ABOUT

How could one tiny snack do both good for people and for the planet? A small, fearless, visionary team at Bright Future Foods had the same question and in a little over a year were on their way to launching a product that could do just that.

Grounded in extensive research on regenerative farming, the Disruption Innovation team at Bright Future Foods discovered how to produce a food that was climate positive (or carbon negative). Enter ‘Airly’: a cute, delicious cracker, with mighty impact.

Our challenge was to create a compelling vision, name, identity, package design, and digital presence that could attract both the “climate-curious” consumer as well as major retailers alike.

Bright Future Foods was clear in their mission to reverse climate change through food. They were driven to contribute to a better planet and had the technology through regenerative farming to take action.

We designed a distinctly ownable shape for the cracker that would cue light and airy while subtly reinforcing the reciprocal nature of being good for the planet, enabling more people to play a positive part in climate change by simply snacking.

But bringing this climate-positive snack to the world successfully would mean articulating a meaningful purpose, a name that captures the idea, and a tone and visual identity that would attract large retailers and consumers.

We started by identifying a simple human truth: people think their efforts to improve climate change are small, but they are eager to find easier ways to make a positive impact. The opportunity was to create a snack that would allow the “climate-curious” consumer to get involved in climate change without drastically altering their everyday habits.

"Bringing a breath of fresh air to snacking and our planet" became our purpose in showing consumers how small contributions have potential to make a big impact. The name, ‘Airly’, was born out of our purpose, capturing our story in a friendly, approachable way.

Our brand character informed the rest of the Airly visual and verbal identity. For the logo, we created a free-flowing typeface combined with bright watercolors, bringing light-hearted optimism and transparency to an important topic. Rich, appetizing flavor icons would reinforce the snack’s delicious taste, and illustration would help convey a modern look and feel.

One of the final, key challenges would be messaging. On pack, we were able to boil a complex story into a combination of bite-sized messages and infographics. We prioritized the elements that mattered most on pack and leveraged other ecosystem touch-points, including our website, to share other aspects of the story.

Bringing all of this brand work together in a robust set of guidelines, we helped activate the brand across a new website and 30-second spot aimed to tap into multi-sensorial elements like animation and sound to capture the essence of Airly. From start-to-finish, the brand creation was a true collaboration between Bright Future Foods and its agency partners.
At the end of the day, Airly is a snack — an appealing, delicious cracker. Most people don’t want to think too hard about how the snacks they’re buying impact the planet. What they do want is to trust that the brands they buy are putting the effort into sustainability, enabling them to make quick and easy choices when shopping.

This understanding helped Bright Future Foods remain focused on their mission — to help reverse climate change, but think about taste and accessibility first, then educate people on the good the snack does for the world.