Most college graduates want to travel the country after getting their degree. Syracuse University alumnus Liam Sullivan gets to do it in a giant peanut and visits a new city every week.

Sullivan graduated from SU last May and went to Planters Peanut Prep in June. Then he hit the road in the Planters NUTmobile, promoting the snack food company while meeting new people and exploring new cities.

Sullivan, who is a former staff writer for The Daily Orange, and his partners, Elise Grover and Iara Aldape, brought their NUTmobile to SU last week to recruit for the next class of Peanutters.

“We are on the road pretty much 340 days out of the year, and we are executing these events,” Sullivan said. “Whether that’s at grocery stores, Walmarts, festivals, parades, we’re out here making people smile, talking to people, Planters fans. Whether that’s 8 to 98, you can just make people smile.”

They call themselves the “Three NUTketeers” because they spend each day together, whether it’s driving one of the three NUTmobiles around the East Coast, working events or managing the Planters social media accounts. In their free time, they explore the cities they’re recruiting in.

Grover graduated from Baylor University with a sociology degree. Although that’s not a typical degree for a Planters brand ambassador, she said she learned what she needed to know about brand promotion during her time at Peanut Prep.

During those two weeks, the nine Peanutters learned about the brand and developed the skills they needed to promote Planters and travel with the NUTmobile.

“It’s a lot of hard work, and you have to be self-motivated, but there’s a lot of opportunity to make it the most incredible experience of your life,” Grover said.

Before traveling the East Coast with Sullivan and Aldape, she spent the first half of the year-long job on the West Coast in cities like San Francisco, Seattle and Denver.

The three Peanutters said another great aspect of the position is the network it offers. With four previous classes of Peanutters, professional connections expand to many fields like public relations and marketing. Often, they meet people who give them business cards so they can reach out after their year as a brand specialist.

Grover said she collected about 20 business cards during her time on the West Coast.

“It’s a network internally and externally,” Sullivan said. “You are traveling and meeting people every day, so you never know who’s going to roll up and want to see the NUTmobile. There’s a great network internally of Peanutters who understand the job, understand the skills you’ve picked up. Every day you have the chance to meet someone cool.”

Aldape graduated from the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley with a degree in communication studies. She said one of her favorite moments was when they met former President Jimmy Carter in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

“I love the people I’ve met,” Aldape said. She also talked about how being a Peanutter pushed her outside her comfort zone and got her to try new things, like the ropes course she did during Peanut Prep.

“I would never choose to climb that high on my own,” she said about the team-building exercise. “It was definitely a leap of faith. It’s just so many things that you never thought you would’ve tried.”

Sullivan calls the NUTmobile a “PR firm on wheels” because they mostly work as a small, independent group, organizing the events at grocery stores and festivals as well as negotiating hotel arrangements for when they’re in each city.

He said he hopes that an SU student will continue on the tradition of being a peanutter. He heard about the opportunity from his friend and SU alumnus Gil Maher, who did the program two years ago.

Graduating as a newspaper and online journalism major with information management and technology and marketing minors, Sullivan said he had the skills to work as a brand specialist, but the Peanut Prep and hitting the road has given him the best experience while exploring cities.

“There’s not many opportunities to manage a billion-dollar brand’s social media account, especially right out of school,” Sullivan said. “Not many 22-year-olds get to say they do that.”

Published on February 25, 2018 at 7:47 pm

Contact Connor: cbfogel@syr.edu