Nerds Candy
Catapulting Nerds from the scrap heap to a cultural phenomenon.
The work
When we engaged with the brand, Nerds was on life support. However, our partnership with a visionary client enabled us to return the brand to relevance. Through culturally relevant positioning, package design, flavor, and texture innovation, we transformed Nerds into a brand that now generates more than $500M in annual revenue — and dominates culture.
Our roles
- Brand Narrative
- Brand Strategy
- Investor Presentation
- Product Prototyping
- Package Design Concepts
The Opportunity
Seeing and believing in Nerd’s dormant cultural potential.
When we first engaged with the Nestlé Sweets portfolio, they had just finished a project with one of the big consultancies. In true management consulting fashion, their recommendation was to either sell or stop investing in many of Nestlé’s older candy brands. Nerds was one of the brands they recommended divesting.
Fortunately, the Director of the Sweets portfolio, Daniela Simpson, believed in the Nerds brand and ignored the consultants. We discussed untapped cultural and business opportunities for the brands and decided to lock arms and build these brands back to relevance. Little did we know how right we were. Less than 6 years later, Nerds now does over a half billion dollars a year in revenue.
Our Approach
Modernizing the brand.
Being a “nerd” in the 80’s was deeply uncool. Nerds were the quirky, socially awkward weirdos who didn’t fit in. Fast-forward to the 2010s and being a nerd had become aspirational in culture. The icons of culture are people like Steve Jobs, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Mark Zuckerberg. Fantasy, sci-fi, and comic book series dominate TV, movies, and video games. Influencers proudly refer to themselves as “nerds” on social media. However, the Nerds brand had not kept up with the times.
The best way to signal a return to relevance was through the product. A major part of our assignment was to imagine and design an entire pipeline of product innovation concepts that connected to culture. Our concepts tapped into the edgier, cooler parts of modern Nerd culture and also leaned into emerging candy trends like consumers’ desire for multitextured products.
One of our concepts directly informed the creation of Nerds Gummy Clusters, the new product form that would catapult Nerds to the top of the candy sales charts and ensure it was part of every sleepover, party, road trip, and Halloween candy bowl.
“Having clients that embrace you as true partners and are willing to take risks is the foundation of transformative work.”
Eric Frost, Founding Partner at Zeus Jones
The Outcome
Bigger than Skittles.
When we partnered with Daniela Simpson and her team, none of us dared imagine that the Nerds business could outrank Skittles on the top candy charts. However, that’s exactly where Nerds is today, at $500M annual revenue and growing. Daniela and Nestlé sold the entire candy portfolio to Ferrera and Ferrero Rocher shortly after we’d concluded our Nerds work, but reported back that the pipleline of future Nerds concepts generated considerable enthusiasm with the new owners. We’re proud to see the juggernaut that Gummy Clusters has become, and look forward to seeing if more of our concepts can help create a new candy cultural phenomenon.
Our team
Braden Lee
Brian Danaher
Colin Murphy
Elida Holte
Eric Frost
Jason Zabel
Keith Van Erdewyk
Lindsay St. Clair
Missy Reinikainen
Rachel Hardacre
