Overview
Buzz!, a modern sparkling soda brand based in San Francisco, California, partnered with Zaapr to build a bold, shelf-first identity for a new generation of conscious soda drinkers. From logo design to can packaging, outdoor advertising, and marketing collaterals, we crafted a cohesive brand system designed to stand out in a crowded beverage category. The result is a vibrant, flavour-led brand that balances playful energy with contemporary design—built to grab attention, spark curiosity, and scale across touchpoints.
PROJECT SCOPE
Brand Strategy, Logo Design, Packaging Design, OOH Ads, Marketing
INDUSTRY SECTOR
Food & Beverage
INDUSTRY CATEGORY
Sparkling Soda, Non-Alcoholic Beverages
LOCATION
United States
SOFTWARES AND PLATFORMS
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Procreate
Buzz! is a non-alcoholic sparkling soda brand inspired by the new wave of functional and better-for-you beverages. Positioned alongside modern soda disruptions, Buzz! Aims to reimagine everyday soda as a fun, expressive, and visually exciting experience—without losing its mass appeal.
Available exclusively in cans, Buzz! launched with five distinct flavors—Tangy Orange, Blueberry Crush, Strawberry Hill, Zesty Lemon, and Just Peachy—each designed to feel instantly recognizable while remaining part of a cohesive brand family. The brand needed to feel bold, contemporary, and unmistakably “Buzz!” across packaging, OOH advertising, and marketing assets.
Challenge
The challenge wasn’t just to design packaging—it was to build a brand that could compete visually with established soda giants and a new wave of lifestyle beverages, while feeling unmistakably fresh. Buzz! Needed a distinctive logo with strong shelf presence and a scalable packaging system that could support multiple flavors without losing cohesion or impact. At the heart of the brief was a clear cultural influence: the packaging had to capture California’s vibrant, colorful, summer-forward energy, blending expressive illustrations with bold color palettes unique to each flavor.
The visual language also needed to translate seamlessly across OOH advertising and marketing collateral, maintaining clarity and punch at scale. Most importantly, Buzz! had to feel instantly engaging from a distance—on a retail shelf or a San Francisco city street—balancing playful energy with a modern, premium sensibility that remained accessible and mass-appeal ready.
Solution
Zaapr approached Buzz! as a a system-first brand build, beginning with a bold, solid wordmark designed to anchor the identity with confidence and impact. The logo’s typography subtly echoes wave-like forms, drawing inspiration from California’s coastal culture and reinforcing a sense of movement, energy, and refreshment at the heart of the brand.
This foundation extended into a high-impact packaging system built around illustrated fruits paired with dynamic splash and wave motifs, paying homage to California’s surf culture. Each flavor features its own contrasting yet vibrant color palette, ensuring strong differentiation while maintaining a cohesive visual rhythm across the lineup. Designed to perform both individually and together, the cans create a striking shelf presence that feels bold, joyful, and unmistakably Buzz!
Beyond packaging, we carried the same visual language into OOH advertising and marketing collateral, translating the brand’s energy into posters and large-format visuals. This ensures Buzz! Remained consistent across retail and urban environments, strengthening brand recall and scalability while delivering a cohesive, high-impact presence wherever the brand shows up.
Outcome
The Buzz! Identity delivers immediate impact—bright, confident, and impossible to miss. Each flavor stands on its own while reinforcing a unified brand system, making the lineup highly recognizable on shelves and in outdoor formats.
The packaging design helps distinguish the brand from generic soda into a contemporary lifestyle beverage, while the OOH ads and posters amplify brand presence beyond retail. Together, the work establishes Buzz! as a new entrant in the sparkling soda category—built for visibility, memorability, and growth.
If you’re building a beverage brand that needs to stand out on the shelf and scale across touchpoints, we can help. From bold brand identities to packaging systems designed for real-world impact, we partner with teams ready to launch, refresh, or grow with clarity and confidence.
