Judge's comments:

Trailblazing in the category. We loved how considered the packaging was. Designed all the way down to the finest detail.

Description:

Animals Like Us brings a unique vision of holistic wellness to pet food, driven by the belief that pets are animals like us and deserve the same amount of respect, love, and nutrition as human beings. Our design needed to give ALU a unique point of difference in order to stand out in a thriving and crowded category. A category where complex promises of nutrition and health are key, but often make for uninspiring packaging.

As passionate animal lovers, we leapt at the chance to work with NZ pet food innovators Animals Like Us to develop a brand identity for their new generation, NZ-made product.

The brand identity needed to project an attitude of joyful fun while communicating that having pets makes us better people. We began by riffing off the idea that animals like us best when they’re well loved, well exercised and given the best food.

We created a goofy, grinning, cartoon dog to light up the pack and logo, combining fresh, vibrant colours with quirky illustrations to celebrate the embarrassing and hilarious moments of pet parenthood. Beautiful black & white photography documents loving relationships, playing off the often uncanny similarities between pets and their owners. The product benefits were a big part of the brand promise, with real ingredients playing a key supporting role. Our goal was to pare back the information with simplified graphics, creating a system that could communicate clearly and stretch across an expanding range of products.

The product was an instant hit, its playful, irreverent look and unique message resonating with adoring pet parents right across NZ. After launch in November 2020, ALU is now stocked in 200 supermarkets nationwide, with all four product SKU’s sitting in the top 11 most profitable dog foods; not bad for a brand new player in a dog eat dog category.