NERDS has come a long way since its initial conception. Its latest and greatest innovation, NERDS Gummy Clusters, are a snackable twist that merges the crunch and tang of classic NERDS with a sweet chewy gummy center. Each bite is an explosion of flavor and texture that surprises and delights. It’s bold. It’s next-level. It’s unlike anything else on the shelf. But Gen Z still thought of NERDS as the candy from their childhood.
Research shows Gen-Z are frequent snackers–with 44% saying when they try new foods “the crazier and more unique the better.” So, we knew once they tried our candy, they’d love it.
But since you can't literally taste a NERDS Gummy Clusters Super Bowl ad (and believe us, we tried), we brought the experience of eating one to life.
We tapped into the power of music and mouthwatering visuals — creating an immersive, multi-sensorial product demo that delivered the taste and texture of NERDS Gummy Clusters directly to viewers. Every shape, color, texture and element of the ad was inspired by the candy and how it combines two great things to make one mind-blowing experience.
We enlisted Shaboozey, a genre-bending artist celebrated for his blend of Hip Hop and Country to reimagine the classic Jazz song, “What a Wonderful World” as a nod to Super Bowl LIX being played in New Orleans. His fresh sound perfectly captured the essence of two different things coming together to create something amazing. The final sound design of his track included SFX from the actual product for an added layer of sonic texture.
In parallel, we brought our Gummy and Nerds to New Orleans, transforming the city's already vibrant energy into a Wonderful World of NERDS. We showcased Nerds and Gummy running, jumping, and dancing through the streets with a lively second line band, creating a delectable world entirely inspired by the product experience.
Our characters’ movements and SFX were designed to further evoke the expereince. The Nerds pitter-patter was high-pitched and crunchy to match their size and texture. Whereas Gummy had a low, bouncy sound and momentum that felt inherently “gummy.”
We disrupted social feeds everywhere by creating bite-size transformation moments to intercept our audience with even more multi-sensorial hits. We transformed everyday objects from Shaboozey’s guitar to a game-day football into candy-coated delights. This brought to life the experience of NERDS Gummy Clusters and the unexpectedness that can happen when you pop open a bag.
Within an hour of our ad airing, NERDS Gummy Clusters sales increased by a massive 223% on Gen-Z dominant delivery
platform GoPuff.
