Nerd Marketer on teasing a Super Bowl spot and working with Addison Rae

Chicago: Nerds has seen tremendous growth in sales over the past five years, from $50 million in 2019 to more than half a billion dollars in 2023. That growth can be largely attributed to the Nerds Gummy Clusters released in 2020, which is now one of the most popular of the year. The best-selling candy in the sugar candy category, according to Circana data provided by the brand.

It’s only fitting that, with the huge increase in consumer interest, parent company Ferrara would want to make its Super Bowl debut with a Nerds Gummy Clusters ad.

“Growth is really a big reason why this is the right time for nerds to be on the world’s biggest platform,” said Brian Kaiman, senior director of content and public relations at Ferrara.

While the brand has cultivated its Gen Z audience through partnerships with TikTok and celebrity fans stranger things‘ Gaten Matarazzo, “Everybody with a mouth loves nerds,” Camon said. The Nerds was looking to expand its reach and saw the Big Game as an ideal place to do so as it attracts a wide general audience of all demographics.

To ensure that its first Super Bowl ad would be considered a success, the brand developed a teaser spot and worked with a well-known celebrity.

Teaser is being made

To drum up excitement for their game day ad, the Nerds teamed up with PR agency Golin to conceptualize a teaser trailer featuring dancer and musician Addison Rae, a familiar face to Gen Zers and TikTok users.

On the spot, Rai is training a student or group of students in a dance studio, which viewers cannot possibly see prior to the filming of the final commercial. Fans are then encouraged to guess who Rae is training during the debut spot to build anticipation for her appearance and draw consumers to her social media channels, as the entire spot is based on the Nerds’ social media accounts. And will be revealed on Rai’s TikTok.

The trailer is not playing on television, as are some of the trailers this year. Instead, it will appear as paid media in-feed and in-stream on social platforms TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Facebook.

Kaiman credited Golin with introducing the concept in hopes of “setting the stage for our big game spot.”

Ferrara’s in-house creative team worked with Golin to “refine the idea” and involved Digitas Chicago during the production process to “ensure we were able to capture the future that unfolds throughout this teaser and the game.” “Connecting the dots between the content of,” he said.

Unit9 Films produced the teaser and Alan Bibby directed.

The teaser is just one piece of a “360-degree marketing campaign,” Kamen said, which also includes PR, retail and paid media “to just drive the creative from day one.” Mindshare oversaw paid media and AUC handled retail.

Ron D’Innocenzo, chief creative officer for North America at Golin, said the purpose of the work was to “use unconventional means to bring anticipation to what we’re doing”.

“The Super Bowl has become about ‘What are (brands) going to do?'” he said. “Having a teaser piece that people are going to talk about is important” and the aim is to get consumers eager for the unveiling in the Big Game.

According to D’Innocenzo, the teaser is generating the publicity it intended. “People are already trying to guess who it is that (Rai) is training; That’s what we’re looking for,” he said.

Why casting Addison Rae was a ‘no-brainer’

Since celebrities have increasingly taken over Super Bowl commercials, it was important that The Nerds chose a celebrity that meant something to its audience and brand. According to both Camon and D’Innocenzo, Rae was “perfect” for the role.

For one, Rae is clearly a fan of Nerds, and especially its Gummy Clusters.

“He has talked about the brand and product in the past without any support and before any partnership,” Kaiman said. A press release for the teaser also revealed that Nerds Gummy Clusters are Rae’s snack of choice while rehearsing in the dance studio.

D’Innocenzo said it was important to everyone involved that the talent chosen for the spot was not “a celebrity just for celebrity’s sake”. “Sometimes, some (celebrities) have no connection to the product, but they have a lot of followers and they get stuck in the ads,” he said.

The choice needed to be made thoughtfully, he added, and Rai proved to be a “perfect fit creatively as well as strategically.” When it came to strategy, the Nerds were looking for talent that was universally appealing, but that was especially well known by the target demographic that propelled Gummy Clusters to new heights: Gen Z.

“Our core consumer is Gen Z, and given that, we wanted to connect with Gen Z through talent that is active in the places where our fans are present and engaged,” said Kamen, who added that his The casting was “a no-brainer”. due to this.

Rai also contributed to the creative process. According to Kaiman, the team brought the concept to Rai, who worked with her own choreographer, whom she was training, to develop the dance.

Kamen said she has a deep understanding of the product, pointing to a recent interview with Billboard in which she said she was in her “nerds gummy cluster era”; Soft inside but have to be a little careful…protecting my soft center.”

D’Innocenzo said, “Nobody told her to say that – she really is that emotional.”

waiting for the big game

Ahead of the Nerds’ Big Game debut, the brand and creative partners were tight-lipped on details of the final location. But consumers will “get a multi-sensory experience with our advertising,” just as they do when consuming a Nerds product, Camon said.

This airing spot won’t be the only area where nerds will be active during the second quarter. During the game, the brand will have an “active and engaged presence across the social platforms we already participate on,” including TikTok and Instagram. Brand

TikTok is the brand’s main social channel, where it has 175,000 followers and over 600,000 likes on its content. It plans to use the platform to build anticipation before the Super Bowl and continue the conversation after the game ends.

“Our main target audience is on (TikTok); It makes sense for us to have an active presence on that platform, and we’ll continue to do so leading up to and beyond the Big Game,” Camon said.

This story first appeared on campaignlive.com.