It’s that time of year again—the announcement of the Grand Prize winner of the Designalytics Effectiveness Awards for 2026.
Given in partnership with Dieline, these awards were created to spotlight the significant impact package design can have on the growth of consumer brands. As always, winner selection was entirely data-driven, based on sales performance in the marketplace as well as rigorous quantitative consumer testing.
This year’s grand prize winner is…. Catalina Crunch, for its cereal and snack mix redesigns!
With this latest portfolio redesign, the brand upgraded its packaging personality while enhancing communication across the board—all in an effort to expand its appeal to new consumers. "Originally, we were known for our ‘keto’ credentials, but we realized through research that we could expand our audience considerably by moving toward broader messaging,” said Katrina Winkel, director of marketing at Catalina Crunch. “This wasn't just a packaging shift; it was a total brand pivot.”
The new look is centered around a “bullseye” composition—a top-down view of a bowl of the cereal or snack mix, topped by an eye-catching ribbon highlighting key nutritionals. This ensured that consumers don'’t need to look far to get the information they want and need to make a purchase decision. The brand also aggressively decluttered, removing or sublimating claims, and always used consumer research as a guide. As a finishing touch, Catalina Crunch modified the wordmark and replaced its previous icon with a bright sunburst.
And consumers? Well, they ate the new look up. In Designalytics’ testing, consumers preferred the brand’s new designs for cereal and snack mix (65% and 77% respectively) over the previous versions.
The sales results reflected this success. During the six months following the redesign, both the cereal and snack mix saw major sales increases compared to the same period the year before: a 65% jump for the cereal and a 131% leap for the snack mix. Sales per point of distribution rose as well—40% for cereal and 32% for snack mix.
Overall, it was a resounding redesign success worthy of Designalytics' top prize for design effectiveness. "Design can feel like a gamble—until you bring the consumer into the process early and often," said Steve Lamoureux, founder and CEO of Designalytics. "Catalina Crunch did exactly that with these redesigns, turning uncertainty into a disciplined system for growth and delivering results that speak for themselves.”
Congratulations to the team at Catalina Crunch, including Katrina Winkel, Sam Martin (chief marketing and revenue officer), and Brian Hanover (director of brand design). Additional credits to Blue Ox photo studio, photographer Rod Komis, food stylist Lara Miklasevics, and producer Keely Dunn, as well as Nate Twedten and Chapin Stitt for photo retouching.
Stay tuned: This is just the first of several winners of the 2026 Designalytics Effectiveness Awards! We’ll announce the full roster of winners this fall.