In the spring semester of his freshman year, Aidan Maloney, KLN ‘24, thought it would be funny to find a brand he could not have due to his celiac diagnoses and convince them to sponsor or follow him on social media. He came across the cookie brand, Nutter Butter, and started commenting his name across all of their social media platforms. For months and years, he kept all the post notifications going and continued commenting.
During the early stages of his commenting period, Maloney was taking Social Media Marketing, taught by Advertising and Public Relations Professor Katherine Bex. One day, he shared his leisure interests with the class. Bex and his classmates were mostly confused, but intrigued as Maloney was applying previous class topics in a real-world scenario.
"The whole class, we just kinda giggled," said Bex. “We were all like ‘This is awesome,’ and we continued to check in with him during the course. We would talk about how that constancy and engagement and why we thought people enjoyed that so much.”
Bex exclaims the importance of consistency in advertising to her students. In social media, it creates a clear band identity for consumers to trust and recognize. Although Aidan was not the brand itself, he started to create his own personal brand.
Nearly a year later, keeping up with his antics, Maloney kept commenting; but this time, the official Nutter Butter Instagram account replied to him, commenting, “You’re back.” From there, the cookie brand followed Maloney on all his social media accounts.
Although, Maloney’s mission was technically complete, in his eyes, this was only the beginning.
After this interaction, he messaged the account and asked them if they could start making gluten-free Nutter Butter and merchandise. Despite no response, six months later the brand released merch and Adian followed up to congratulate them on its release. The brand responded, sending him a slew of Nutter Butter gear.
“I was like, Cool we’ve peaked. That’s it,” said Maloney.
Two years later, the company posted a video and tagged Aidan. The video accumulated close to 500,0000 likes. Fans started scrolling back in previous comment sections and noticed that this was not a mistake. Nutter Butter even went as far as creating the “Aidan” character and featuring him in their online content.
After reposting an article about Nutter Butters' take on their new social media content, a strategist at Dentsu Creative, the advertising agency behind Nutter Butter’s social media, connected with Maloney on LinkedIn. Only a few months out from his spring 2024 graduation, Maloney was offered the role of social strategy and marketing intern and had the opportunity to work on Nutter Butter’s social media account. After his internship was complete, he landed a full-time position as an associate social media manager.
Adjunct Professor Steve DiMeo, KLN ‘85, who taught Maloney in two advertising courses, had no doubt he had an eye for a creative career.
“I saw his creativity grow and his skills as a writer,” said DiMeo. “He has a very strong conceptual thinking and had great ideas and I saw that in the two classes I taught him.”
The evolving landscape of social media has thrived on using trends and brainrot-style content to boost interactions. Nutter Butter’s social media presence may stand out due to its nontraditional content, but the risk has certainly paid off. When Maloney first started watching Nutter Butter’s social media, their Instagram account had 6,000 followers. Today, it stands at 251,000 followers.
What began as a lighthearted hobby has since evolved into a career for Maloney. From the moment he was first tagged in Nutter Butter’s post, he knew he wanted to pursue a path in social media. By blending his personality and creative thinking skills, social media would allow him to keep things lighthearted and provide an expose to be outside of the box with his ideas.
“Life is crazy, I didn’t think commenting my name would lead to anything except maybe a like on the comment,” said Maloney. “Now all of this has happened and I don’t know how.”