UPDATE: Dec. 12, 2024: Design Bridge and Partners worked on Hostess’ new packaging while Sarah Anne Ward Photography assisted with the new product photography, a spokesperson shared with Marketing Dive following this story’s publication. 

Dive Brief:

• Hostess unveiled a revamped logo and packaging design, part of the snack company’s efforts to modernize its identity, according to a press release. 
• The Ding Dongs and Twinkies maker is keeping its long-standing red heart iconography but updating its font to a punchier style and introducing a more vibrant color palette, along with adding a cloud-shaped border around its logo. In addition, packaging includes new photography of the baked snacks.   
• This is the first step in a larger overhaul for Hostess, with an advertising campaign slotted for 2025. The move follows an acquisition by The J. M. Smucker Company last year. 

Dive Insight:

Hostess joins a fleet of packaged foods brand refreshes that come in response to changing consumer tastes and the chase for young shoppers in the Gen Z and millennial age range. J.M. Smucker, which acquired the baked snacks marketer for roughly $5.6 billion last year, has been busy modernizing what executives have previously termed “dusty” brands, with Hostess now part of the portfolio makeover. 

Hostess’ updates are intended to reinforce that the company’s goods are “made not manufactured,” said Aundrea Graver, director of marketing at J.M. Smucker, in a press statement. Products like Twinkies have developed an almost mythological aura around their shelf stability, but the new looks from Hostess aim to better highlight aspects of taste, quality and airiness — the latter embodied in the addition of a cloud motif — while communicating a sense of joy. 

The refresh went through several rounds of testing, with results showing that consumers preferred the retooled packaging to the old at a ratio of 2:1, with improved perceptions around taste and modernity. A tweaked visual identity is just one piece of Hostess’ plan, with an advertising campaign kicking off in the new year. Hostess credited a dedicated team and “industry leading partners” on the refresh, but didn’t name individual agencies in the release. Publicis Groupe is J.M. Smucker’s lead creative agency. 

Hostess’ fortunes flipped over the past decade-plus after filing for bankruptcy in 2012, a moment when it appeared the iconic brand could be lost for good. The business has capitalized on climbing U.S. consumer demand for snacking, rolling out product innovations like Kazbars and bite-sized Bouncers variants of Ding Dongs, Donettes and Twinkies, though it has experienced sales pressures in recent months. 

J.M Smucker’s net sales increased 17% year over year to $2.3 billion in the company’s fiscal second quarter. Boosting Hostess is a top item on the marketer’s agenda. 

“Looking ahead, we are focused on delivering our strategic priorities, including the integration of Hostess Brands, and are taking decisive actions to grow the Hostess brand,” said President and CEO Mark Smucker in a statement around the earnings.