More Than a Pretty Package

Nielsen and The Dieline announced the winners of the inaugural Nielsen Design Impact Awards at the HOW Design Live Conference in Chicago. The awards recognize some of the most impactful fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) redesigns over the last two years and celebrate the real and measurable business impact of outstanding package design.

The Nielsen Design Impact Awards leverage retail performance data as part of the winner identification process. As a complement to retail data, Nielsen surveyed thousands of consumers to assess how well each redesign addressed its core communication objective and to gauge purchase preference for the new packages over the old ones.

Lean Cuisine Marketplace, a Nestlé brand, was selected as the grand prize winner. The brand's new design encouraged consumers to see Lean Cuisine as a modern health and wellness partner, rather than a "diet" brand. For the Lean Cuisine Marketplace line alone, the design makeover helped drive a sales increase of $58 million in the year following the redesign compared to the year prior—a significant amount for a large brand innovating in the declining frozen food category.

"The new design was the No. 1 reason the Lean Cuisine brand was able to turn itself around—we went from declining sales to significant sales gains even before we turned on media support," said Daniel Jhung, vice president of marketing at Nestlé USA. "The bold new Marketplace packaging signified a major pivot away from our 'diet' heritage toward our new modern health and wellness partner positioning, motivating consumers to re-engage with our brand again. This complete turnaround demonstrates the power of investing in effective package design and designing it with consumers in mind."

THE WINNERS OF THE 2017 NIELSEN DESIGN IMPACT AWARDS:

GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

Lean Cuisine Marketplace (Parent Company: Nestlé; Design Agency: Pearlfisher)

WINNERS:

Buchanan's Scotch Whisky (Parent Company: Diageo; Design Agency: forceMAJEURE)

Honest Tea (Parent Company: The Coca-Cola Company; Design Agency: Beardwood&Co.)

PERDUE SHORT CUTS (Parent Company: PERDUE)

California Olive Ranch Olive Oil (Parent Company: California Olive Ranch; Design Agency: Design Womb)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

CHEEZ-IT (Parent Company: Kellogg's)

Black Ink Wine (Parent Company: Guarachi Wine Partners; Design Agency: CF Napa Brand Design)

"Package design often doesn't get the attention or respect it deserves compared to other marketing tactics. One of the root causes for this oversight is that it's difficult to attribute sales impact to package design," said Steve Lamoureux, senior vice president of product development for Nielsen's Design Solutions. "Given Nielsen's vast data assets, we knew we were in a unique position to demonstrate the power of effective package design and celebrate the brands who are really embracing its potential."

"We hope to provide a powerful counterpoint to the anti-change marketing doctrine that prevents brand managers from making package improvements. The great news is that impactful design is well within reach and there are best practices and tools to help ensure success," added Lamoureux.

The Nielsen Design Impact Awards were launched in collaboration with The Dieline, a globally-renowned online packaging publication whose annual awards program recognizes the absolute best in package design worldwide. "The Dieline Awards has always aimed to highlight the value of effective package design, and we couldn't be more excited about the first-ever Nielsen Design Impact Awards," said Andrew Gibbs, founder and editor-in-chief of The Dieline. "Our partnership with Nielsen provides factual buyer data on a redesigned package, demonstrating the powerful role of our industry. Nielsen has gathered insightful consumer shopper preferences combined with actual product sales data, making these wins truly well-deserved."