Pasta Chips is a Pasta Snacks product, by Vintage Italia. Tipsy Elves is known for their fun, outrageous holiday sweaters—the company got its start on Shark Tank and has done over $100M in sales since its launch.

Together, the Pasta Chips and Tipsy Elves team created fun holiday characters to adorn the Pasta Chips bagsand Tipsy Elves ugly sweaters. The idea behind the "ugly sweater" packaging is to win the holidays with snacks that match your sweater—perfect for parties, office festivities or family get-togethers. The partnership started in holiday 2017, and so far the ugly sweater packaging has done over $1.5 million in sales.

The sweaters are available here from Tipsy Elves—on sale now for $46.95: https://www.tipsyelves.com/pastasnacks

The Pasta Chips snacks with ugly sweater packaging are available on the Pasta Snacks website and in grocery stores across the country - flavors include Creamy Ranch, Honey Butter, Meatball Parm and Smooth Cheddar. A 12 pack is $47.88. Available here: https://shop.pastasnacks.com/collections/holiday

Snack Food and Wholesale Bakery was able to talk with Adam Cohen, CMO, Vintage Italia's Pasta Snacks, about this new initiative.

Liz Parker: Why did Pasta Chips start this partnership with Tipsy Elves last year?

Adam Cohen: The winter holidays are super retail focused, with many special holiday items. We thought that if cookies and candy can have holiday packaging, why can't savory snacks have decorative packaging, too? It would be perfect for people to display, give as a gift or add to a gift basket. We also asked ourselves: how can we interrupt a saturated category to make this special Pasta Chips packaging POP OUT on shelves? Cue: Tipsy Elves. A partnership with Tipsy Elves, a company known for their holiday sweaters, would take things one step further and amplify the packaging.

Twenty minutes into the conversation with Tipsy Elves, we came up with the Ugly Sweater Party Pack. We thought having a holiday "snackcessory" would be the best way to tip the scales and do something no one else in the category was doing. It gives customers the perfect way to celebrate the holidays. 

2)      How have consumers of the snacks reacted to this LTO packaging?

Consumers have loved it.  We get so many comments on how people saw it in store and had to have it because it is perfect for for gifting and entertaining.  

3)      Is Pasta Chips doing any special in-store merchandising for the products?

Our retail partners have also loved this packaging promotion. We did shipper displays in-store, and digitally, we did a sweepstakes with IHeartRadio's Jingle Ball tour to fly a family out to one of the shows. 

Answers can be attributed to Adam Cohen, the CMO of Vintage Italia's Pasta Snacks. Pasta Snacks is the first packaged good to bring pasta to the chip category, landing the brand in snack aisles internationally.

Related: Vintage Italia brings innovative, better-for-you pasta snacks to the market