Limited Edition SVEDKA Packaging Disrupts Halloween 2018

BRIGADE BRIGADE is an independent branding firm with 20 years of expertise creating distinctive identities and promotions. We merge design mastery with advertising strategy to help mass-market food, beverage, and wellness brands boost memorability and market share.

SVEDKA Vodka — an iconic brand in the American marketplace — continues to partner with us for a variety of projects. Following successful limited edition designs for the brand in the past, we embraced a new opportunity to design their Halloween 2018 packaging. The goal of the packaging was to help SVEDKA stand out from the crowd during the popular Halloween sales window and disrupt an oversaturated category with creative that felt unique to SVEDKA Vodka.

It can be tough to create something that feels ownable in Halloween retail. “Too often we see brands returning to the same worn themes: pumpkins, skeletons, candy corn,” says Robert Parker, Creative Strategy Director at BRIGADE. “We wanted to make sure that SVEDKA’s 2018 Halloween creative belonged to the season without blending into the space.”

The final strategic concept we created for SVEDKA is a gaping mouth that abstracts seasonal tropes like vampire fangs and dripping blood. It’s graphic and bold, colorful and eye-catching. “It’s a little bit Dracula, a little bit Rocky Horror Picture Show. It plays with familiar seasonal elements without falling victim to literal interpretations consumers could consider tired and iterative,” Parker says.

Several careful production techniques support a design that’s able to break through a busy retail environment. A sharp die-cut in the box forms the mouth’s opening, creating the illusion of dripping fangs overlaying the SVEDKA bottle. A high gloss printing technique make the blood and mouth appear raised on the box and liquid-esque. In contrast, matte white teeth and debossed logos cut through the blood and provide prominent placement for  SVEDKA branding on the packaging.

“The packaging feels like a permanent object instead of something disposable,” says Dave Grasso, Senior Creative at BRIGADE. “It elevates the product and encourages consumers to engage.”

One focus point for  BRIGADE is creating a holistic consumer experience through strategy, visual messaging platforms, and proprietary retail approaches. To make the SVEDKA Halloween packaging cohesive, we designed additional pieces of collateral for consumers to engage with. All assets were designed to translate to multiple channels, including digital, social, and point of purchase.

Thanks to another killer collaboration between our team and SVEDKA, vodka lovers will be shivering in anticipation of Halloween 2018.

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