Gushers is a hexagonal, liquid-filled candy that launched their social media presence in 2017.
During my time at General Mills, I was placed on the Gushers, Fruit by the Foot, and Fruit Roll Up brands. My favorite brand was, by and large, Gushers.
We focused on targeting our teen demographic by exclusively creating memes. This was a very new concept for GM and after seeing our success, many brands followed suit.
When I joined the team, the Gushers instagram page was hovering around 12k and when I left, two years later, it grew to 155k organically. The brand transformed from a $2 million loss to $3 million profit in the first year with little to no external advertising.
Our 4-person team was run by Kaylee Pohlmeyer (Senior Marketing Planner), Ashley Berset (Social Community Manager & Strategist), John Meilner (fellow designer) and myself.
