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The earthy brown hue gives off cozy vibes.
Goodbye, “Brat Green.” Pantone’s 2025 Color of the Year dredges up a different summer hit – the rich brown hue an echo of Sabrina Carpenter’s blockbuster “Espresso.”
What once dominated the airwaves will now saturate our sight lines, with Pantone’s selection of Mocha Mousse, a hue that the global color authority says appeals to a desire for comfort and evokes the delectable quality of cacao, chocolate and coffee.
Pantone has chosen Mocha Mousse as its 2025 Color of the Year. (Pantone Color Institute)
“Underpinned by our desire for everyday pleasures, [Mocha Mousse] expresses a level of thoughtful indulgence,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. She went on to call the shade “sophisticated and lush, yet at the same time an unpretentious classic” and noted that it presents a “tasteful touch of glamour” while it “envelops us with its sensorial warmth.”
The color institute also pointed to the need for harmony as inspiration for its color pick. For the 2025 Color of the Year, “we look to a color that reaches into our desire for comfort and wellness, and the indulgence of simple pleasures that we can gift and share with others,” said Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute.
Pantone is selling limited-edition merch featuring the Color of the Year. (Pantone Color Institute)
Indeed, the Pantone Color Institute is selling limited-edition branded merch featuring its 2025 pick, including coffee mugs, keychains and notebooks. Pantone also has an array of brand partners touting Mocha Mousse in home décor, makeup and apparel. Makeup membership service IPSY is offering a collection of limited-edition products in the shade. Society6, an artist-driven e-commerce retailer, also has a Mocha Mousse collection, available on a variety of products that include art prints, phone cases and more.
This is the 26th year that Pantone has been declaring a Color of the Year. Back in 1999, the institute declared Cerulean Blue its 2000 Color of the Year. For 2024, it chose the pastel neutral Peach Fuzz. Other recent picks include 2023’s Viva Magenta and 2022’s Very Peri.
1. Employee Appreciation Gifts Lean into the coziness of the shade with soft blankets or fuzzy socks.
2. Fitness Studios Help boutique gyms and other fitness studios build up an apparel line with fleece hoodies in earthy brown hues.
3. Company Stores Add a cotton cap, perhaps with an embroidered or faux leather patch, to give employees ample options to rep their company.
This year’s gift bag is a real bag that uses trendy branding and even finds space for print.
The “swag bags” for major award ceremonies like the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Golden Globes are known for their eye-watering monetary value. This year’s Golden Globes bag continues the tradition and is reportedly the highest-value gift bag in the ceremony’s history, with more than $1 million in luxury gifts and getaways nestled neatly into the bag itself.
That’s all well and good for the celebrities, but let’s talk about that bag itself for a second, shall we?
Sometimes, it seems like the term “swag bag” is a bit of a misnomer. There might not be a bag at all. That’s why some shows have started using phrases like “gift suite.” However, the Golden Globes bag really is an honest to goodness bag, and there are plenty of lessons that we can draw from it for promotional products distributors.
It might be a coincidence, since we’re only a few days from Pantone announcing the 2025 Color of the Year “Mocha Mousse,” but the bag designed by Atlas Bespoke uses a shade of brown that looks an awful lot like the it-color for next year.
Part of that is because brown works well as a neutral shade and is often used alongside other neutrals like black and white for luxury goods.
When your gift is supposed to say “opulence” and “award,” you want something that fits the narrative, and Mocha Mousse – or whatever specific shade of brown this bag is – works well here, making the bag elegant and on trend.
“We’re super excited about this chic chocolate brown,” a spokesperson from Atlas Bespoke told Hello! Magazine. “It’s timeless yet on trend.”
Though a marketer or distributor’s first instinct may be to plaster a big loud logo all over a product for maximum visibility, there are times when restraint is appropriate. Many upscale or designer products, even when the logo is what creates the high perceived value, err on the side of minimalism.
The Golden Globes bag does this well with its two main logo signifiers. The first is a small luggage tag that looks like a golden medallion that attaches to the handle with a simple engraved “Golden Globes.” The other is a small embossed Atlas logo on the front of the bag.
This way, recipients can use the bag without it being too obvious that it was a freebie (a relative term), though it has that “if you know, you know” exclusivity factor.
“This bag isn’t something you’ll see anyone else carrying unless they’re a winner or presenter,” the Atlas Bespoke spokesperson said. “If you spot someone at the airport with it, you know you’re in the presence of a Golden Globe honoree.”
Promo pros can create a similarly high-end retail vibe for clients whose brands align with such elements by leveraging minimalist/subtle decoration.
Since the Golden Globes and Atlas Bespoke did go the route of a physical bag rather than a “gift suite,” they needed a way to convey all of the actual gifts, many of which are immaterial, like vacations or experiences.
That’s where a small matching booklet came in handy. The booklet is the same fabric as the bag and includes a list of the redeemable gifts.
“We didn’t want to create waste,” the spokesperson told Hello! “This booklet allows recipients to select their own adventure – whether it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a luxury fashion consultation or a far-flung travel getaway.”
That also continues the trend within the promotional products industry of allowing end-users to choose their own gift. Some end-buyers will create e-commerce platforms where end-users can redeem a code or select their own gift from a list. That way, there’s a smaller chance of an unwanted product ending up in a landfill.
A good promotional gift should be something the recipient desires and wants to use. This bag takes the idea of the over-the-top awards show gift suite and condenses it into a minimal, stylish and functional package. The bag is not only the representative of the Golden Globes and Atlas Bespoke; it represents the $1 million worth of gifts “inside,” and will continue on as a regular bag that recipients can use as a subtle flex wherever they may roam.
This bag hits the sweet spot: stylish color and fabric choices, minimal-yet-visible branding where there’s no denying who’s marketing the product and space for eco-friendliness.