Squishmallows - Social Listening

  

@Squishkara via Instagram

Squishmallows, a toy line by Kellytoys Holding LLC with a certain patented softness created in 2017 has taken over the internet and in the four years of being released, has brought in over 57 million dollars in revenue per year. The founder Jonathan Kelly created Squishmallows with the purpose of bringing inspiration and love to the hearts of fans of all ages. "Squishmallows plush toys are here to fill your hearts with love and affection." [Squishmallows.com] Every character they create have different backstories and interests which makes it easy for people to find one they relate to, some of the characters are even made to have disabilities or learning disorders. User u/sleeplessed on Reddit shares her praises by saying "One of my favorite things about Squishmallows is reading their biographies and I find their inclusivity very touching. As someone who has disability from chronic illness it means a lot to me." This shows that their brand has been successful in touching the hearts of many different kinds of people.

u/sleeplessed via Reddit

With over 1,000 different characters to collect, it's no wonder that extreme collectors are constantly on the hunt for the newest and rarest Squishmallows. Fans of this marshmallow shaped plushie meet up from all different places to sell and trade their toys. The Squishmallow community is huge on TikTok and people all over the world use the hashtag #SquishTok to show off collections, talk about favorites, and to hunt for new friends! Social Media platforms like TikTok and Instagram are the main media forms that Squishmallows uses to advertise and on Instagram you can follow their account @Squishmallows, with a current following base of over 600 thousand and be the first to see when they release the new character drops.

    Squishmallows are lots of fun and never fail to bring a smile onto customer faces and myself and others personally have found great comfort from these soft egg-shaped characters. Reddit user u/kateehenryy shared an image of a new Squishmallow that she found, and mentioned how they have been struggling mentally the past couple of days and when they found this new friend, they walked out of the store with a smile on their face for the first time in days. 

    

 Although Squishmallows has a large following online, they are constantly staying in contact with fans and each day you can go on their Instagram and find where they repost different pictures and videos of fans enjoying their collections. They are always hosting different events on their social medias such as giveaways, character naming contests and they even have a virtual Squishmallow's collecting game on Roblox. 

Reddit post by u/kateehenryy

Squishmallow's recently had an event at Vidcon where they had a giant human claw machine filled with their popular toys, and they would take turns strapping fans into the machine and allow them to act as the claw and grab whatever Squish they could find! I thought this idea was brilliant, and although I couldn't attend I very much enjoyed seeing all of the videos that they filmed of the fans having their go at the Squishmallow claw machine. This was a great way to give back to the customers who made your brand popular all while generating additional hype for the projects to come.

    While working on this project I learned a lot about how social media can really impact whether or not an ordinary product becomes successful. Social media such as Tiktok and Instagram are great online platforms to have fans create and share content relating to your brand, and if you stay in touch with customers online you'll make a great impression and eventually you may also be as successful as Squishmallows.

Archie, the deaf axolotl