The grocery aisle has always been a battleground for attention. But the battlefield has expanded. Today, a package doesn’t just need to pop off a shelf; it needs to stop a scroll, survive image compression, and be worthy of a 15-second video. Social media has fundamentally changed what “good packaging” means, and brands that understand this are winning. Here are five ways it’s happening.
1. Packing Protein
Protein water. High-protein Doritos. Protein ketchup. A decade ago, these would have sounded like a fever dream. Today, they’re just Tuesday at the grocery store, and fitness influencers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube deserve a lot of the credit.
The protein obsession has forced a rethink of packaging strategy across the industry. Some brands are simply moving protein claims from the back panel to the front, turning what used to be a nutritional footnote into the hero of the design. Others are launching entirely new protein-forward SKUs, recasting familiar products as performance foods and reaching new consumer segments in the process. Cereals like Cheerios and even ice cream like Protein Pints have started borrowing the visual language of protein bars and sports drinks, leaning into a performance aesthetic that would have felt out of place five years ago.
At Smith Design, we’ve helped brands capitalize on this shift, in some cases by simply refreshing brand lineups to highlight the macro nutrient on pack to help consumers get the information they need to reach their protein goals. In other cases, we’ve helped brands go a step further, such as our design of Farm Rich’s high-protein breakfast line of French Toast Sticks.
Trend to watch: Fibermaxxing. With more than 95% of Americans not getting the amount of fiber recommended by the FDA, and a new awareness of the importance of gut health, fiber is getting greater attention on social media. Expect packaging to respond.
2. Collaborations and Limited-Edition Flavor Drops
Social media runs on novelty. Even a brand’s most loyal fans can experience “like fatigue” after seeing the same product photo a thousand times. The solution the industry landed on? Borrow a page from luxury fashion: collaborate, drop, and repeat.
Oreo has become a gold standard. Its collabs have spanned streetwear (Supreme), music (BTS, Lady Gaga’s Chromatica album, Post Malone, Blackpink), gaming (Super Mario Brothers), and beverages (Coca-Cola). Novelty flavors (Candy Corn, Red Velvet, and a Hot Chicken Wing cookie launched in China) keep the brand perpetually buzzy.
Pepsi did it with Peeps (marshmallow-flavored soda, naturally). And then there’s the Crocs x KFC collab: shoes covered in fried chicken imagery that looked like an absurdist art project straight out of Bushwick. Packaging collabs can get incredibly idiosyncratic, funny and personal too, which helps a brand build a personal connection with fans. That was the case when Popsicle collaborated with influencer Jake Shane, who famously loves red Popsicles (but not orange ones) to create a package of All Cherry Jake Shane Popsicles, which racked up millions of views when Shane revealed the packaging.
For packaging designers, collaborations are genuinely exciting; they create space to break from brand guidelines and let two distinct visual voices remix into something neither brand could pull off alone.
Our team has had the opportunity to participate in a lot of fun collaborations and flavor mashups. Last year, we designed Green Eggs and Spam in celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Dr. Seuss classic (and we continue to design all sorts of fun flavors for Spam, and Spam stans online are appreciative!). Popsicle found magic by teaming up with both Disney and Jolly Rancher. The packaging becomes the announcement, the conversation starter, and the collectible all at once.
Trend to watch: Limited-time and seasonal flavors expanding well beyond snacks and chips into categories like condiments, dairy, and beverages.
3. Designing for the 6-Inch Screen
Which came first: bold, flat packaging design or the dominance of user-generated content on social feeds? At this point, it doesn’t matter; they reinforce each other completely.
Winning on shelf used to be the only visual battleground that mattered. Now the 6-inch phone screen is the new storefront, and it plays by different rules. Gradients, beveled type, intricate illustrations, thin serif fonts (sorry, Garamond!) and glossy finishes don’t always survive image compression to 72 ppi very well. A delicate serif typeface that looked refined in print can become illegible as a 200×200 pixel Amazon thumbnail or when it’s being held by a UGC creator for 2 seconds in front of a phone camera. Dainty and detailed simply doesn’t perform on camera.
What does work: fewer words, heavier fonts, bolder colors, higher contrast. If a UGC creator holds your product up for three seconds on TikTok, your design needs to read instantly. Brands like Oatly and Olipop have mastered this: their packaging is flat, bold, and playful enough to function as content on its own.
Some brands go further by specifying matte over gloss finishes so ring lights and camera flashes don’t blow out their type. Others, like Magic Spoon, use maximalist color-blocking to ensure they’re unmistakable even at thumbnail size. The throughline: packaging design is paying attention to how the design works onscreen as well as on shelf.
Trend to watch: Have we hit maximum color-maxxing? Brands like Olly and Magic Spoon have used saturated, high-contrast palettes to dominate visual real estate across both digital and physical retail, but we might be seeing a reaction in the other direction, with some brands (like Huel) maximizing white space while others, like the sardine brand Fishwife, are leaning into patterning while keeping the bold color.
4. Packaging as Performance: The Unboxing Era
Beauty brand Glossier was at the forefront of unboxing on social media; its signature pink bubble-wrap pouches were designed to be shared, and they were. Unboxing videos have since become their own content genre, complete with trending audio, quick cuts, and influencers who turn the ritual of opening a package into a mini-drama worth watching.
Some on-trend brands have taken notice and started designing for the reveal. Liquid Death is a standout example: its shock-value branding and irreverent copy make it feel like merch from a heavy metal band you love. Including actual merch inserts makes customers feel like members of a club, and gives them something to post about. The collector’s edition 11-pack collaboration with Spinal Tap sold for $1,100 each. Yes, that’s 11 cans of water.
The principle extends beyond DTC brands. Lego and Tiffany have both reinvented the advent calendar into a premium unboxing event. Graza, the olive oil brand, built viral moments around its distinctive squeeze-bottle design that made people want to demonstrate it on camera. Layered packaging — nested boxes, interior messages, double-sided printing with a bold callout on the underside — rewards the consumer who opens it and gives influencers something to discover.
Here at Smith Design, we helped Planters approach this with the limited-edition release of its Special Reserve Peanuts, designing an unboxing experience that felt sensory and elevated, appropriate for a product that deserved to feel special.
Trend to watch: Keepsake packaging: designs worth holding on to (and keeping on a desk or shelf), giving brands perpetual visibility in creators’ backgrounds. Glossier’s pink pouches are reused as travel organizers and get quick recognition even without obvious logos. In Europe, Nutella jars are designed to be turned into drinking glasses and tumblers.
5. The Social Backlash Effect
No honest conversation about social media’s influence on packaging design would be complete without talking about the flip side: the public verdict, delivered instantly and at scale.
Before social media, a brand could roll out a redesign that would sit on store shelves for years before enough consumer complaints filtered through to signal that something was wrong. Today, the feedback loop is measured in hours.
When Cracker Barrel attempted to modernize its logo in 2025, fans took to TikTok and X within days, framing the change as a betrayal of the brand’s nostalgic identity. The company reversed course within a week. Jaguar’s 2025 rebrand generated a different kind of controversy: a polarizing reaction that some argued was a calculated play for visibility, even if the design itself divided opinion.
The lesson most brands have taken from moments like these: move carefully. The risk of getting it wrong publicly (and immediately) has made incremental “refreshes” far more appealing than full rebrands. In an era when consumers feel personal ownership over the brands they love, packaging changes are never just a design decision. They’re a public statement, and the public is always watching.
At Smith Design, we help CPG brands navigate all of this: from trend-driven redesigns to full brand overhauls.
