Why Packaging Has Become the PR World’s Favourite Accessory

For agencies working across brand, PR, and campaigns, packaging has shifted. It’s no longer just how something gets delivered — it’s how it’s introduced. It frames the product. It sets the tone. It shapes how the moment is received, photographed, and remembered.

Packaging isn’t just the finishing touch anymore. It’s part of the idea.

It sits alongside the mood board, the product, the pitch. Considered from the start, not added at the end. In recent seasons, especially across the PR world, it’s become a creative tool in its own right — a quiet driver of attention, share-ability, and sentiment.

Because in an industry built on first impressions, it’s often the packaging that shows up first.

Packaging That’s Part of the Plan

It’s now expected that a product drop will arrive as a fully considered piece — not just a courier satchel with a press release, but something built around the idea itself. Structure, colour, weight, finish. A sense of the brand before anything is said.

More agencies are treating packaging as part of the campaign from day one. It’s no longer something tacked on at the end. Formats are mapped alongside messaging. Unboxing moments are considered in the rollout. And often, the packaging lives on — reused, photographed, repurposed, remembered.

The Kit That Gets Kept

Beauty and fashion may have set the standard, but they’re no longer the only ones leading with packaging. Beverage launches, tech previews, interior brands, even B2B — every category is finding ways to make first impressions count. Packaging is how the experience begins. It sets the tone. And when done well, it becomes a campaign in its own right.

That’s why so many brands have turned to format as much as finish. Rigid boxes with magnetic lids. Die-cut mailers built around product shape. Eco materials that align with purpose. And inserts — always with inserts. The kind that make opening feel like discovering.

You can usually spot the work. It’s the kit that’s kept on desks for weeks. The one that gets posted before the caption’s even written. The one where someone in the office says “who did this?” before they even know what’s inside.

And while the creativity often comes from the agency, the packaging partner matters. Not just for the craft, but for the way they slot into the process. Quietly, reliably, and always ready to move fast when the product ship date suddenly shifts forward a week.

More and more, it’s becoming part of the standard toolkit — like the press release, the sample, the idea itself. A good concept is only as strong as how it shows up. And in 2025, how it shows up is often in a box.

Because brand experience isn’t just what you launch. It’s how it lands.