MUSE Gold

2025

Baking Up Holiday Success: Crumbl's TikTok Influencer Strate

Entrant

Later

Category

Branded Content - Influencer Marketing

Client's Name

Crumbl

Country / Region

United States

As a beloved franchise known for mouth-watering desserts, Crumbl faced a key business challenge: turning a traditionally slow holiday sales period into a season of sweet success. The goal was to shift consumer perception—elevating Crumbl from an everyday treat to a coveted holiday gift.

To achieve this, our campaign objectives were to drive brand awareness and consideration during the competitive holiday season, establish Crumbl as a premium gifting option beyond desserts, generate high-quality, engaging content for organic and paid amplification, and to reach new customer segments through strategic influencer partnerships.

The Big Idea: The "Gift of Crumbl" campaign turned every cookie box into a story of connection, showcasing how different people incorporate Crumbl into their holiday traditions. Rather than simply promoting products, we empowered creators to highlight Crumbl in authentic holiday moments—from family gatherings to gift exchanges—positioning the brand as an essential part of festive celebrations.

Our strategy was built on two insights: consumers crave experiential gifts, and TikTok is the leading platform for food trends.

Through strategic creator selection, we partnered with 7 diverse influencers—spanning lifestyle, family, foodie, celebrity, and gaming—to authentically engage untapped audiences. Focusing on TikTok maximized engagement, aligning content with platform trends and behaviors.

To amplify our social media and creator content, we executed a two-phase strategy: 1) Organic content: Influencers showcased authentic holiday moments with Crumbl, and 2) Paid promotion: Top-performing content was repurposed into ads, doubling engagement.

This campaign's results and impact significantly exceeded expectations, driving 71.4M impressions (+79% above benchmark), 311.8K engagements (+77%), $2.5M in earned media value (+108%); generating 7 high-quality, reusable content pieces and doubling engagement through paid promotion.

Beyond driving sales, the campaign also redefined Crumbl’s brand, elevating its perception from treat to premium gift, expanded brand relevance with diverse influencer perspectives, and created a proven blueprint for future influencer collaborations.

By tapping into modern gifting behaviors and social media trends, Crumbl broke through the oversaturated holiday season by creating shared moments and sweet success.

Credits

Senior Director, Partnerships & Agency Alliances, Later
Mikayla Caprio
Director, Services, Later
Nicole Kobeda
Senior Campaign Coordinator, Later
Christy Qian
Program Coordinator, Later
Sophia Tufankjian
Paid Media Coordinator, Crumbl
Ryken Dursteler
Director of Paid Media, Crumbl
Nicole Mackelprang
SVP of Marketing, Crumbl
Alejandra Caceres
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