Makro - Serving suggestion stickers / Ripe fruit / Life Extending Stickers (2023) Colombia - case study

Opportunities that meet all the criteria of driving awareness and conversion, doing good - here wasting less food - and looking effortless are rare.

This idea ticks all those boxes by utilizing an often-overlooked in-store media space to drive behavior change. The simple and effective design is praiseworthy as it seamlessly achieves its purpose without drawing attention to itself.

According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Colombian National Department of Planning, Colombians waste approximately 6.1 million tons of food annually, with fruits and vegetables contributing 40% to this waste.

One of the reasons behind this massive amount of waste is the misconception that ripe produce is unusable, resulting in a short life cycle of fruits and vegetables.

To combat this attitude, Dutch-owned cash-and-carry wholesaler Makro and Grey Colombia, Bogotá, created stickers featuring recipe suggestions tailored to the degree of ripeness of fruits and vegetables. The Life Extending Stickers are designed to blend in with the usual branded stickers, imitating the color of each food item at different stages of its ripeness. For instance, a banana's sticker goes from green to yellow to brown and finally black, with a serving or cooking suggestion over each color – in the banana's case, the text reads (in order of ripeness) fried, ice cream, tempura, cupcake.

The stickers launched in April 2023 and are in use in 22 Makro stores across Colombia during ‘Market Wednesdays and Sundays’. The campaign included a variety of recipes showcased on Makro’s Instagram account.

Large amounts of food waste pose sustainability issues for retailers such as Makro, it also results in business losses. This innovative idea drives consumer behavior and is extending the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables. This little sticker idea not only combats food waste but also earns the supermarket chain more money.

Ad agency: Grey Colombia

Chief creative officer: Javier Campopiano
Chief creative officer: Diego Medvedocky
Chief executive officer: Jorge Serrano
Chief creative officer: Juan Jose Posada

Executive creative director: Sebastian Benitez
Executive creative director: Juan Cardenas

Creative director: Andres Nuñez

Art director: Vanessa Sanchez
Copywriter: Juliana Daza
Designer: William Hernandez
Designer: Han Lin

Account director: Diana Espitia
Photographer: German Rojas
Media director: Jorge Velez
Director of production: Juan Lerner