Reinvigorating
a true Kiwi icon

For 80 years Wattie’s has been bringing generations of Kiwis together to share and enjoy great food.

While the brand has always been held dearly by New Zealanders, it was starting to lose its relevance with younger audiences and struggling to connect with those who had recently arrived in the country.

The brand team engaged Unified, along with The Business & Big Picture to explore what Wattie’s meant for New Zealanders – and more importantly how to take the brand forward for the ‘new’ New Zealand.

Through testing we were able to hypothetically position Wattie’s in places it wouldn’t normally sit – enabling us to break down Wattie’s DNA and understand what really mattered.

Wattie’s has always been a family brand but over time the entrepreneurial spirit of Sir James while not forgotten, had been overlooked. Treating the Wattie’s brand as the dynamic, adventurous entrepreneur that Sir James had been, was embraced unanimously.

From here we set about injecting life back into the wordmark by playing on the quirky personality of some of the letterforms that were so iconically Wattie’s, and weaving a more natural flow and craft through the new wordmark. We like to describe it as finding the perfect meeting point between heritage and modernity – comfortable but intriguing!

Controversially, we have even turned the brand on its head, quite literally, introducing a vertical logo in Wattie’s portfolio - simple, bold and proud, almost as if signed by Sir J. Wattie’s himself.

Wattie’s Tomato Sauce, arguably one of the most iconic New Zealand family pantry staples, was the first range that the approach was applied to. As part of the new transformation we chose to hero the quality ingredients - celebrating the abundance of fresh tomatoes that goes into each bottle of sauce. Using natural lighting, we wanted the ingredients to cast shadows on the Wattie’s wordmark so the brand feels integrated with the ingredients.

With the launch of Wattie’s Tomato Sauce and reveal of the brand’s new look, we ensured that Wattie's continues to have pride and prominence on shelf and with consumers - and it paved the way for us to reinvigorate their entire portfolio.