PEP’S DRAFTHAUS.
In my role as Marketing Director for Hansen Foods, I was the design and marketing lead on the Pep’s brand of frozen pizzas. When Pep’s became part of the Hansen Foods family in 2016, our goal was to transition the brand from a lower cost/lower quality frozen pizza to a premium, heavily topped tavern-style frozen pizza brand of choice.
My first step was evolving the brand name to be “Pep’s Drafthaus Original”. As Pep’s was first introduced in 1962, I wanted to retain the brand equity in the name while introducing the tavern/beer identifiors. Instead of using self-identifying variety names, I created uniquely descriptive names increasing consumer retention for their favorite varieties and further differentiating the brand competing in an over-saturated market.
The first, single-color “keg” label design was completed by me in 2017. As sales continued to increase and our goals became clearer, I completed a strategic redesign in 2021 to further position Pep’s as a brand of choice. The resulting design included photography, bolder use of typography and several other unique elements that visually differentiate Pep’s from the competition while defining trends for frozen pizza label (and carton) design today.
Through everything I managed and lead all aspects of concepting, design, photography art direction, final artwork preparation, pre-press work, press checks and all supporting marketing components. I also managed a coordinating new website design and abundance of social media graphics, while managing posting and engaging with our audience daily.
I’m proud to share that the Pep’s Drafthaus Original frozen pizza packaging redesign was awarded a 2022 American Package Design Award from Graphic Design USA, and continues to be a leader among frozen pizza branding while establishing Pep’s Drafthaus as a brand of choice for consumers.
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