Retro. Ridiculous. Relevant.
THE ASK
After decades off the air and relegated to top-shelf obscurity, Nutter Butter needed a bold relaunch to re-enter the cultural conversation and earn more space at retail. With its 50th birthday approaching, the moment was ripe to reintroduce America’s “nuttiest” cookie. The ultimate ambition? Transform Nutter Butter into a meta memelord with Gen Z appeal. But with a brand team hesitant to go all-in on a bold new voice, we needed a soft-launch approach—one that would resonate with Millennials and Gen X through nostalgia, while laying the foundation for a younger audience down the road.
My role
As Senior Art Director, I partnered with the Associate Creative Director (Copy) to lead the visual direction and execution of all campaign assets—including packaging design, social content, event planning and video guiding a team of designers from concept through production to bring the brand’s relaunch to life across every touchpoint.
Strategy
We relaunched Nutter Butter “from the shelf out,” using the cookie’s 50th birthday as a gateway to reposition the brand with cultural relevance and retail buzz. The campaign invited America on a trip back to 1969, when Nutter Butter was born, with a tone that was playful, absurd, and slightly subversive—but still safe enough for a brand feeling out its next chapter.
Key activations
Retro Packaging
Limited-edition designs sparked shelf appeal and Millennial/Gen X nostalgia.Pop-Up Events
Birthday celebrations with Johnny Cupcakes drove buzz with exclusive merch and nutty treats.Social & Pinterest
A new presence on social media delivered humor, nostalgia, and 29M+ impressions—laying the groundwork for future Gen Z appeal.
Results
+8% Sales Lift YoY
+112M in Brand Awareness (+100% YoY)
100% Positive Brand Sentiment
~29M Pinterest Impressions and 1.4M Engagements
This nostalgic-meets-nutty relaunch re-established Nutter Butter in the minds (and mouths) of Millennial and Gen X audiences, while subtly evolving the brand’s tone of voice and personality. By introducing a cookie with a distinct point of view, we set the stage for a more irreverent, Gen Z-forward future—one meme at a time.
Nutter Butter x Johnny Cupcakes
To get the party started, we kicked things off with Johnny Cupcakes on June 12th, National Peanut Butter Cookie Day, during a one day only pop-up event at a 7-Eleven in the heart of New York City! In addition to giving away thousands of Nutter Butter cookies and limited-edition Johnny Cupcakes T-Shirts (inspired by our nutty new packaging and throwback portraits) we turned the traditional coffee-and-donuts run on its head with a nutty twist, launching Nutter Butter Long John donuts and a Nutty Cappuccino, exclusively at 7-Eleven! In July, we followed the NYC festivities up with an encore event at Johnny’s headquarters in Boston with a whole new set of collectible Nutter Butter shirt designs.
GENERATING BUZZ WITH
+112M in Brand Awareness
(+100% YoY)
Surprise and delight
We slid into the DMs of 115 of our most engaged, die-hard fans with a special treat to thank them for their support leading to a 16% increase in followers and 47% increase of positive brand sentiment on Instagram (compared to 9% and 34% respectively during a similar period of time). We saw similar results on Twitter.
Our Pinterest campaign featuring the videos above and the still images below garnered ~29M impressions with 1.4M engagements, performing well over benchmarks for the platform with Pinners saving Nutter Butter pins across a variety of boards with a few central themes—desserts, nostalgia, and humor, revealing Pinners find the brand playful and funny!
