The Packaging Innovation & Design Awards (PIDA) Marketing Design of the Year category considers primary, secondary and tertiary packaging designs, and includes the pack's functionality; aesthetic design and visual appearance; premium and gifting style design; and its interactive communication tools.
MC for the PIDA 2021 event, publisher of media partners Food & Drink Business and PKN Packaging News, Lindy Hughson, said: "Marketing is a division in many companies that’s now intrinsically linked to packaging. You can’t think about marketing a brand without including packaging in the mix, and this encompasses every aspect of how the consumer experiences the brand in the hand."
The Bronze award went to KitKat ‘Give the Planet A Break’ wrappers & soft plastics promotional campaign (Nestle Australia), and the Silver award to Cutri Fruit (N.A.V.I Co Global).
The Marketing Design of the Year Gold award winner for 2021 was presented to Oasis Spice Shaker (Oasis & qDesign Enterprises).
The awards citation said that the Oasis brand reflects integrity, trust, and traditional values and the housing device pays homage to the Makool's Middle Eastern heritage. The natural colour palette and myriad patterns deliver personality and introduce a modern sophistication.
When applied to the Oasis Spice shaker, each spice variant takes on its own unique appearance resulting in an impressive and textural image on shelf. The high polish finish to the recyclable (PP) rigid container showcases the kaleidoscope of colours the middle eastern herb and spice range offers to the consumer.
Apart from the style and brand cues mirrored across both structures and formats, the one key link is the newly created circular economy brandmark of ‘Oasis Loop’, which was initially envisaged as a return to store deposit scheme, but needed to pivot during the Covid pandemic, due to the negative impact on returnable packs, and consumer panic about hygiene and secondary use packaging.
This brand mark has been used in-store as the key vehicle to educate Oasis’ customer base of the system the brand promotes at checkout, by encouraging refilling of the shaker containers with the large format bags. It is the combination of these two packaging formats using the brandmark as the link that helps enforce this behaviour change and create the platform for the next development of the Oasis reuse scheme – a container deposit.
Customers are also given the option to return the shaker in-store for Oasis to recycle and receive a small discount on their next purchase. Should the shakers not be returned to a store, all components are designed to cater for kerbside recycling and produced in one polymer (PP).
Receiving the award, director of qDesign, Michael Grima (pictured below), said: "We started this journey for this little pack and the refill pack that goes with it three years ago, and I commend the team at Oasis for their openness to learn about circularity, and for having the courage to go with the circular economy approach on this product."
Coordinated by the Australian Institute of Packaging, the annual PIDA Awards program recognises companies and individuals who are making a significant difference in their field across Australia and New Zealand. Winners in the company awards announced today are automatically eligible for entry into the 2022 WorldStar Packaging Awards competition.
Four other categories were announced on Day Two:
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