Fanta needed to own Halloween. I led the packaging design across two consecutive campaigns, commissioning illustrator Noma Bar to create limited-edition designs that turned cans into collectible mini-posters — and launched a multi-year global brand platform.
2016: Original characters that hide the flavor in plain sight.
The first series introduced four original Halloween characters rendered in Noma Bar's signature negative-space style. Each character embedded the flavor profile of its Fanta variant into the illustration itself — a visual puzzle that rewarded close looking.
A skeleton with orange-slice eye sockets for Fanta Orange. A witch and crow pecking at grapes for Fanta Grape. Frankenstein's monster with a pineapple-chunk grimace for Fanta Pineapple. Dracula with strawberries caught in his fangs for Fanta Strawberry.
The ambition was to make each can feel like a miniature poster — bold enough to read from a shelf, clever enough to hold attention up close. The series was featured in The Drum, Dieline, Design Packaging News, Packaging Europe, and Graphiline.
2017: Elevating the concept with Universal Studios Classic Monsters.
For Year 2, the concept was elevated through a partnership with Universal Studios, replacing original characters with the studio's iconic Classic Monsters — timed to coincide with Universal's release of The Mummy (2017). The Mummy, The Phantom of the Opera, The Bride of Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man each received the same negative-space treatment, with fruit details hidden within each monster's silhouette.
Meanwhile, the 2016 original designs were simultaneously adopted across Western Europe by Coca-Cola European Partners as their biggest-ever Halloween investment — with on-pack Snapchat codes, digital OOH, experiential VR events, and a 90-day content strategy. The campaign generated 25 million unique users, 137 million impressions, and a 37-second average Snapchat lens play time — one of the highest averages Snapchat had ever recorded.
A platform that kept compounding.
Noma Bar's illustrations continued to be deployed through 2019. By 2018, the Halloween period delivered record Fanta sales of £15.8 million over four weeks in Great Britain alone, with 17.2% growth. The campaign won a Shorty Award for Snapchat Presence and was featured as a WARC case study.
What started as a limited-edition North American packaging project became a global, multi-year brand platform — proof that smart design at the intersection of culture and commerce can create lasting commercial value.
