May 6, 2023

Modernized Nostalgia: Gushers, Fruit Roll-ups, and Fruit By The Foot Update Their Look

Frankie Pike

As the Dieline aptly puts it: “Apparently, it’s the year of the redesign.”

General Mills has given a facelift to its iconic fruit snacks portfolio—Gushers, Fruit By The Foot, and Fruit Roll-Ups—with the help of independent brand design agency Pearlfisher. The new packaging system aims to connect to a new generation of teenagers while maintaining the emotional bond of existing fans (AKA us old folks).

“As a team who all grew up with these iconic brands and can vividly recall our own experiences eating these snacks, it felt particularly special and incredibly nostalgic to be able to reimagine these brands for today’s teens,” said Hamish Campbell, VP executive creative director at Pearlfisher, in a press release. “Our consumer-first approach to brand building was especially imperative to not only pay homage to the cherished equities of the brands, but do so in a way that celebrates the lives of these distinctive age groups and their ever-evolving interests.”

The packaging system keeps its “sugar rush-tinged nostalgia” intact with contemporized logos and consistent color palettes across the packaging. The new wordmarks reference the shapes of the respective gummies, so while new, they remain recognizable.

For us, Fruit By The Foot’s new branding is the least interesting, but Gushers’ and Fruit Roll-Ups’ are strong.

Shopify, Etsy beat revenue expectations

Shopify and Etsy both surpassed Q1 revenue expectations, with Shopify’s revenue increasing 25 percent year-over-year to $1.51 billion, which was $100 million more than expected.

Regardless, the company still plans to cut 20 percent of its workforce and sell its logistics branch to Flexport.

Etsy’s net revenue also rose 10.6 percent to $640.9 million, but gross merchandise sales declined 4.6 percent to $3.1 billion with the exception of personalized gifts, demonstrating that e-commerce remains strong despite shifting consumer behavior.

Overall, this is good news for e-commerce marketers.

Other news

  • TikTok is launching a new product to help publishers with monetization.
  • Airbnb’s CEO unveiled 50 new improvements to the platform in a perfect example of effective content marketing.
  • According to Meta, “56 percent of a brand’s sales lift from digital advertising can be attributed to the quality of the creative.”
  • Twitter is heavily weighting average time spent on a post in its algorithm, proving again why brands without a video strategy are falling behind.

That’s all for this week’s Marketing Roundup. Check back in next Friday for more news. And subscribe to our newsletter below for additional updates.