Lay’s had enjoyed a healthy market share, but suddenly saw its sales growth dip to a worrying 1%. Tasked to reverse the slowdown and achieve double digit sales growth, we created a campaign around a highly innovative and emotional packaging theme. Designed to uplift the mood of an entire nation, and based on a highly relevant local insight, we used the power of extremely contagious smiles on our packaging – smiles that the consumer could interact with. A first of its kind in experience and package design, the resulting campaign and its numbers were the most successful in Pepsi Pakistan’s history. At the end of the promotional campaign, we had not only achieved all our objectives, but exceeded them greatly.

The primary media touch point was the packaging itself, which was overhauled to include a dominant smile placed on the top half of the packet in such a way that a consumer would hold it against their face and thus complete the design. This was incredibly innovative in a marketplace that is often overcrowded with hundreds of brands, and the fight for standing out on the shelf is brutal. We worked with existing packaging guidelines and photographed 60 different smiles ranging from the very wide grins to the more demure smirks. The wardrobe choices and other color elements were carefully selected to mirror flavor hints, such as red for spicy.