Cultural / Context information for the jury

Pocky sticks have been Japan’s top-selling chocolate snack for decades. Kids and teenagers love them because they’re easy to share with friends. But sales to young adults were weaker, and our brief was to give this target group a way to share and enjoy Pocky sticks anew. So we created stylish new packaging to be used exclusively at upscale shops and sales outlets, and leveraged social media to promote the repackaged snacks as a fashionable gift item. The result was significantly higher sales to young adults, the opening of new sales channels, and higher brand visibility and sales overall.

Tell the jury about the art direction.

We deliberately chose not to use the type of high-gloss ‘glamour-shot’ product images that are typically featured on confectionary packaging. Instead, we appealed to the more sophisticated design sense of adult consumers by decorating the outside and inside of the boxes with iconic illustrations. Using single-wall, matte-finish cardboard, we made different-colored boxes for each of the seven flavors offered, as well as carrier bags and multi-package gift boxes in a variety of sizes and colors. In addition, the size and shape of all boxes was carefully calculated to enable them to be stacked in a variety of attractive configurations to maximize the visual impact of in-store displays.