How the Fruit Roll-Ups ice cream TikTok trend influenced the brand’s social strategy

TikTok has birthed dozens of bizarre viral recipes over the past few years, from the “butter board” craze to the controversial “pink sauce” which, in January, made the jump from a social media fad to store shelves. So, when TikTok users began to post videos of themselves sampling the latest concoction to take the platform by storm—a scoop of ice cream wrapped in a Fruit Roll-Up—the General Mills brand decided to leverage the TikTok phenomenon to establish its presence on the platform. “We had always planned to create a TikTok account for Fruit Roll-Ups, and this trend going viral just accelerated that plan,” said Ashley Berset, senior content planner for brand experience, fruit & salty, at General Mills. “We realized quickly that now was the right time to hop on the platform to better engage with our fans and ensure we were responding to them and this trend real-time.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Though some users had experimented with the Fruit Roll-Ups and ice cream combination back in 2021, the sweet frozen snack didn’t truly swell to virality until early March, a few days after TikTok user Golnar Ghavami, also known as @golisdream, posted a tutorial of the recipe. Her video, which has since received nearly 14 million views and 1.6 million likes, spawned hundreds of others featuring users trying the Fruit-Roll-Ups-wrapped ice cream for themselves, fueled both by curiosity and nostalgia for the fruity snack they had eaten as kids. This rush of videos gave rise to hashtags such as #FruitRollUpIceCream and #FruitRollUpChallenge, which each quickly amassed millions of views. More news: General Mills fights AI deepfakes on social media Fruit Roll-Ups officially joined TikTok on March 13—when the trend was hitting peak levels on the platform—with a video that cheekily acknowledged the brand’s involvement in the viral recipe. And, just a day later, the brand played on the same idea by stitching a video from user @strawberrymilkmob’s video, who asked, “Does Fruit Roll-Up[s] even know what’s been going on?” One of the brand’s team members at social media agency The Social Lights responded to the user’s question by filming herself exasperatedly swiping through back-to-back message notifications, presumably from others asking the same thing. @fruitrollups #stitch with @strawberrymilkmob OK OK! trust me you aint tried nothing yet #fruitrollupsandicecream #fruitrollups ♬ original sound - Fruit Roll-Ups “We thought [@strawberrymilkmob’s] video was the perfect one to stitch to respond to all of the tags and comments we were getting,” Berset said. “It was our way of telling the internet, ‘Hey, we know about this trend, we love it, and we’re here on TikTok to have fun with you all.’” Related news: Top 5 brand TikToks That video response from Fruit Roll-Ups also kicked off the brand’s “Ways to Eat Fruit Roll-Ups” content series, which has revolved around the brand’s social team trying out variations on the Fruit Roll-Ups ice cream trend. These various recipes similarly involve enveloping foods such as pickles and grapes—even lemon juice—in the fruit-flavored snack. @fruitrollups Replying to @aaliyahscosmetics Grape Roll-Ups are THE perfect snack #fruitrollup #frozenfruitrollup #fruitrolluprecipe ♬ original sound - Fruit Roll-Ups This content series, along with other videos that employed trending video formats to talk about the Fruit Roll-Ups ice cream recipe, propelled the brand to over 23 million TikTok views and nearly 2 million combined likes, comments and shares in only a month, Berset said. And the Fruit Roll-Ups TikTok account has amassed more than 119,000 followers in the same time frame. She credits much of the brand’s growth on the platform to its focus on engaging with other users, both through comments and stitching other users’ videos, as Fruit Roll-Ups did with @strawberrymilkmob’s post. The brand’s best-performing video, with 16.5 million views and nearly 1 million likes, is a simple response to a user seemingly eating a frozen Fruit Roll-Up without removing the plastic packaging, captioned, “legal is making me clarify that you should not attempt to eat plastic.” @fruitrollups #stitch with @hollyberry09 legal is making me clarify that you should not attempt to eat plastic #fruitrollup ♬ original sound - Fruit Roll-Ups The brand has also commented on dozens of users’ videos tied to the Fruit Roll-Ups ice cream trend, including Ghavami’s original video that kickstarted the trend, where the brand playfully wrote, “thanks for helping me finally convince my boss to let me on TikTok.” On another user’s video, Fruit Roll-Ups simply commented “CRONCH,” emphasizing the satisfying crunch that the fruit snack makes when frozen. Read more: TikTok trends that brands can follow Though the Fruit Roll-Ups ice cream trend has already begun to tumble from its peak virality, the brand intends to continue to incorporate TikTok into its efforts to connect with consumers, Berset said. The brand will encourage users on the platform to continue using Fruit Roll-Ups as a canvas for creative recipes—or even for other forms of creativity such as fashion, she added. “What is important to us moving forward is always listening to what our fans are doing and responding to them,” she said. “We’re also evolving with them. We need to be connected with our audience and adapt our content as a response to what they want to see.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

How the Fruit Roll-Ups ice cream TikTok trend influenced the brand’s social strategy

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