Crumbl’s $1B Empire Built on Viral Marketing, Not Cookies
Behind the pink boxes and weekly flavor drops lies a meticulously engineered marketing machine that has transformed a simple cookie company into a billion-dollar phenomenon. As Crumbl approaches 1,000 locations across North America, industry experts reveal the true driver of its meteoric rise has less to do with baking and more to do with mastering the psychology of internet virality.
“This is an internet brand,” says Stephen Zagor, an adjunct business professor at Columbia University, in a recent analysis published by Vox. The company’s founders, Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley, entered the dessert market in 2017 with backgrounds in tech and marketing rather than culinary expertise, and their unconventional approach has redefined what it means to be a food brand in the digital age.
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The Scarcity Economy of Desserts
Unlike traditional bakeries that build loyalty through consistent offerings, Crumbl has weaponized FOMO (fear of missing out) with its rotating menu of limited-time flavors. Each week brings a new lineup of six desserts, creating artificial scarcity that drives immediate purchasing decisions.
This strategy mirrors luxury streetwear drops, where exclusivity creates demand. The company has even developed a tiered membership system, with “gold tier rewards members” receiving early access to menu previews, further gamifying the experience.
The approach has proven wildly successful, with the Crumbl app downloaded over 6.4 million times in the US this year alone, ranking 15th in the Food & Drink category according to Sensor Tower.
Content Creator Pipeline Fuels Growth
Crumbl’s genius lies in its symbiotic relationship with social media influencers. The brand boasts over 9.6 million followers on TikTok, but its true marketing power comes from countless independent creators who review weekly flavors, turning dessert consumption into entertainment.
“The changing flavors every week is really attractive to kids who don’t want to miss out,” notes Jennifer Harris, a senior research adviser at the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health. This constant churn of new products provides endless content opportunities for influencers while generating free advertising for Crumbl.
The strategy reached peak visibility when an unauthorized pop-up in Sydney charged \$17.50 Australian per cookie, generating massive viral attention despite selling stale, imported products. Rather than pursue legal action, Crumbl capitalized on the buzz to announce plans for its first international expansion.
Cracks in the Cookie Empire
Despite its rapid expansion, concerning signs have emerged. Profits per store plummeted 58 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, raising questions about the sustainability of its growth model.
Customer complaints about quality consistency and high prices (averaging \$4.99 per cookie) have increased, while the company faces mounting competition. Crumbl has aggressively defended its market position, suing competitors Crave Cookies and Dirty Dough for allegedly copying its strategy, trademarks, and packaging.
“You’re constantly being measured against Grandma’s cookies and the local bakeries’ cookies,” Zagor explains. The challenge for Crumbl is maintaining relevance in an increasingly crowded market where novelty can quickly fade.
Fast Fashion of Food
YouTuber Edvasian recently compared Crumbl to “fast fashion” – a system of rapid production and consumption that prioritizes trends over quality. The company increasingly offers non-cookie items like pies, cakes, and puddings, blurring its identity to chase viral moments.
This strategy has created a paradox: while Crumbl dominates social media conversations about desserts, many customers report the actual products are unmemorable. “It’s as much air as there is substance,” Zagor observes, suggesting the hype often overshadows the taste.
The question facing Crumbl is whether a business built on viral marketing can transition to lasting brand loyalty, or if it will follow previous dessert trends like cupcakes and frozen yogurt into obsolescence.
Digital-First Future
As the dessert landscape evolves, Crumbl’s success demonstrates both the power and pitfalls of building a food brand around social media virality. While traditional competitors like Insomnia and Mrs. Fields maintain steady growth with consistent products, Crumbl has chosen perpetual reinvention as its path to dominance.
Whether this strategy proves sustainable remains uncertain. For now, Crumbl continues to feed the content machine, one weekly drop at a time, transforming simple cookies into complex cultural phenomena that say more about our digital consumption habits than our culinary preferences.
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