Studs is taking TikTok-viral foods like the ‘Crookie’ as inspiration for partnerships
Anna Harman, co-founder of the ear piercing studio Studs, was walking near her apartment in New York City in January when she noticed a long line of people waiting outside a store. It was below freezing, she said, but dozens of customers had shown up to buy hot cocoa from Glace, a café that opened the previous June.
The wintery drink, complete with a s’mores top, had gone viral on social media like TikTok and Instagram, and its popularity gave Harman and her team an idea. In March, Studs partnered with Glace to give away free lemon meringue hot chocolate (inspired by Studs’ signature yellow hue) outside of Studs’s Flatiron store in New York City. Lines similarly snaked around the block, and Studs published three Instagram posts about the partnership that racked up 500,000 views.
Studs’s work with Glace is emblematic of Studs’s food-centered partnership strategy: find a buzzy bakery, chef or food brand that’s become popular on social media, team up with them on a product or experience and hope to go viral, too.
“I think [food creators] have tapped into something about how the consumer not only wants to eat but also how they want to create content,” Harman told Modern Retail. “And if we can do collaborations with them, it’s beneficial for both of us. People come into our stores because they’re excited to get this viral product, and then similarly, it aligns us with a viral brand.”
Studs, which launched in 2019, operates on a direct-to-consumer model via its piercing studios and online jewelry business. While Studs paused retail expansion during the pandemic, it now has more than 25 locations and is reportedly on track for 35% sales growth in 2024. Studs positions itself as a Gen Z-friendly challenger to more legacy piercing places, and many of its core customers are social media users. On these channels, “food is having a moment,” Harman explained, so Studs is trying to form more partnerships in that area.
This weekend, Studs debuts its newest partnership with a New York City bakery called Noa that makes a popular dessert called the “Crookie” — a warm, gooey mix of a croissant and a chocolate chip cookie. Studs worked with Noa to develop a mini version of the treat with lemon icing (again, in Studs’s signature yellow) that it will give out to anyone visiting Studs’s Meatpacking District store in New York City on Saturday and Sunday, rain permitting.
The Crookie, which began in France but can now be found in bakeries around the world, started popping up on social media in early spring. As of August 7, there were nearly 11,000 videos on TikTok — including one with nearly 1 million views — that used the hashtag #Crookie. The dessert is so popular that publications including Axios, Gothamist, CBS News and The Guardian offer tips on how to snag the Crookie in real life.
Like the Crookie, Studs’s partnerships are multi-layered. While some of its partnerships involve giveaways, others involve product collaborations. In September 2023, for instance, Studs paired up with Shake Shack to create a burger-shaped charm huggie earring inspired by Shake Shack’s ShackBurger, a meal that’s been the subject of thousands of videos on TikTok and Instagram. Studs sold the earrings online and at 11 Studs locations throughout the U.S. Studs declined to share the quantities of earrings sold, but the product remains available on Studs’s website.
Studs saw a jump in social media mentions in the days following its partnership with Shake Shack. Nearly 1.5 million people watched a TikTok video of Cassie Yeung, a contestant on season two of “Next Level Chef,” wearing the burger earrings while cooking a homemade ShackBurger.
Next up, on August 24, Studs will partner with Van Leeuwen, a New York City-based ice cream brand that’s gone viral for flavors like Kraft Mac & Cheese and Glass Onion, to celebrate both companies opening stores in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Van Leeuwen will operate a truck outside of Studs’s new store while it waits for its own to open, and Studs will give away discounts on piercings to the local community.
According to Harman, Studs sees an increase in foot traffic to stores on days in which it holds activations or debuts cross-brand collaborations. It also sees sales increase, she said, “but a few great sales days… is not going to make or break the business.”
“What we love,” she explained, “is that people make content about the experience. That, for us, is worth it, in and of itself… We’re really focused on the impressions that we get.”
Studs isn’t alone in folding food into its marketing strategy. In the past few years, brands like Panera and Liquid Death have seen sales skyrocket for original merch like baguette-shaped bags and mini fridges that they’ve teased on social media. Now, more non-food brands are teaming up with food brands to appeal to their avid fan bases, cultivate clicks and drive revenue.
In April 2023, the burger chain Whataburger rolled out a line of co-branded T-shirts, bikes and cornhole sets with Academy Sports + Outdoors. In 2020, Nike teamed up with Ben & Jerry’s to launch “Chunky Dunky” sneakers inspired by the ice cream brand’s “Chunky Monkey” flavor. Crocs has collaborated with McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Hidden Valley Ranch on now-sold-out clog and Jibbitz collections.
Greg Carlucci, senior director analyst at Gartner, told Modern Retail that more brands are looking to work together to widen their audiences, especially with marketing budgets on the decline. “I think in years past, a lot of brands operated in isolation, but you’re seeing more and more collaboration posts between similar products or adjacent categories,” he explained. “There’s a mutual benefit.”
Erin Killian-Kristyniak, vp of global partnerships at the creator platform Partnerize, said it’s a “really smart strategy” for brands like Studs to keep an eye on what’s trending and use that as a jumping off point for partnerships. But, she stressed, brands shouldn’t expect to go viral just because they jump on a viral topic. “You can’t put all your eggs in the viral basket,” she told Modern Retail. “You can look for the things that excite you… but while there’s a lot of interest [in something], it doesn’t necessarily mean you will see that success.”
Still, Studs’s Harman is optimistic about the strategy and says she hopes to build buzz — and long lines — around future partnerships. “The way I judge [these partnerships]… is the line,” she told Modern Retail. “To me, it’s a marker that we’ve hit something that people are really excited about.”