Obsessed’ is a monthly deep dive into social and cultural trends that can help marketers inform the way they think. Led by Kate O’Loughlin, Initiative strategist and self-confessed obsessive, Obsessed will be a magic school bus to expand marketing mindsets and help brands remain relevant among a changing cultural landscape.
This month I’m obsessed with… brand lore, and how the cookie brand Nutter Butter is taking it to the next level.
For those who aren’t chronically online, the classic American peanut butter cookie brand Nutter Butter has taken an absurd, meme-heavy, chaotic and slightly terrifying approach to its TikTok content which has got the internet in a choke hold.
The content, which could only be described as 90’s internet graphics meets Microsoft paint meets Salvador Dali interpretive art class, has been amassing a following since they started at the end of 2023.
@officialnutterbutter THE DAYS--when. .plow
♬ original sound - nutter butter
@officialnutterbutter is any rea l
♬ original sound - nutter butter
While I don’t believe anyone ever thought some insane cyber clowns and haunting human faced cookies would be the thing to bring attention to the brand, the internet has been obsessed. The 10 videos posted to the @officialnutterbutter TikTok in September have more than 87 million views, and the account has over +1M followers.
For a cookie that had the same heritage perceptions as an Arnott’s ‘Nice’, it’s impressive how incredibly relevant the brand has made itself.
Although the randomness of the content may be what appears to be pulling the views, there is actually a “framework of lore” being adopted by the brand, so the TikTok account can act as an entire brand story for its followers. In an interview with AdAge, Nutter Butter’s social manager Zach Poczekaj discussed how they have constructed plot lines and characters within the content that is fuelled by what the fans are commenting across the posts. Poczekaj noted the fans’ comments are used to inspire their content brainstorms and are referenced so that the audience feels more invested in the brand because they helped interpret the story.
The perfect example of this is the reoccurring character of ‘Aiden’, who is based off a fan of the account who had commented on all the brands social posts since 2023. The random inclusion of the character got customers guessing and questioning “who is Aiden?”, and since then has been a protagonist alongside the other characters in the content such as the Nutter Butter Man and Nadia.
So invested are fans that a search to understand the lore of the @officialnutterbutter account has been taken off platform and onto the Reddit thread ‘r/GameTheorists’ where there’s an entire thread dedicated to figuring out the hidden narrative. Who would have thought?
Lore marketing has not only been reserved for across the shores. The global cookie chain Crumbl Cookie, started its lore locally, announcing it would open a store in Australia following a ‘scam’ pop-up hosted in Sydney in early October. The unofficial pop-up saw some Sydneysiders queue for hours to pay $17.50 for a single cookie, just to find out they were dry and stale following the cookies supposedly being shipped over from the US.
@elle_easternsuburbsmum Crumbl cookie review incoming from the Sydney pop up😍😍😍 @crumblsydney
♬ original sound - Elle
@elle_easternsuburbsmum Crumbl hates to see me coming😭
♬ original sound - Elle
In the weeks following the pop-up, both the global Crumbl social accounts and the Crumbl CEO itself have announced that the brand is scouting an Australian store. It’s truly impressive that the brand has taken such immediate action following the natural curiosity and hype from the pop-up. I guess that’s the way the cookie Crumbl’s… sorry, bad joke. The CEO and his entourage were in Sydney this week scouting locations and lighting up news feeds.
Admittedly, Crumbl is not of the same extremity as the Nutter Butter approach, however both brands have leveraged shock and awe tactics to establish a lore for their respective brands that customers want to engage with.
In an age where consumer tolerance of ‘bad advertising’ is increasingly low (just look at how hard it is to win active attention), lore marketing is proving to help challenger brands grow in fame.
But without the marketing lore to understand how to do lore marketing, how do brands get involved? Based off the examples in market, I’ve pulled out three considerations for those considering taking this approach:
- Set boundaries: Given how extreme you can go with lore marketing (see: Nutter Butter crazy clowns), it’s imperative that you and your team establish parameters for how ‘out of the box’ you’re willing to go. While it might be a new or unique TOV, you want to make sure you and the company are comfortable with the approach.
- Shock and awe to bring the lore: Rhyming aside, consider how you can break category (or marketing) conventions to create a conversation. Is this content that you need to produce? Or is there an existing discussion occurring you can leverage?
- Engage with sh*t chat: Go beyond listening to product reviews and listen to the random comments that people are leaving about your brand. Maybe you’ll find a superfan like Aiden you can bring into the mix.
All of this to say, lore marketing is an approach which I’m genuinely excited to follow. Here’s hoping we see a few more brands breaking the lores of marketing as a result.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
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