The Future of Cheese – The Bagel Collab

How do you get people to buy your plant-based cheese, when you’re not allowed to call it a cheese? Stockeld Dreamery, a Swedish food-tech, are re-inventing the food they love to make it more sustainable. First in line to launch was their very ambitious non-dairy cream cheese. But people didn’t get it – not what it was nor how to eat it. So, we stepped in to turn it into something understandable and appealing – and started by refining and reposition the narrative with focus on one thing only – the bagel.

Our thesis simply was that if we pair this non-cheese with something people quickly understand and can’t resist, we’ll visually make people perceive it as a cheese without mentioning cheese. But the bagel idea had other advantages, too. It’s exchangeable. In our initial exploring we concluded that cheese is a cultural product and mean different things for people depending on heritage. With the bagel, a flexible designs system emerged. In other countries, and for upcoming products, it can be changed and easily adapted. Let’s say shredded cheese, we’ll just add a quiche for France and a Sheppard’s pie for Britain. Brilliant.

Introducing the bagel on the packaging didn’t just add clarity, humour, and a cheese occasion without overtelling – it brought a vibrant city street style to the design. With bold typography and orange as colour blocking – we shaped an emotional and disruptive design and narrative, capturing this brilliant cheese-tech-evolution with a New York flair and deliciousness. Instead of “cream cheese”, we simply call it “creamy spread”. In communication, we display more areas of use like baking and pizza to make it look as yummy as it is. Through all channels, the bagel collab enables Stockeld Dreamery to tell its story in a both smart and delectable way.

Now, this cheese-ish is ready to save the planet, looking tasty and irresistible. The re-launch in Sweden and US was a success! Giving Stockeld Dreamery fuel to keep speed on their admirable cheese-changing journey for a more tasty and sustainable food future.