The Best-Before Packaging is a promotion for our client PENNY, a discount grocer, to keep customers from wasting food. By making the Best-Before date as big as possible, we turned PENNY dairy products into promotional items alerting customers about the issue of food waste and reminding them at home to enjoy the products in time, instead of wasting them.

To support the products, we used further media, like different in-store posters and a microsite to give customers further information about food waste and the promotion.

A food waste study from the University of Stuttgart shows that most of the food in private households is wasted because of exceeded expiration dates. We came to the conclusion that the origin of this problem could be found on the products themselves: the Best-Before date can often be left unnoticed, as it’s simply too small on the packaging. So we created a special design for PENNY dairy products, where this small date makes a big change – just by getting bigger: the Best-Before Packaging.

The Best-Before Packaging left a lasting influence on customers’ behavior, because it’s just impossible to miss the Best-Before date while looking in the fridge at home. That way, they could recognize at first glance, which purchased products would expire soon and were reminded to enjoy them in time, instead of wasting them.

Further media, such as POS, online and of course, the products themselves, were used to reach customers and raise their awareness about food waste. First and foremost, this design solution helps protect our environment.

Beyond that, the Best-Before campaign raised the image of PENNY as an innovative and trustworthy company, which cares a lot about sustainability.