2020 Best Packaging Designs

Packaging played a special role in 2020. As never before, they were alone to fight for buyers’ attention. For months Covid “had grounded” an army of sales representatives ,who visited large and small retail outlets throughout Poland day after day, taking care of the right planograms, merchandising and promotional displays. 

Due to further lockdowns, in 2020 retail suppliers also reduced the amount of POS material implemented in shops. Therefore, product packaging often had to assert itself!

I would like to share with you here some of the most interesting packaging designs made last year. I ranked them depending on engagement (i.e. likes) under posts with these materials on LinkedIn. In my opinion, this is quite fair as, after all, it is mainly professionals that speak their minds on LinkedIn. 

First, there is a catch-up from early 2019, when Inuru, a German start-up with Polish owners, launched a glowing OLED label. This innovative technology (the label lights up when you touch it even though there is no battery!) seemed to be like an idea truly out of this world. Due to its considerable unit price (EUR 2.00-ERU 3.00), I did not believe it could quickly find its way onto the market.

And here we are! Only a few months later and we could see its commercial application at the end of the year.  A limited-edition bottle of Coca Cola Zero was manufactured in Singapore. The bottles with the cutting-edge label immediately became collectable. The last time I checked on eBay, a pint of nothing more than standard drink was as much as PLN 1,700!

And now let us go through 2020 discoveries.

3^rd place:  332 votes 

A nuts packaging for the German EDEKA retail chain

As you can see, the concept for the packaging graphics and design was inspired by observations from the animal world. After all, some of them can stuff food into their cheeks. The designers have captured this fact brilliantly!

2^nd place: 464 votes

Graphics on a UHT milk carton from the Russian market.

This is another example of “out of the box” thinking!

Milk usually means smiling and happy cows, although this is far from the truth:  in the end, cows are far from happy during the milk collection process.

When it comes to a kitten, the case is completely different. As early as in nursery, children learn the common rhyme, which goes, “Here comes a kitten to drink its milk, and then its tail…” 

I do not know if this is true. Do cats really like milk?

But on a serious note, besides a fantastic graphic idea, this series of packaging is a brilliant example of shelf analysis. After all, rarely can you find a carton standing on the shelves alone. Therefore, this is an ideal solution for displaying several products side by side. Obviously, the shelf effect is largely dependent on the people responsible for displaying the goods. 

PS. According to the authors, the idea was inspired by Brunhilda, the agency’s creative director’s cat.

1^st place: 6118 votes

Eco-friendly innovation in Barilla pasta packaging 

The Italian tycoon is withdrawing cartons with a film window that enable you to see the products inside the packaging. Admittedly, this is an experiment on the British market only for the time being (at the express request of consumers, reportedly), but the announcements also apply to other European countries. In terms of the Group’s global business, it will lead to a huge reduction in environmentally harmful plastic and facilitate recycling. It also reduces costs, as the packaging with a window will always be more expensive to produce than a plain paper box.

A post about pasta packaging design is a real viral peculiarity. It has been displayed on LinkedIn over 300,000 times! Undoubtedly, this amazing result was influenced by the LI algorithm’s decision based on the merits of the material. This also demonstrates the huge interest of the marketing community in environmentally friendly solutions in the field of packaging design and production.