If you're an '80s kid, you probably remember Nerds, the new pebble-shaped candy that came packaged in different colors with two separate flavors in each box. This was far from your typical candy: it didn't contain chocolate, and it wasn't quite like other exotic creations of the era, like Pop Rocks. It had a nerdish vibe to it.
Now, nearly four decades later, that atmosphere is back.
Nerds have become an unexpected star in the candy aisle once again. According to the people who run the brand, annual sales have risen from $50 million to $500 million in recent years. And on Sunday, the Nerds made their debut as a Super Bowl advertiser.
It's an unexpected success story that mirrors the rise of a select number of other legacy brands that have suddenly become hot. Think of Nerds as the candy equivalent of, say, a Stanley water bottle. Stanley has been around since 1913, but their beverage containers have recently become more interesting.
With Stanley, the shift was driven in part by the brand's introduction of colorful, often limited-edition models that quickly became collectible. With Nerds, owned by Ferrara, a Chicago-based candy company, growth was particularly tied to the launch of a subsidiary candy: Nerds Gummy Clusters.
“It's been absolutely like a runaway train,” Greg Guidotti, Ferrara's chief marketing officer, told MarketWatch of the response to the product, which was introduced in 2020.
Gummy Clusters took the traditional gummy bears, which are still widely available, in a whole new direction. As the name suggests, these are gummy candies, but they're coated in nerd, so they combine the chewiness of the former and the crunch of the latter.
The Nerds Gummy Cluster comes to life in a scene from the Super Bowl ad promoting this popular candy.
Digitas Chicago
“It's a more interesting mouthfeel,” Bree Metcalf-Oshinsky, a marketing specialist in New York, said of the candy's unique appeal. That alone seemed to be enough to overcome the challenge Metcalf-Oscinsky said legacy brands typically face — “making sure the product remains fresh and desirable today.”
That's not to say that older brands don't benefit from the nostalgia factor. These products can appeal to consumers who remember products from long ago as well as a new generation who embraces a kind of vintage elegance.
Old-school sweets have become hot sellers in recent years, and are an essential part of the $42.6 billion confectionery business. Iconic Candy, a New Jersey-based company that specializes in nostalgic favorites, recently told MarketWatch that its sales are growing at an annual rate of 20% to 40%. That company said it plans to relaunch at least two older gum brands — Bubble Jug and Ouch! Bubble gum – this year.
As Ferrara launches her new campaign for Nerds, centered around a Super Bowl spot produced by media agency Digitas, she aims to emphasize the brand's history and recent resurgence.
The 30-second Game Day ad celebrates the Gummy Cluster by showing it as a colorful contemporary character, almost reminiscent of M&M characters. In this case, the character is dancing to an '80s tune — Irene Cara's “Flashdance… What a Feeling” from the 1983 movie “Flashdance.” It's no coincidence that the Nerds ad debuted in 1983. To bring things back to the present day The ad concluded with a special appearance by singer, actress and dancer Addison Rae.
The whole idea is to bring “people who have loved geeks for years and years” on a journey “back to the present,” said Erica Melia, vice president of Digitas.
Ferrara executives are clearly hoping to take the Nerds' success story to the next level with the commercial and broader campaign. While the brand's sales are impressive, Guidotti emphasized that there is plenty of room for growth, noting that even with $500 million in annual sales, Nerds' household penetration is only 16% — meaning 84% of homes are under Nerds. Guidotti added that some major candy brands have a penetration rate of around 25%, citing this number as a benchmark a brand should reach.
Some Nerds from the brand's original heyday. The product was named Candy of the Year by an industry trade group in 1985.
Market Watch / Ferrara
In some ways, the Nerds' current success mirrors the brand's breakout days in the 1980s. The candy was created by Sunmark, a now-defunct St. Louis-based confectionery brand, as part of a line of Willy Wonka-themed sweets. “Novelty was a thing for us,” former Sunmark CEO Bob Anderson explained, and Nerds was conceived as something fun. As for the name, Anderson said the '80s were all about nerd references — think Revenge of the Nerds, a 1984 film that spawned three sequels.
“It was just a catchphrase,” he said.
Anderson recalls that Nerds “just took off” with little advertising or promotion. In 1985, it was named Candy of the Year by the National Candy Wholesalers Association.
Eventually, the brand became part of Nestlé NESN,
It was acquired by Ferrara in 2018. Ferrero, an Italian multinational company whose brands include Kinder, Nutella, and Ferrero Rocher, acquired Ferrara itself in 2017.
Now, Ferrara is betting big on the Nerds: The average cost of a 30-second ad on game day is $7 million, according to a recent report, and Ferrara's team says the new campaign generates a total of $10 million for the company.
Some marketing professionals wonder if geek craze has already peaked.
“At this point of popularity, you reach a point of diminishing returns,” said Thomas Donohue, author of “The CEO's Digital Marketing Guide.”
However, a nerd can always aim for greater glory. Or so the Nerds hope.
“We haven't reached a ceiling on this work yet,” Guidotti said.
