Why Did This Extreme Coffee and Milk Tea Campaign Go Viral?

Heytea turned the Start of Autumn solar term into a large-scale milk tea marketing event. The chain gave away a giant cup more than half a person's height before the date, then awarded a 1.5-meter "Heytea Person Honor Certificate" to the customer who placed the 8,001st in-store order. Sales at many stores rose more than 600 percent compared with the previous day.

The new Extra Chunky Yellow Peach Mango drink passed 400,000 cups on its first day, a brand record. Some customers drove seven kilometers in the heat for the ceremony, while others were startled by the sudden presentation. The growth shows how far brands will push extreme coffee and tea stunts to win the race for the season's first cup.

Start of Autumn was originally a solar term, but now it has become a carnival moment for milk tea consumption. Major brands have been pulling out all the stops to compete for the traffic of the "first cup of milk tea in autumn." This year, Heytea made "big" its core strategy, from a giant Heytea cup half a person's height to a 1.5-meter-tall "Heytea Person Honor Certificate," creating a strong social topic. The rules were simple: the customer who placed the 8,001st in-store order would receive the giant certificate. Some people drove seven kilometers under the scorching sun just for this sense of ceremony, while socially anxious customers were caught off guard by the sudden award ceremony. The brand also paid attention to details: the certificate can be folded and packed for easy carrying. Data shows that on the day of Start of Autumn, sales at many Heytea stores increased by more than 600% compared with the previous day, and the new product "Extra Chunky Yellow Peach Mango" exceeded 400,000 cups on its first day, setting a new brand record. This article was compiled by Coffee Workshop and takes you behind the scenes of this unconventional marketing campaign.

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Start of Autumn, a solar term that originally marked the beginning of autumn, has now been forcibly turned into an excuse to drink milk tea.

As the saying goes, the sense of ceremony for Start of Autumn is either created by yourself or arranged by a milk tea shop. In order to seize the traffic dividend of the "first cup of milk tea in autumn," major brands have laid out their plans in advance and invested a great deal of effort in marketing.

Unlike its peers' strategies, Heytea's core keyword for this year's "autumn cup" is "big." Before Start of Autumn even arrived, Heytea had already launched the #First Heytea of Autumn# topic, selecting lucky netizens to give away a giant Heytea cup more than half a person's height. According to feedback from netizens who received the gift, this cup, bigger than a bucket, can serve as an attention-grabbing "conspicuous package" when going out and can transform into a practical storage box at home.

On the day of Start of Autumn, Heytea pushed the "big" idea to a new height, announcing that it would present a "grand prize" to the first customer to buy the first cup of milk tea in autumn. The award is called the "Heytea Person Honor Certificate," and the winner is given the title "Race Against Time, Slack Off Supreme, Every Second Counts · No. 1 at Drinking Heytea," filled with the joyful vibe of extroverted "E people."

The rules of the campaign are not complicated: the first person to buy the first cup of milk tea in autumn, that is, the lucky customer who places the 8,001st in-store order, can receive this 1.5-meter-tall giant certificate on the spot.

Holding milk tea in one hand and an award in the other, for extroverted E people this news is enough to make them incredibly excited—"After drinking milk tea for so many years, this is the first time someone has given me an award, Heytea." Someone even drove seven kilometers under the scorching sun just to claim this special "honor," and before leaving even remembered to smile for a group photo. No matter how far the distance, everyone is willing to go all out for this sense of ceremony.

However, for extremely introverted I people, this "unexpected luck" may not be a surprise, but might instead turn into a shock. Just imagine, with no mental preparation at all, a store clerk brings out a huge cardboard sign from behind and asks you to take it home—that scene is enough to make your toes curl.

A lucky customer revealed that when picking up the certificate at Heytea, they were also arranged for an informal yet rather awkward award ceremony: first sign your name in the blank space below the words "Congratulations," then the staff began reading a prepared "award speech," followed by a group photo, and only then could you leave with the "grand prize." Anyone unaware might think they had won the lottery.

Although Heytea's "autumn milk tea certificate" marketing campaign is rather unconventional and has deterred quite a few socially anxious people, the brand did put a lot of thought into the details. Considering the inconvenience of carrying it, Heytea specifically designed the "grand prize" so it can be folded in half and packed in a bag or box, making it convenient for lucky customers to take home.

It is understood that the public's enthusiasm for drinking tea during the "autumn cup" period continued to rise. Compared with the previous day, sales at many Heytea stores increased by more than 600%. Among them, the new product "Extra Chunky Yellow Peach Mango" exceeded 400,000 cups on its first day on the market, a result that also set a new sales record for Heytea itself.

Image source: internet screenshot

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.