Bloom scraps wild west imagery for new Wagon Wheels branding

Bloom has created new branding and packaging for Wagon Wheels biscuits, scrapping the brand’s previous Wild West iconography.

Wagon Wheels
Wagon Wheels

The consultancy was appointed by Burton’s Biscuit Company to the project in June last year, tasked with giving the brand a new identity that was more relevant to today’s generation of children.

Ed Hayes, Bloom planning director, says, ‘We knew that nowadays kids don’t get as excited about cowboys and Indians as their parents’ generation.’

The new designs retain the previous colour palette of red and yellow to avoid alienating older consumers, with a modified sans-serif typography for the logo in order to create a more modern, bold look, according to Hayes.

Bloom worked alongside advertising agency VCCP to create the branding around the central idea of ‘rough and tumble’.

Hayes says, ‘It’s about kids and the mums who buy the brand to get out there – a bit like the Persil “dirt is good” idea. At the brand’s target age, about nine to 12, they’re about going off on their first trip to the cinema or camping, so the brand idea is “more to explore.”

‘It’s a large biscuit, so it gives you a lot of energy but there’s also lots of layers, so we wanted that intrepid, rough and tumble, raw feel.’

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Comments
  • Jake November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Maybe my niece is the exception but she still gets super-excited over cowboys and indians, pirates, wizards, talking animals, princesses etc etc. Guessing she has far too creative a mind.

    Is this the right move? Have Wagon Wheels lost their unique selling point and now look like all the rest? Should the brief instead have been to ‘get kids excited about cowboys and indians’.

    Growing up with the brand I just think it’s a shame.

    I would love to see other options presented to the client. I get the feeling this may have been the ‘safe’ option…

  • Terry Bane November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I agree with Jake. And I think Woody might have something to say about the relevance of Cowboys to the younger generation… Wagon Wheels loosing reference to to cowboys and indians is a lost brand.

  • Lee November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    The Wagon Wheels name looses all relevance If there is no reference to cowboys and indians.

  • Danny November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Totally agree. Another re-branding where it wasn’t necessary.

    Firstly the packaging is not very distinctive or noticeable anymore. I mistook them today when purchasing for store own-brand before doing a double-take.

    Secondly, why on earth would you get rid of the Wild West theme and still call them Wagon Wheels? The brand now has no logic to it.

    Finally, Cowboys are always cool. Look at things like Toy Story, people of all ages still identify with the wild west theme, and even if they didn’t, Wagon Wheels had their own identity that people of all ages still loved.

    Utter madness, this.

  • Ben Farrell November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Gobsmackingly bad. Couldn’t look more own-brand if it tried. Kids nowadays don’t like cowboys… really? There’s absolutely nothing on this pack that appeals to kids.

  • Jessica November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Cowboys are not relevant, but modern transport, such as wagons, is…..?
    What is the relevance of the name if the idea is ‘more to explore’…why not call them Discovery Discs, or Surprise Sandwiches?
    This is worse than own label, as own labels aspire to be the dream brand, this is a dream brand aspiring to be own label.

  • paul November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I have to agree with all of those other comments. I think they have totally missed the point here. The design now holds no graphical interest and seems to have dipped into the depths of own brand.

  • Jule randall November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    were can i buy some of them!!!!

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