2026 PackPower Awards: Valentine's Day Edition

Celebrating 10 High-Impact Designs That Turn Emotion Into Conversion

Valentine’s Day is one of the most emotionally charged retail moments of the year. It compresses gifting pressure, romantic symbolism, and indulgence into a narrow selling window. In this environment, packaging does more than decorate. It reduces decision friction, signals appropriateness, and validates emotional intent at shelf. 

Shoppers navigating seasonal aisles are not browsing casually. They are often time constrained and outcome focused. They need to communicate affection, thoughtfulness, or playfulness through a single purchase. The pack becomes a proxy for the relationship. Visibility, clarity, and emotional resonance directly influence conversion. 

In 2026, competitive intensity was particularly high across chocolates and candy, where seasonal clutter peaks and differentiation becomes critical. We also explored pet treats as a nontraditional Valentine’s category, examining how brands translate seasonal relevance into adjacent spaces. Across categories, the brands that won were those that leveraged distinctive equities while fully embracing seasonal codes. The strongest designs did not merely add hearts. They structurally and visually embedded Valentine’s meaning into brand assets, accelerating recognition and reducing hesitation at shelf.

What is PackPower Awards

The PackPower Awards celebrate packaging that blends creativity with measurable performance. Powered by the PackPower Score™, the Awards recognize designs that do more than look good. 

The PackPower Score is the industry’s leading behavioral benchmark for packaging effectiveness. It predicts a pack’s ability to drive sales in market by measuring emotional resonance, clarity of communication, brand recognition, and conversion power. 

By quantifying how design performs under real shopping conditions, the PackPower Score identifies which seasonal executions are likely to win at shelf. It moves packaging decisions from instinct to evidence. 

2026 PackPower Awards: Valentine's Day Edition

This year’s winners demonstrate that successful Valentine’s packaging is built on integration, not decoration. Across chocolates, candy, and pet food, top performing packs embedded heart shapes into structure, amplified core brand colors, and reinforced gifting cues through Valentine’s Day relevant finishes or playful personalization. 

The breadth of winners across three categories highlights how seasonal design can elevate both traditional gifting formats and everyday impulse items. A consistent performance theme emerged: the most effective packs balanced emotional intensity with brand familiarity. They made the occasion unmistakable without sacrificing recognition. 

Winners

Chocolate Category 1. Lindt LINDOR Valentine’s Milk Chocolate Truffles Friend Heart (Lindt & Sprüngli) PackPower Score - 70 The dominant cue is the structural heart silhouette combined with Lindt’s signature red and gold palette. The centered gold Lindor logo and flowing chocolate truffle visual preserve strong brand recognition, while small scattered hearts amplify seasonal context without clutter. The pack communicates premium smoothness and romance simultaneously. The molded heart format signals gifting suitability instantly, reducing cognitive load for shoppers seeking an appropriate token. The clean hierarchy keeps the brand front and center, ensuring that emotional embellishment enhances rather than dilutes equity.
2. Godiva Valentine’s Day Heart-Shaped Gift Box (Godiva) PackPower Score - 67 The rigid heart-shaped box in deep red with gold foil typography leverages premium structural design as the primary behavioral cue. The embossed gold Godiva wordmark and heritage seal reinforce luxury credentials and quality assurance. Multilingual “I love you” scripts subtly printed across the surface create a sense of global romance while adding texture and visual depth. The box format elevates the product into a keepsake object, increasing perceived value and gift-worthiness. The design signals thoughtfulness, which reduces perceived social risk in gifting decisions.
3. Ferrero Rocher 8 Piece Heart Gift Box (Ferrero) PackPower Score - 63 The clear clamshell format foregrounds Ferrero’s iconic gold-wrapped chocolates, making the brand’s most distinctive equity the primary visual driver. While the structure subtly nods to a heart silhouette, the strongest cue at shelf is the recognizable gold foil presentation arranged in a premium formation. Transparency reduces uncertainty around quantity and quality, reinforcing trust and gifting confidence. Light seasonal cues signal Valentine’s relevance while preserving Ferrero’s established codes of indulgence and sophistication.
4. Hershey’s Pink Cookies ’n’ Creme Hearts Candy (The Hershey Company) PackPower Score - 58 The white background anchors strong brand recognition, allowing the bold Hershey’s wordmark to dominate. Pink heart-shaped product visuals and pastel accents deliver immediate seasonal relevance. The playful color shift from classic brown to pink creates novelty while retaining brand clarity. The product imagery reinforces flavor cues and indulgence, while the large net weight callout supports value perception. The result is a pack that balances fun, familiarity, and impulse appeal in mass retail environments.

