How do you make a “fun” snack brand matter to people too busy to notice the moment?
Packaging redesign and the communication concepts that gave a snack brand a sharper, moment-led role for a younger audience.
BRAND
TUC (de-branded)
TYPE
Brand & comms strategy · pack concept
YEAR
2024
CATEGORY
Savoury snacks / crackers
AUDIENCE
Gen Z & Millennials, 12–35
AGENCY
[Agency name]
Challenge
A brand that was fun — but not for any particular reason.
TUC was built on a generic platform — “spark simple fun.” Distinctive texture, real product equity, a clear young audience (Gen Z & Millennials, 12–35). But “fun” is the most crowded claim in the category: every snack promises it, so it differentiates nothing.
A packaging redesign was already planned — to modernise, push taste cues and unify design across the region. The risk: redesign the pack, keep the same empty “fun,” and change nothing that matters.
The strategic problem
The brief asked to link redesign to communication and move TUC from a generic “fun” cue to a clearer, taste-led, moment-led role.
So the real question wasn't how do we make the pack look fresher. It was: what role can a cracker actually play in the life of someone too busy to notice the moment they're in?
Approach
From category codes to a role worth owning.
01
The audit
Platform, competitors and category codes — the snack “fun,” flavour-brightness and crunch cues everyone leans on — mapped to find white space.
02
Audience tension
Synthesised the real tension: a generation in permanent multitask mode, where even wins blur past — living with FOMO and the sense of missing the moment.
03
Message map → routes
Built the logic — benefit → role in the moment → reason to believe (crunch + bright flavour) — then three directions tied to the new pack codes and tone, down to example copy and POSM.
Insight
We live in permanent multitask mode — and even our wins pass by in a blur.
In the rush to catch everything at once, people stop feeling the moment or enjoying the result of their own effort. They look for a small, instant trigger that anchors them in the here and now.
Strategic idea: use TUC's bright taste and signature crunch as a “moment marker” — a tiny punctuation that helps you pause, feel and mark the now. That reframes a generic “fun” snack into something with a job: marking the moment.
The directions
One idea, three ways into it.
The “moment marker” idea was developed into three communication directions, each tied to the new pack codes — held up so the client could choose the route to carry forward.
ExhibitThree directions on the moment
Direction 1
Catch the moment
Life is full of good moments, but catching each one is hard. The bright, crunchy moment of TUC makes the good ones easier to grab — and, for the mini pack, easier to share.
Direction 2
From another angle
Life always needs a decision, and the answer doesn't always come on its own. TUC is the pause that lets you stop the moment and look at it from another angle.
Direction 3 · Carried forward
Small wins, worth marking
Which success is big enough to celebrate? Any. A small win is still a win — and a reason to mark the moment with TUC's crunch.
Outcome
The moment-led redesign reached shelf — and the brand's own site.
The strategy and communication directions fed into a packaging redesign that is now live: the updated packs are on shelf and on the brand's official site (tuc.fun). This is where the work stopped being a deck and became something a shopper actually meets.
Shown as the shipped redesign — now publicly live — not as uplift numbers. My contribution was the strategy, the communication directions and the packaging brief the redesign was built on; the final production artwork and later product banners were executed by the design team.
The redesigned packaging is live on the brand's official site (tuc.fun) — public proof the redesign shipped. Note: this product banner is a later brand asset; my contribution was the strategy and communication directions the redesign was built on, not this specific banner.
My role & zone of responsibility
Where I owned the work — and where I worked under the lead.
01
Audit & category codesMapped the platform, competitors and category codes — snack “fun,” flavour-brightness, crunch.
02
Audience & tensionSynthesised the multitasking / FOMO / missing-the-moment tension into a usable strategic insight.
03
Strategic idea & message mapBuilt the “moment marker” idea and the benefit → role → RTB message map.
04
Communication directions Developed the three directions tied to the new pack codes and tone, under the lead's supervision.
05
Copy & taglinesCrafted taglines and example copy for key assets, down to POSM.
06
Packaging brief & directionBriefed and shaped the redesign the strategy and directions fed into; final production artwork by the design team.
