Social fans do not care about new logos.
So when Fruit By The Foot and Gushers reached out to help tell our social fandom that the brands were updating their packaging for the first time in over a decade, we took a modern social approach.
We partnered with TikTok’s darling design queen and made sure we didn’t just tell our fandom about the rebrand, we gave them something to engage with — and that they did to the tune of an 18% TikTok engagement rate, double the brand’s goal for the year.
WHERE WE STARTED
We absolutely believe brands matter, logos matter, and the on-shelf experience impacts sales. But from a social media perspective, social fans just do not care about new brand marks and expressions. We knew we had our work cut out for us, specifically with a teen audience who rarely takes things seriously. So we leaned into the brand identities for Gushers and Fruit By The Foot to find a modern approach that would seamlessly mesh with how our audience expects us to show up on social media.
We took these inputs — along with our fandom’s obsession for offbeat humor on TikTok — into our planning process.
We landed on borrowing equity from a popular creator so the rebrand announcement didn’t just come from us.
Who did we turn to?
Only TikTok’s graphic design darling! A woman whose deadpan delivery of hot takes certainly defies norms and adds silliness and entertainment to every moment: Emily Zugay.
The plan was simple: have Zugay playfully roast our old brand marks while providing us ‘inspiration’ for how we should approach our rebrand. In her patented style, Zugay unleashed incredible critiques, such as “your logo is feeling wet” and “I feel like your box needs to include a waiver” as she created her takes on what we should be rolling out.
Our fandom leaned in, and we continued the playfulness by utilizing TikTok’s Stitch feature to react to her creations in real time. This playful banter lead to 4.9M views for Gushers and 2.3M views for Fruit By The Foot.
But the fun didn't stop there!
It was time to roll out our official brand redesigns with Emily’s help. We leaned into her Gushers signoff, “as Gen-Z says, this would look pretty fire on some merch” and created a dual-sided bucket hat rocking Emily’s creation on one side and our official new logo on the other.
We had Emily officially unveil our design by showcasing the bespoke hat and kicking off a social giveaway to our fandom as a way to say thanks for engaging. And of course, added another response and call for entries in a way only Gushers could.
While we may have pulled a fast one on Emily and our social fandom, they appreciated the banter and an opportunity to engage back with our rebrand.
These are just a few of our favorite comments.
THE RESULTS
Owned and influencer content saw 18.95% Engagement rate on TikTok, more than doubling the brand’s goal for the year.
All that reach and awareness added up:
Now that’s a rebrand worth sharing!
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A Word From Our Design Expert, Emily Zugay
“My involvement in the Gushers and Fruit by the Foot campaign was an incredible experience. Being a genuine fan of both products before they approached me made it an ideal match from the start. Collaboration was a key factor in the campaign’s success, fostering mutual respect in brainstorming and aligning the brand with the creator’s style. This approach resulted in an authentic, enjoyable, and engaging campaign, more about entertainment than feeling like a traditional advertisement. When social media audiences feel included in the fun alongside the brand and creator, rather than disconnected, it leads to better resonance, recall, and fosters brand loyalty. This campaign exemplifies that principle, enhancing brand awareness and cultivating lasting fans.”
