The snack aisle is no longer just about flavour, it’s about filters, QR codes and viral hooks. With Gen Z and millennials driving impulse purchases through quick commerce and social-first discovery, snack brands are racing to turn everyday packs into engagement engines.
According to a 2023 report by NielsenIQ, 54 percent of global consumers aged 18-34 said they are “more likely to try a new product if it offers an interactive digital experience via packaging.” Meanwhile, Accenture’s 2024 Consumer Pulse study revealed that over 63 percent of Indian Gen Z consumers are influenced by AR filters, shoppable content, or branded social challenges when making food and beverage choices, particularly for snacks and impulse buys.
This shift is also being accelerated by the rise of quick commerce platforms like Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart. These platforms are not only shortening the path to purchase but also acting as media spaces themselves. Dunzo’s internal analytics showed that product pages with audio-visual enhancements (like the Britannia jingle-trigger) experienced 18-22 percent higher conversion rates during test campaigns in early 2024.
For brands, this means a snack pack is no longer just about color and logo, it’s a potential gateway to user generated content, augmented reality experiences, or even voice-based engagement. According to Kantar’s BrandZ India 2024 report, snack brands with "digitally activatable packaging" grew 1.7x faster in brand value than those relying solely on conventional marketing.
Technology adoption in this space is accelerating rapidly. With tools like Snapchat’s Lens Studio, Meta’s Spark AR, and Quick Commerce API integrations, brands can now create full-fledged, platform-native experiences— triggered straight from the product packaging. And it’s not just premium smartphones or metro audiences driving this shift. Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India are also showing a sharp rise in AR filter usage and QR code interactions. According to MapMyIndia’s Smart Pack 2023 survey, which tracked over 200 FMCG QR activations, engagement is growing steadily across regions.
These innovations are far from gimmicks—they're strategic levers in modern snack marketing. They're built to:
Reinforce brand recall through sensory cues (like jingles)
Increase dwell time and interaction via games or filters
Most importantly, drive social sharing and virality, turning customers into micro-ambassadors
Snack time isn’t downtime anymore, it’s scroll time, share time, and screen time. And as you’ll see in the
examples below, brands are using everything from biscuits to chips to get in on the action.
Britannia Good Day - A Jingle Every Time You Shop
Britannia’s classic “Have a Good Day” jingle has lived rent-free in Indian heads for years, but the brand recently found a clever way to bring it back into active consumer consciousness. When customers added a pack of Good Day biscuits to their shopping cart on platforms like Zepto, the iconic jingle played instantly, right inside the app interface. It was a small moment of nostalgia, but one that sparked delight and social media chatter. The use of sound at the point of purchase cleverly merged emotion, habit, and commerce in a single swipe-and-smile.
Lays Smile Packs - Packaging That Filters Your Face
PepsiCo’s Lays has long flirted with fun packaging, but the "Smile Deke Dekho" campaign in India took it several notches higher. Each pack featured a real human smile, which, when scanned using a QR code, unlocked a Snapchat lens. This filter animated the smile or let users wear it themselves, encouraging selfie-sharing and user-generated content. With celebs like Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor fronting the campaign, Lays didn't just put a smile on its packs, it got millions of them across Instagram and Snapchat, too.
Too Yumm! - Dance It Out with Virat Kohli
The fitness-forward snack brand Too Yumm! leaned into its health halo with a dose of fun through the #FikarNot challenge. Centered around its brand ambassador Virat Kohli, the campaign encouraged users to participate in a dance challenge and share it via Instagram Reels. While the AR filters weren’t explicitly linked to product packaging, the campaign's digital push and callouts on packs bridged the offline snack experience with an online fitness-inspired movement. The campaign struck a chord with Gen Z and millennials who snack, scroll, and share in the same breath.
Doritos "Make Your Play" - Turn Your Chips into a DJ Console
Doritos quite literally turned their chips into content with their “Make Your Play” campaign in the UK and other global markets. Select triangular chips and packaging carried QR codes that, when scanned, launched an augmented reality DJ mixer on your phone. Users could mix beats, drop loops, and create snack-fuelled soundtracks, all from their chip packet. The final creation could be saved and shared across platforms like Snapchat and TikTok, transforming passive snackers into music producers and influencers-in-the-making.
Oreo Music Box - Cookies That Sing
Oreo took the term “interactive snack” to a charming extreme with its limited-edition Oreo Music Box. Sold as a gift set, the music box played different tunes depending on which Oreo cookie you placed on it, mimicking a vinyl record player. It wasn’t app-based but relied on a surprising, playful physical interaction that people couldn’t resist filming and sharing. TikTok and YouTube were soon filled with cookie DJs, proving that even analogue innovation can go viral when it hits the right nostalgic and novelty notes.
Cheetos "Snap to Steal" - AR Hijinks During the Super Bowl
During the Super Bowl, Cheetos took brand integration to a new level with its "Snap to Steal" campaign. Users could scan the Cheetos pack to unlock an augmented reality lens on Snapchat, allowing them to “steal” items from the Super Bowl ad that starred MC Hammer. The lens created a playful illusion where the user appeared to swipe products right out of the commercial, bringing the ad into their living room (and their stories). It blurred the line between traditional TV spots and personal social media content, making even a bag of cheese puffs a gateway to immersive brand play.
Pringles Can Speaker - Party on a Can
Pringles made sound waves, literally, by releasing a quirky can-top Bluetooth speaker in some global markets. Designed to fit perfectly on an empty Pringles tube, the speaker used the can’s hollow chamber as a sound amplifier. It wasn’t linked to a specific app or AR experience, but users naturally began recording and sharing party tricks, dance moves, and prank videos with their snack-turned-speaker. It was a classic example of turning product packaging into shareable content, with no screen required.
What started as a playful gimmick—QR codes, AR filters, limited-edition packs—has now evolved into a serious marketing strategy. Packaging is no longer just a wrapper; it's a digital gateway. In this new era, the consumer isn’t just a buyer, they’re a co-creator. Whether it’s a nostalgic jingle at checkout or a face-altering filter, snack brands are now designing products for talkability as much as taste.
This shift goes beyond virality, it's about closing the loop between media, purchase, and participation. Every scan, snap and share amplifies the brand’s presence, while giving consumers a moment of joy, identity or even dopamine.
As technology and commerce continue to converge—with AI-generated packaging, voice-led shopping and hyper-personalised content on the horizon—snack brands stand at a unique intersection: ready to be both a literal and cultural bite of the moment.
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