and wallets between global stalwart brands and nimble tech-savvy challengers gets a new spin: the latter arrange funding programs for the former to fuel innovation culture in their organizations and get a fresher vision. Instead, startups get access to knowledge, financial support and customer base of global corporations: a win-win situation. 

The world leader in alcohol drinks Diageo has teamed up with the Norwegian high tech firm Thinfilm specialising in printing smart systems to create the first ever «Internet of things» connected bottle with NFC-based printed sensor tags. The prototype of the bottle for Johnnie Walker Blue Label was unveiled recently at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Johnnie Walker has released a new strikingly beautiful video featuring glasses to raise awareness of how dangerous drinking and driving can be. The 90-sec spot sees whisky glasses that, driven by magic, build up a race car and then shatter into a million sharp pieces. The Glass Car video by Iris Singapore and director Russell Appleford is launched to support the brand’s new effort, Join The Pact, inspiring consumers to sign a pledge to never drink and drive.