For years, Instagram has been a core part of Gushers’ winning social playbook. The problem was that repeating more of the same wasn’t going to cut it. Cracks in our platform performance were starting to show. Instagram was no longer the static-led playground we were used to. Reels dominated the algorithm, DMs became the new group chat, and brands had to hustle relentlessly to stand out in a brutally crowded feed. Gushers began the year armed with a refreshed social strategy built around one mission: To shatter the doomscroll with unexpected mood boosts that froze young adults mid-scroll and reminded them the internet could still be fun as hell.
When we mined our Social Intelligence to decode what was behind our top performers, one truth screamed at us: Social audiences don’t just like Gushers ... they’re OBSESSED with Gushers.
Like, unhinged levels of love. The kind of rabid passion that turns Gushers into a lifestyle, a personality trait, and a legitimate stockpiling concern. They wanted the product in absurdly over-the-top, internet-breaking, eye-poppingly colorful quantities.
Virality skyrocketed whenever unpackaged Gushers became the hero of playful storytelling centered on young adults’ life stage realities. Running late to the White Elephant Party? Wrap a big pile of Gushers! Craving a 3 am snack? That full-to-bursting bedside drawer of Gushers has your back.
We torched traditional ads and “relatable lifestyle content” entirely, turning massive piles of product into the content itself. We embraced what we call "OTT Gush Love," proving that the more Gushers, the more powerful the mood boost (and engagement) that obliterated the noise.
When all that OTT (over the top) Gush Love triggered explosive engagement, we noticed our audience went all-in on our product with us. They WOULDN’T SHUT UP about Blue Gushers. An all-blue pack had been the ultimate fan obsession for years, and with white-hot conversational energy, we saw an opportunity to turn product demand into a legitimate cultural moment.
If Instagram Trial Reels let us audition content to new audiences… would new audiences respond to the same content as our brand followers?
We dove in to find out. We rounded up our greatest hits (content that had already proven to be certified viral hits with followers) and loaded our Trial Reels with content non-followers had never seen before. The result was a self-sustaining flywheel:
more tests → more winning Reels → more non-follower reach → more Gush Love → and repeat
The numbers speak for themselves. Our Trial Reels test generated 14 million organic views and over 100,000 new followers.
But, we couldn’t just dump Blue Gushers on shelves and call it a day. We needed to turn this launch into the most epic mood boost and give it the legendary treatment it deserved.
To build hype, we introduced Dr. Max Gush: a cryptic storyteller who cracked open an ancient, yellow-paged tome to unveil the legend behind Blue Gushers. According to lore, there exists an eternal wellspring of Blue Gush (located deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, of course). Brave explorers ventured to find it, harnessed its magic, and brought the fans the all-blue packs they’d been absolutely dying for.
But as all legends go, there was a twist: the Blue Curse, summoning “strange blue happenings.” By feeding our audience’s obsession and delivering an epic mood boost through a shocking product drop, we transformed a product launch into internet folklore. The Blue Gushers content racked up over 21 million views and nearly 400 thousand engagements. Proving that when you give fans what they’re dying for, wrapped in storytelling they can’t resist, everyone wins.
The Hack: Turning Trial Reels Into A Growth Engine
We could have stopped there… but we were hell-bent on dominating Instagram. So, when Instagram introduced Trial Reels, it was impossible to ignore. This feature tests videos exclusively with non-followers to gauge algorithmic potential before going live on the main grid. This would allow us to hack Instagram in a whole new way and explode our reach to critical new audiences.
We dove in to find out. We rounded up our greatest hits (content that had already proven to be certified viral hits with followers) and loaded our Trial Reels with content non-followers had never seen before. The result was a self-sustaining flywheel:
more tests → more winning Reels → more non-follower reach → more Gush Love → and repeat
The numbers speak for themselves. Our Trial Reels test generated 14 million organic views and over 100,000 new followers.
RESULTS: Gushers’ Biggest Instagram Year Ever
By cracking the code both culturally and algorithmically, we didn’t just revitalize the platform, we engineered Gushers’ strongest Instagram year to date:
By decoding what our audience wants and engineering content that works with the algorithm instead of against it — we conquered it. Game changed.