NFC Brings Authentication, Engagement to Boutique Tequila Brand

Dec 15, 2021Southern California spirits company  OTACA Tequila (an acronym for "once tried, always craved") has released its first brand of tequila in a smart bottle that employs Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality to help it engage with customers and track products. By building an NFC tag into each bottle top, and by capturing data in a blockchain, the company says it can take its customers through the story of its product, including harvesting, distilling and long-term plans. The solution is provided by  Identiv and includes an  NXP 13.56 MHz NFC chip built into each tag, compliant with ISO 14443. Identiv provides the app and software for analytics, leveraging blockchain data provided by  SUKU.

OTACA was founded to offer a premium-quality boutique tequila, says Anthony Accetta, the company's CEO and cofounder. "Using only fully matured piñas to make our product allows us to differentiate ourselves from the competition," he states. The company use no additives or artificial flavors in its tequilas and has its own proprietary chilling and distilling process. The boutique agave spirits brand uses only blue weber agave piñas specifically grown in the lowlands of Jalisco, Mexico, in the town of El Arenal.

Each hand-selected agave piña is harvested once it reaches its optimum maturity after eight years, and is then fermented, twice filtered, and twice distilled through a proprietary chilling process. The result, the company explains, is sipping tequila with agave's natural flavors. "OTACA is also special due to our team," Accetta says, "from the people that work in our agave fields to our tequilero, Joel Garcia, to the people that are in the forefront of distributing, and the group of passionate founders who conceived the idea. We have a team that is passionate about sharing the true expression of what tequila should be."

Part of that expression takes place between the brand and consumers, via technology. The company wanted its product bottled in smart packaging that would help customers understand how the firm and its product are different. Even before founding the OTACA brand, Accetta says, "We have been playing in the luxury game for a long time, and we know how important it is to make consumers feel like they're part of something exclusive." The digital experience connected to its NFC-enabled bottles, he says, "adds a level of sophistication and exclusivity that elevates our product and catches the attention of many."

OTACA began working with Identiv in recent months. The goal, Accetta says, was primarily to help customers learn about the product's origin, how to enjoy it and where to purchase it. Additionally, the bottle is designed to provide a level of authentication, as every bottle is uniquely identified, and its history and identification are stored as an immutable record in blockchain software.

The solution is currently being used with the company's first release: the Plata, which leverages Identiv labels with NXP NTAG 210u NFC chips. The bottle itself is crafted with a black clay overlay on its top half, while the bottom half is clear glass so consumers can see when the tequila is running out. The printed NFC tag has a circular form factor and is being built into the square top of each tequila bottle. The tag stores a unique ID number for that bottle, and every time the tag is read its history is updated to reflect that status in the cloud-based software, as well as on the blockchain.

SUKU, a provider of transparency and authenticity solutions, manages the consumer-engagement blockchain platform. "The decentralized, distributed qualities of blockchain processing ensure security, transparency, reliability and authenticity," says Amir Khoshniyati, Identiv's general manager and VP of transponder business. In that way, he explains, the NFC tag, combined with blockchain technology, strengthens the trustworthiness of the tequila's supply chain.

Each NFC tag ID number uniquely identifies a specific bottle of tequila. As the bottle is filled, transported and received by a retailer, the company explains, the potential is there to read that tag and view and confirm not only the bottle's authenticity, but also the history of its movement, as long as a user is authorized to access that information. Initially, however, OTACA Tequila is targeting consumer engagement and authentication for those who will be buying the bottles.

Typically, a customer will scan the bottle's label at a store to access the product's storyline and providence, including the journey from plant to bottle, as well as the company's history and that of its founder. Any NFC-enabled smartphone can engage with the tag. Once the phone reads the tag's unique ID, it opens cloud-based software that provides the content customers need to ensure the product is authentic, and to learn about its background.

Once the bottle reaches a customer's home, the tag can be used for multiple purposes. Users can tap the tag with their phone to access information regarding new brands being released or new offerings. When it's time to reorder, they can tap the tag again and follow prompts to purchase a new bottle. The technology also enables OTACA to offer a loyalty program, and the software provides analytics indicating where bottles are being purchased, along with where and when engagement takes place.

The chip has a counter solution built in so the system can track the number of engagements, while the blockchain validates every engagement. This use case for NFC, and thus the challenges for the application, were unique in several ways, Khoshniyati says. "We had to navigate variances in temperature and moisture" due to condensation, he recalls, since the bottles are often stored in a freezer. Identiv selected a relatively large antenna as part of its packaging solution and provided integration to ensure a buffer between the tag and the liquid. It selected the NXP chip for the basic memory and high performance, he notes.

The antenna design can fit into the bottle top's square form factor, while being large enough to provide a relatively easy tag read with a mobile phone within a few millimeters. The tag can be reliably interrogated at any angle, Khoshniyati reports, to provide predictable responses even if a user is relatively new to NFC. When OTACA contacted Identiv, he says, "They wanted a digitized product from day one." OTACA is the first tequila company to build NFC technology directly into its packaging, he claims, as opposed to applying a disposable label to the outside of the bottle. "We brought in the SUKU team to run the platform with analytics and blockchain authentication."

Enabling the supply chain capture of information when individuals read tags at a warehouse or store may provide an important set of data for the tequila company as well, Khoshniyati notes. "We've seen historically, in the CPG [consumer packaged goods] world, there are a lot of challenges around gray markets," he states, so by viewing data about the product's journey, the company will have assurance it's on the proper store shelf. The bottles are selling at a suggested price of $74.95 at box stores and $89 for retail, he says. "At that price point, you want to make sure the product turns up where it should be."

Ultimately, Accetta says, "We believe that the NFC tag will allow our product to be shared [between customers and their friends, through tag scans], giving us an upper hand in our marketing and, all in all, lowering the cost of customer acquisition." The company has more visions going forward. The blockchain adds value in authenticating products, he explains, adding, "As we move to a more digital-dominant market, this can even open the doors to OTACA releasing limited-edition NTFs [non-fungible tokens] with our cofounder, Nicole Accetta" (his wife, an artist who paints luxury watches and other timepieces).

"We all know that once it's minted into the blockchain, it cannot be tampered with," Anthony Accetta states. "This could really lend itself to be a great opportunity to combine the tequila industry with the art collectors in some great special-edition bottle," linked to  Nicole Accetta's artwork. OTACA's tequila was released to the general public in October 2021, he says, following many years of working behind the scenes. It is primarily available in California, though the company has partnerships with liquor stores that allow direct-to-consumer online purchases throughout the United States.