Bringing entertainment value to a premier snack brand

Pringles is a long established brand within the Proctor & Gamble family, having invented the stack chip category more than thirty years ago. Known for their signature shape, various flavors, and unique packaging, Pringles are the top selling potato crisp on the market, favored by adults and children alike. Eager to build on this success and reinvent the Pringles product line, Procter & Gamble turned to IDEO, a long-standing collaborator. With few guidelines from Procter & Gamble, IDEO set out to discover the key to uncovering a chip that offered an added level of engagement and enjoyment.

Applying IDEO’s human-centered design approach, the Zero20 practice interviewed kids and moms about snacking, lunching, and eating habits. After identifying several key opportunity areas—foremost, the idea of a chip with entertainment value—the team generated hundreds of concepts and dozens of prototypes. Through a collaborative selection process with stakeholders, the Pringles Prints platform emerged.

Pringles Prints use blue or red vegetable-based food colorings to print images, trivia questions, and jokes on the chips. Without dramatically changing the Pringles manufacturing process, the result is a chip that is now interactive and capable of inspiring group or individual amusement. With each full size tube containing close to one hundred individual messages, the opportunity for an enhanced consumer experience is present with every chip. Pringles co-branding efforts with Hasbro, Survivor, and Trivial Pursuit have resulted in a product appealing to a breadth of audiences.

Within eighteen months of the inception of the printable chip idea, Pringles sent it to market with dramatic results. In an industry where fun and time-to-market directly reflects sales, Pringles’ quick implementation had a “measurable and attributable” impact for the brand. The chips have even secured a place in pop culture, making their way into a Jay Leno late-night talk show monologue.