How Gushers Broke Instagram’s Algorithm
Obsession Looks Like A Drawer Full Of Gushers
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.
Uncovering Our Consumers’ OTT Gush Love
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.
Virality skyrocketed whenever unpackaged Gushers became the hero of playful storytelling tapped directly into 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.
The “Blueprint”: Blue Gushers and the Power of Lore
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.
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.
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 an 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 asked ourselves,
"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 numbers speak for themselves. Our Trial Reels test generated 14 million organic views and over 100,000 new followers.
These are just a few of our favorite comments.
The 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:
+50%
audience growth YoY
224MM
organic impressions (+923% YoY)
6.7MM
engagements (+368% YoY)