Interact Brands

Grüns, a fast growing D2C brand, came to us for a full #rebrand before launching into retail. They roll out the rebrand today and we can't wait to see the design on shelves. Full case study coming soon! #CPG #Packagingdesign #design #branding

Our ECD, Dan Gladden and Head of Partnerships, Vuk Bojovic shaping the design future of America. We have hope!

How Wellness Brands Can Connect: We had the privilege of attending #Eudemonia this year. Surrounded by wellness for three days straight, we are here to share some of our takeaways. Swipe below & read the entire article on our blog https://lnkd.in/gtTf4cSP #CPG #WellnessIndustry #branding #brandidentity #packagingdesign

Halloween comes around once a year. Some people hate it, some people love it. We as a creative studio love it for the sole reason of observing the limited edition halloween campaigns, flavors, and packaging that might arise. We've brewed up a list of a few of our favorites from the ghostly past and present. Grab your broomstick, and let’s take a peek at our favorites. ?? Fanta X Beetlejuice Soda? ?? Svedka Vampire Packaging (2018)? ?? The Hershey Company’s NEW Twizzler Ghosts? ?? McDonald's Trick or Cheese (2019) ?? Kraft Heinz Vegetarian Vampire (2022) #halloween #packaging #cpg #design

Head vs. Heart of Rebranding: A Dummies Guide to Step Design In today’s ever-evolving market, brands must strike a delicate balance between making bold changes to stay relevant and ensuring they don’t alienate their customer base. While the excitement of a complete rebrand can create short-term buzz, it risks confusing or losing established customers. Cautionary tales abound—stories where a brand went too far and suffered a steep decline in sales. These examples remind us just how risky sweeping changes can be. Many agencies approach brand identity shifts using the classic “Evolution to Revolution” framework—a linear spectrum that categorizes changes to the brand’s identity as either a gradual evolution or a radical revolution. This model often reveals an internal battle between the heart and the head. We see it all the time in RFPs and briefs: the heart wants to emulate disruptive brands boldly revolutionizing their categories, envisioning a dramatic leap forward. But then the head steps in, urging caution and small, rational changes—lest the brand lose everything it has worked so hard to build. This internal push and pull between daring inspiration and cautious pragmatism often leads to a compromise that neither inspires nor reassures. Without factoring in time, the “Evolution to Revolution” spectrum oversimplifies the complexities of brand transformation, making it difficult to plan a thoughtful roadmap for growth. So, how can agencies and brand leaders work together to step-change a brand over time, ensuring both meaningful progress and consistency? At Interact, we believe the missing ingredient is a strategic framework that considers not just what change needs to happen but when it should happen. We call this approach Step Design—a multi-dimensional framework that maps evolution and revolution against time, creating a structured yet flexible roadmap for a brand’s transformation. By introducing time as a new axis, we enable our clients to plan for big swings over a series of carefully executed steps. Each step is a deliberate phase that maintains a connection to the core brand, allowing current customers to recognize and trust what they’re buying while new elements are introduced gradually. This approach minimizes risk by giving the brand room to grow into its future state—one that feels revolutionary in hindsight yet smooth and continuous from the consumer’s perspective. The beauty of Step Design is that it turns change from a disruptive event into an ongoing dialogue with customers. It lets current consumers participate in the brand’s evolution while inviting new consumers into the brand. For example, we recently completed the first “step” for a premium ice cream brand, which involved changing the name while maintaining the core branding elements. Read the full article on our website. Linked in the comments! #CPG #PackageDesign #Design #Rebrand #BrandIdentity

We hosted a CPG Founder's Breakfast this morning at The Butcher's Daughter. It was such a pleasure to be surrounded by such amazing people. Thanks to everyone who came out and enjoyed breakfast with us & thanks to our co-hosts for partnering with us to help make this event come alive! See y'all soon. Giannuzzi Lewendon, LLP, Springdale Ventures, SGFIN, J.P. Morgan, The Goods Mart #CPG #Founders #NYC #PackageDesign

Interact Coffee Chats ? We started this series to spotlight the incredible people behind the work we create. Meet Dan Gladden, our Executive Creative Director.

Design Trends we're loving: Nostalgia The nostalgic design ‘trend’ is no longer a trend, it's here to stay. Nostalgia has continued to prove powerful in design by evoking emotions that create a sense of familiarity and comfort. New and old brands alike are using the best elements of these design memories to create something that feels both retro and contemporary at once. Over the past couple of years, we have seen the reemergence of various visual styles that pull from a growing pool of nostalgic styles, e.g. retro-futurism, '80s, '90s, and '00s revival, minimalism meets vintage, and modern heritage. Design elements like bubbly typography, fun character illustrations, y2k aesthetics, and well-crafted maximalism are just some of the bold ways that we have seen nostalgia play on both packaging, and digitally. And we love them all! Some of our designers favorite brands that play into nostalgia are Diana's, Drumroll Snacks, Sizzler USA, Hot Pockets and BEZI #Design #PackagingDesign #CPG

We were fortunate to participate in the inaugural #Founderland curated by Family Fund. We were energized by the variety of conversations we had with the brightest minds in the consumer space in such an intimate setting. It was a great reminder that the journey is better together. Thank you to all the sponsors and to the amazingly gracious host Josh Wand Sean Kelly Kurt Seidensticker

Biting into the State of Meat-Snacking It’s no secret that America is obsessed with protein. While sugar, fat, and carbohydrates are carefully watched and scrutinized, it seems protein can do no wrong. Wanna get lean? Protein. Wanna get ripped? Protein. Want something delicious? Protein. And despite all the noise the plant-based category has made, demand for animal protein is at an all-time high. So, we thought it was only right to examine this bull market (beef pun intended) to see what’s happening now and what’s coming next in the space. Jerky Walked So Sticks Could Run The OGs of jerky—like Old Trapper Beef Jerky, Jack Link's Protein Snacks’s, Matador, and Oberto Snacks Inc.—make up the bulk of jerky sales in America. But the BFY (Better For You) wave of brands, led by Country Archer Provisions, Krave, Chef’s Cut, and Think, exposed consumers to real ingredients, real flavors, better cuts of meat, and the benefits of grass-fed beef. As the war on sugar continued, jerky underwent some self-reflection, which ushered in the Biltong craze of the late 2010s. Biltong, a South African air-dried beef that requires no sugar or carbohydrates to soften the meat and is free of sodium, was championed by Kalahari, Ayoba, Brooklyn Biltong, and Stryve. Country Archer and Krave also got in on the mix with their Zero Sugar lines of jerky. But just as jerky seemed to be at its peak, along came sticks. While Slim Jim seemingly invented the stick category and had one of the all-time great ’90s campaigns and taglines—“SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!”—the new-age, better-for-you brand Chomps has quickly become an industry darling. Other notable brands, such as Fatty’s (recently acquired), The New Primal, Duke’s, and Country Archer, are all jockeying for the #2 spot in the BFY space, innovating with unique flavors and formats like foot-long or double-thick options. Interestingly, Jack Link’s launched a campaign highlighting its meat stick offerings while taking shots at Slim Jim. “Nearly fifty percent of [Jack Link’s] customers start with a meat stick as their first purchase. It’s their ‘on-ramp’ to jerky, and as the leader in the category, [Jack Link’s] plans to own this segment, too,” said Holly LaVallie, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Jack Link’s. Read the rest here: https://lnkd.in/gTHMHT6k #CPG #Meatsnacking