When Packaging Becomes Content
Collaboration Throughout the Value Chain
Nucao, a German chocolate brand that is organic and B Corp certified, builds product awareness through creative limited editions promoted on social media.
To support this strategy, the packaging needs to be:
• customisable
• sustainable
• based on a minimalist design with bold typography
New product variants with individual packaging designs must be developed and produced within a very short timeframe. Packaging is therefore evolving from a mere product container into a powerful communication channel.
The challenge: small budgets, low production volumes, and short product development cycles.
In 2025, nucao teamed up with colordruck Baiersbronn to produce packaging for very small print runs, including in-house co-packing, to promote a new product: matcha-chocolate coated strawberries.
During their presentation at PDC on 16 June 2026 in Düsseldorf, Fabian Dudek, Product Manager at nucao, and Tom Streefkerk, Head of Packaging Digital at colordruck Baiersbronn, shared insights into their collaboration.
What seemed like the perfect match has indeed proven to be one. Together, nucao and colordruck successfully completed four projects in 2025, with many more planned for the future.
Their inspiring talk revealed the following key learnings:
• Fast project execution requires close collaboration. Continuous communication between the experts on both sides is essential.
• Learn as you go. Whether technical or design-related, challenges inevitably arise during the process and need to be solved quickly. One smart outcome, for example, was nucao's decision to switch to a vertical packaging format that better supports social media communication.
• Accept failure as part of the process. Sometimes mistakes are discovered too late to be corrected. What matters is how you respond and turn a challenge into an opportunity. For example: what do you do if, just before shipment, you realise that the copy is printed on the wrong side of the folding carton?
Their collaboration strategy reflects the growing trend towards personalisation and co-creation:
• The younger the consumers, the greater their interest in co-created products. Co-creation has become one of the leading creative strategies for Gen Z and Millennials.
• A growing number of consumers are willing to pay around 10% more for personalised products.
Together, nucao, in collaboration with their partner Colordruck Baiersbronn, will surely surprise us with new products announced through their social media channels.
Stay tuned!
