How The Twin Brothers Behind 'CollegeStudent' Started A Viral Sticker Company

Benzinga recently sat down with Joey Rexford of Big Moods, an online art store that sells stickers and accessories, to talk about providing opportunities for freelance artists to make income — and spreading mental health awareness.

Blockbuster Reveal

Rexford and his identical twin brother Andy grew the @CollegeStudent media brand into an influencer marketing company — Amp Social — serving clients like Jack In The Box Inc. JACK and Rate My Professors, which was previously owned by MTV.

Initially a side project under the Amp Social umbrella, Big Moods arose as an e-commerce destination for the @CollegeStudent audience.

“It was a website to sell cool stuff to our followers,” Joey said.

The firm went viral after a social media reveal.

"We did a Twitter thread to launch the site. We got 3,000 orders in the first weekend."

Big Moods core offering is comprised of art stickers and accessories based on memes and positive themes.

Leveraging Virality For A Good Cause

In 2018, Big Moods launched alongside a social media mental health campaign.

“We partnered with Active Minds, a nonprofit focused on mental health awareness,” Rexford said.

Prior to the development, the Rexfords crafted content and marketing materials for large brands in order to better connect them to online followers.

The introduction of Big Moods came as a natural evolution of the brothers’ free-spirited media brand, Joey said.

“It was just an interesting place to buy things for the college audience. It took off, and we took that opportunity to expand the audience and grow into the sticker market.”

In an effort to scale, Rexford told Benzinga his firm invested in an industrial printer and software developers to quickly address new trends and increase the efficiency of custom in-house sticker and accessory production.

"It will save us money and allow us to scale our inventory."

The twins co-own Big Moods with Matt Stephens and Josh Stephens.

What's Next For Big Moods?

Joey said his brother Andy's experience with depression inspired Big Moods' partnership with Active Minds for the design and distribution of mental health-focused stickers.

Rexford said he aims to expand the brand's 100-store distribution network to include more online outlets, drop-shipping and reputable brick-and-mortar stores.

"So, our strategy is to grow our stickers to scale; I’d say that 80% of our 40,000 customers are college students. We have a pretty good reach there, but we plan to expand designs that really fit any demographic."

Big Moods plans to penetrate new demographics via new partnerships and influencer relationships on platforms like TikTok, Snapchat Inc. SNAP, Facebook Inc.'s FB Instagram, Pinterest Inc. PINS, and Twitter Inc. TWTR.