24 from ’24:
The Conversations, Trends, and Projects That Made Our Year

Are we about to get on the year-in-rewind bandwagon? Obviously! Call it our version of #Wrapped without the psychedelic graphics. Here are the trends, behaviors, viral moments, themes, and stories that kept us on our toes throughout 2024. (These are based on our collective observance of and reliance on many sources, including Mintel, Tik Tok, Instagram, Pinterest, and several industry publications and reports; any omission of due credit is unintentional.)

Because we work in CPG, our industry makes a big appearance, but some hot hits were universal and applied anywhere consumers existed this year. Will all of these follow us into the new year? Hard to say, but some of the lessons will undoubtedly last.

Here’s our look back at the last 12 months of listening, learning, watching, and scrolling. (Maybe in 2025 we’ll put our phones down a little more? Nah, who are we kidding?)

#24

Every holiday came a little early

Like, earlier than ever. PSL (that’s Pumpkin Spice Latte to you) arrived in Starbucks in August this year. It seems we needed cozy vibes long before the weather complied. Every year, the stores seem to turn faster and faster, and while we grumble a bit, are we really sad about it? No, no we are not.

#23

Functional benefits, versatile uses

More and more products are being pitched as multi-functional, with benefits beyond, say, hydration or satiety. Think prebiotic sodas, adaptogenic coffee, and vitamin-infused non-alcoholic drinks. Versatility matters, too; dayparts are becoming irrelevant as people snack and sip all day long.

#22

Face time. Like, the real thing

We saw an even bigger return to in-person meetings and gatherings this year, with undeniable benefits. Full-time RTO is still off the table, but face-to-face meetings and socializing are definitely helping us all make up for lost pandemic time.

#21

Newstalgia

This trend is *almost becoming “old-stalgia” because it’s been around for several years now, but nostalgic products and throwback design—appropriately modernized via color, shapes, and fonts—are holding on to their appeal in CPG.

#20

QR codes

They were around long before the pandemic, but we have that experience to thank for their resurgence. QR codes aren’t just for restaurants anymore—we’re seeing them on packaging, signage, and elsewhere for info sharing and storytelling, and consumers are actually using them.

#19

Candy

It was a good year to be a candy person. Ok every year is a good year to be a candy person. But this year, especially at Halloween, we saw some very fun flavors, packaging, and in-store display, and the holiday season is looking just as sweet. Which means 2025 will probably be a very good year for dentists.

#18

Wicked

Ariana. Cynthia. Glinda. Elphaba. The interviews. The pinky-holding. The music. The total commitment to red carpet slaying. And the licensed products, oh my. From Starbucks to Ulta to Walmart, Wicked was everywhere, with green and pink packaging to match. The effect? Pure wizardry.

#17

Brat

A masterclass in design and marketing. No notes!

#16

Pets are the new kids and plants are the new pets

Credit for the phrase above goes to Mintel, but it’s Millennials and Gen Z who created the situation. We studied a lot of petcare this year and in short, consumers will do anything for their pets, and if their pets aren’t welcome, they’re not going. If we can’t have pets, by gosh we’ll have plants. The bottom line: caring for something will forever be a human need.

#15

Bevvies

Emotional support beverages and containers remain essential. As for what goes in them, take your pick—the water and hydration category is positively bursting at the moment. When will it reach saturation? Grab your Owala (or Stanley, if you must) and let’s find out.

#14

Snacks

BFY, upcycled ingredients, snacks for dinner, snacks as therapy…the snack category is highly innovative, and consumers can’t get enough. Which leads us to…

#13

Wild flavor mashups

Consumers like it spicy. They like it “swicy.” They like it salty. They like it “swalty.” They want international inspiration and cheesy excellence. Expect more and more new flavor combos in 2025, because we love novelty almost as much as we love snacks.

#12

“Dopamine design”

We’ve also heard it called “chaos design,” but no matter the name, it’s here to bring us joy in the store aisle. Think riotous colors, big bubbly letters, Picasso-like compositions, and unbridled optimism. When we feel good, we’re more likely to make impulse buys. It’s science.

#11

Tik Tok Shop

So much promise. So much money wasted.

#10

The suburbs

In many major American cities, the suburbs are now destinations, thanks to beer gardens (dog-friendly, because of course), food halls, farmers’ markets, indie coffee shops and other small businesses, and vibrant resurrections of Main Street. Accessible entertainment and exciting food options, all with stroller parking? We’re paying attention.

#9

Altered appetites

In 2024, we saw new foods emerge for consumers on medically assisted weight loss journeys, like shakes specially designed for users’ nutrition needs. We also saw changed consumption trends related to a loss of appetite, and many industry watchers believe this will dramatically impact food sales. There is much unknown here—but it’s fertile ground for CPG innovation.

#8

Girl dinners, rat snacking, and snealing

We got on personal terms with each of these trends this year (turns out girl dinners—e.g. a plate of random snacks—have always been a thing for some of us). Rat snacking is Gen Z’s tendency to pair together foods that don’t actually go together (ice cream and hot sauce, for example), while snealing is the making of a snack into a meal. Maybe it’s all just eating, after all, but who doesn’t love a cute name?

#7

Sustainable growth over astronomic growth

This isn’t unique to 2024, but too much, too fast is often a straight line to crash & burn. TO BE CLEAR THIS IS A CHAPPELL ROAN STAN ACCOUNT but even she acknowledged her meteoric rise was a recipe for mental exhaustion. Social media is both a blessing and a curse—and represents a complicated facet of doing business today.

#6

It’s a wonderful, curated life

Perfectly messy vignettes. Artfully cluttered countertops. The bathroom sink. The bedroom nightstand. The mid-2000s #shelfie may have started it, but no matter how big or small our homes, there are little places that can be strategically arranged, filmed, and shared for mass consumption. It matters because the products on display are without a doubt reflective of the owner’s style, status, and uniqueness. Which means the packaging of those products also matters—a lot.

#5

Collabs made in heaven

Expected and unexpected collabs were everywhere in 2024. Not just the enduring duo of Snoop & Martha (can the Olympics be on all the time?), but Dove & Crumbl, Olipop & Barbie, Michael Cera & CeraVe, the list goes on. In most cases, the profile of each party was elevated for the better (or funnier), meaning 2025 should be an even better year for collabs.

#4

Private label

IT WILL NOT BE DENIED. Buoyed by the pandemic—a time when many consumers switched from name brands to private label and never looked back—private label is a force, stealing or even dominating share in many CPG categories. It’s no secret that private label packaging design is getting stronger by the second too, spurring established brands to re-think their own.

#3

AI

It’s becoming our friend? And we’re not sad about it? AI remains an evolving tool that we’re finding ever more useful, as are our clients. But with great power comes great responsibility, and as an industry, we’ll have to learn to wield it wisely.

#2

Chronically online / touching grass

We are a complicated species. To counteract our obsessive digital lives, we really do need to go touch grass, preferably every day. What does that mean for our work at Kaleidoscope? We believe the best brand experiences deftly blend the digital with the tangible—creating memorable work that’s not only available where consumers spend most of their time, but also in physical spaces, where they can touch, feel, and hold products. There are complex neural processes at work here, but genuinely engaging branding hits all the human senses.

#1

More “what if,” less “what is”

We had hundreds (thousands?) of conversations this year, both internally and with clients, during which we challenged ourselves to see possibilities instead of limitations. Of course, there will always be project guardrails, budget and timeline constraints, and many more considerations. But we’re always better when we solve existing problems through invention, rather than creating “solutions” for invented problems.

Put far more simply, we’d rather build boxes than check them. And we hope you’ll join us in 2025.