Candy Category 5. Haribo Valentine’s Sweet & Sour Hearts Candy (Haribo) PackPower Score - 65 The pink gradient background and heart-shaped gummies provide strong seasonal cues. The iconic Haribo logo in bold white and red maintains immediate brand recognition. The Haribo Goldbear holding a heart-shaped To/From tag introduces personalization, increasing gifting utility. The transparent window allows product visibility, enhancing appetite appeal and trust. By combining playfulness with functional cues, the pack strengthens impulse conversion across age groups.
6. Trolli Valentine’s Sour Brite Gummi Hearts Candy (Ferrara Candy Company)  PackPower Score - 59 The bold black and neon purple background maintains Trolli’s distinctive, edgy brand identity. Bright multicolored heart gummies pop against the dark backdrop, creating strong contrast and visibility. The large Sour Brite Hearts typography communicates flavor intensity clearly, while the resealable format adds functional value. By embedding heart shapes into Trolli’s established visual language rather than shifting to traditional pink romance, the design protects brand authenticity while activating the season.
7. Twix Mates Chocolate Valentine’s Day Candy Bars (Mars, Incorporated) PackPower Score - 57 The oversized yellow heart behind the bold Twix logo integrates seasonal symbolism directly into brand equities. The Find Your Other Half tagline reinforces the two-bar format in a Valentine-relevant way. Product photography showing split bars reinforces the sharing proposition. The design uses minimal seasonal clutter, ensuring high recognition at distance. This clarity strengthens impulse conversion in high traffic seasonal displays. .
8. Swedish Fish Valentine’s Gummy Hearts Candy (Mondelēz International)  PackPower Score - 55 The bright yellow background retains Swedish Fish’s distinctive shelf signature, while red heart balloons introduce seasonal coding. The playful heart graphics surround the central brand logo, keeping recognition intact. The product window maintains trust and appetite appeal. By layering hearts over established color blocking rather than replacing it, the pack maintains equity while signaling relevance.

Pet Food Category 9. Milk-Bone Soft & Chewy Tender Hearts Dog Treats (J.M. Smucker Co.) PackPower Score - 66 A bold red and purple color split establishes seasonal context while preserving Milk-Bone’s iconic bone-shaped logo as the anchor. The smiling dog visual creates emotional warmth and reinforces pet-owner bonding. Heart-shaped treats displayed prominently reduce ambiguity about seasonal relevance. The Made with Real Chicken badge supports rational reassurance, balancing emotion with credibility. The limited edition callout drives urgency in a compressed retail window.

10. Boots & Barkley Valentine’s Biscuits Vanilla Flavor Dog Treats (Target Corp.)  PackPower Score - 60 The dominant pink pouch immediately codes Valentine’s. The large Boots & Barkley wordmark preserves brand clarity, while the clear product window builds trust through visibility. The limited edition badge and floral motif introduce seasonal differentiation without overcomplicating the layout. By combining transparency with playful color, the pack appeals to pet owners seeking a low-risk, festive treat. It leverages emotional bonding while maintaining price-accessible cues.

What Makes an Effective Valentine’s Pack Design? 

• Structural Symbolism: Heart-shaped formats or integrated heart graphics accelerate occasion recognition. Structural cues reduce decision time by making gifting intent obvious at first glance. 

• Brand First, Season Second: High performing packs protect core brand equities. Seasonal overlays that obscure logos or color codes introduce friction. The strongest designs amplify recognition before adding emotional embellishment.

• Visibility Builds Trust: Transparent windows and clear product photography reduce uncertainty. In gifting scenarios, visual confirmation increases confidence and conversion.

• Premium Cues Elevate Gifting: Foil accents, rigid boxes, and embossed typography increase perceived value. For high-stakes social purchases, perceived quality mitigates risk.

• Personalization Drives Utility: To/From tags, sharing messages, and dual formats increase functional relevance. These cues expand use cases beyond romantic partners to friends, family, and pets. 

• Urgency Through Limited Edition Signals: Clear seasonal callouts activate scarcity. In short retail windows, urgency nudges action and reduces postponement.

Why Seasonal Design Testing Matters

Valentine’s Day offers a compressed selling period with intense competitive clutter. Hundreds of SKUs compete for limited seasonal space. Minor design weaknesses are amplified under these conditions. The emotional shopping environment increases stakes. Shoppers seek reassurance that their choice appropriately communicates sentiment. Packaging that lacks clarity or feels generic risks rejection, even if the product quality is strong. Relying on instinct during seasonal redesigns introduces risk. Subtle hierarchy shifts, color changes, or structural decisions can impact recognition and conversion in unpredictable ways. 

The PackPower Score evaluates packaging under simulated real world shopping conditions. It identifies strengths in emotional resonance, clarity, and distinctiveness while uncovering barriers that may suppress performance. 

By validating design decisions before launch, brands can optimize visual hierarchy, refine seasonal cues, and protect core equities. Predictive testing reduces financial risk and increases confidence that limited window SKUs will deliver measurable sales impact. 

Ready to Maximize Your 2026 Seasonal Impact?

Seasonal packaging is too important to leave to intuition. Test your upcoming Easter, or holiday designs with the PackPower Score. Identify where emotional resonance can be strengthened, where clarity can be sharpened, and where conversion barriers can be removed. The brands recognized in this year’s PackPower Awards demonstrate that disciplined, insight-led design drives performance. Make your next seasonal launch one that wins at shelf and in market. 

Contact us now to start testing today!

THE AUTHOR

Corey Zinser is a Director of Business Development at Behaviorally. With a background in marketing and sales, he has a true passion for partnering with CPG, health and wellness, and beverage companies guiding them through their upcoming initiatives, projects, or challenges. Outside of the office, Corey enjoys time spent with his wife and two children, whether it's exploring nature through hiking and biking or embarking on exciting travel adventures.

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