Consumers were getting confused by the current Cheez-It Puff’d cross-sell ad on the back of all equity Cheez-It boxes. The Kellogg Salty Snacks marketing team was needing a new back of pack design to communicate the benefits of Puff’d – while not looking like a Puff’d front of pack.

In addition to these changes this design needed to prioritize branding cohesion, puff cracker anatomy, creating excitement while drawing the consumer in with an appropriate call to action, AND include the tagline, “Defy Your Cheezpectations”

I was grateful to have the opportunity to create several concepts for the team while contracting as an in-house graphic designer. The team was very happy with the final direction and the ease of hand off to print production. Cheez-It fans will now be delightfully enticed to “Try our newest cheesy snack!”

This call to action welcomes you into a story filled scene of flying puff’d cheez-its. These airy, puffy bites are seen flying out of a bag while a close up hero shot is surrounded with highlighting notes. These describe the benefits and anatomy of the cheesy snack. The placement of the bags ground the viewer, creating a stage floor with slight shadows and a bookend tagline and CTA pulling driving back to stores.

This composition meets all the requirements while providing a cohesive use of the existing Puff’d branding. Enhancing the branding assets with hints of texture and depth to the story. The inside of the flex bag is rarely shown but in this case it gave the product a realistic action. The slight gradient of dark red in the background adds a subtle glow to the Puff’d cracker hero. The darker red of the gradient separates the cross promotion from the rest of the Core Cheez-it box and differentiates the composition from all Front of Pack designs. 

As an in-house designer that was given direct communication to agency and print partners allowed me to request improved versions of existing assets. such as the Puffed bags and cheez-it Puff photography. In order to tell this story detailed renders with realistic flexo textures were accomplished. The four color printing process over a spot color and paperboard substrate allowed us to capture the details of shadows, puff texture, as well as bag reflections, and wrinkles. The gradient coloration was reviewed in proofs with minimal correction.