Mars Wrigley collaborates with design agency to push year-round Celebrations

Brand expression agency Taxi Studio has collaborated with Mars Wrigley’s much-loved confectionery brand Celebrations to revitalise the identity of Celebrations as a treat choice for 365 days of the year – not just for Christmas.

From its initial launch in the 1990s, Celebrations was seen a disruptor in the confectionery category and soon became a beloved household name. Its rebrand is considered one of the most significant in its 25-year history.

Although seeing a tub of the chocolates in-store became almost synonymous with the arrival of Christmas, Mars Wrigley notes it has struggled to retain relevancy in a market that was becoming increasingly crowded.

Taxi Studio said it saw the need to bring Celebrations into its own identity to drive more equity into the core of the brand as it is being overshadowed by its constituent brands.

By modernising the brand and making it more progressive, Celebrations finds relevance with a younger, tech savvy audience who are increasingly engaging with brands in the digital world and want the excitement and diversity of product.

According to Taxi Studio, it has “distilled and amplified the design equities of the constituent brands”, so that each iconic chocolate has a “distinctive visual language” that gives Celebrations a new look and feel.

The pack now has a “sense of dynamism and energy interspersed between iconised depictions of the wrappers to unify the disparate brands,” the designers wrote. “Together, they create a more streamlined expression, with the Celebrations master brand mark as the central focal point,” they conclude.

The new identity is designed to consumers reappraise what ‘celebration’ actually means, to become the chocolate brand to accommodate endless sharing and celebratory moments.

Ryan Wills, CEO and founder at Taxi Studio, comments: “Celebrations, by definition, is about being bold in marking a festivity or occasion, so this brand expression needs to communicate and evoke this feeling through every touch point. The interaction with the brand and box is an opportunity to remind consumers of the universality of festivities. It’s not just about Christmas – it’s about finding joy and celebration in even more mundane moments of togetherness and creating distinctive memory structures that reinforce these associations.”

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