In a one second world, brands need to get noticed in order to get chosen. Our first task was to de-clutter and simplify the Snickers iconography, amplifying what makes the brand unique. To achieve bold simplicity, we focused on the distinctive assets (shapes and colours) that people associated with the brand. Consistently applying this to the brand’s POS display units, we reduced complexity to drive noticeability.

The ‘epic crop’ is a purist celebration of the distinctive visual assets that belong exclusively to Snickers. A visual reflection of the brand benefit of ‘substance’, the epic crop is a distillation of Snickers’ proprietary colours (red, white and blue with brown only as an accent) and shapes (the corner of the parallelogram), expressed through the lens of a no-nonsense ‘real’ aesthetic. The epic crop, combined with the brand’s distinctive assets, became the canvas for the brand’s POS display units.

The POS executions all used the Snickers ‘epic crop’ as their canvas. Starting with the ‘core’ displays, we created the boldest expression of the brand to increase visibility and deliver recognition instantly, cutting through all the other clutter and noise in the category. From core, we moved onto activations, adding elements of wit while staying distinctively Snickers. For Superbowl, we used a blue, photographic American football that would crash through the epic crop with all the heft and impact the brand is known for. The sample principle was applied to NFL and Ramadan activations.

Research has already demonstrated that the ‘epic crop’ has improved the brand’s distinctiveness. Eye tracking research proved the Snickers epic crop, without any supporting brandflag, drove recognition in 1/16th of a second. In Germany, recognition of Snickers via this new symbol matched that of the established Heineken star with 50% more people noticing the symbol than when the logo is seen alone (in a market where Snickers has only a 1.7% share!).