The leading “new-style” Chinese tea chain, HeyTea, has met its “LABUBU moment”. Like POP MART before it, HeyTea now has a considerable presence outside of China and is pushing a new star product, its Matcha drinks. Just like the strong demand for bag charms when LABUBU went internet-breaking viral, HeyTea’s moment also coincided with a global matcha boom. But the defining moment was when Blackpink’s Lisa posted a picture of her in a Ferrari with a cup of HeyTea Triple Supreme Matcha in the cupholder.
Eagle-eyed netizens around the world quickly recognised the drink and made HeyTea go viral. HeyTea, never one to miss such a moment, quickly announced that to celebrate its product being picked by one of the biggest stars in pop, it introduced a “buy one, get one free” promotion for all of its matcha products around the world. But at many stores, the matcha is already selling out due to the surging orders even before its promotion.
- #喜茶抹茶全球爆单 HeyTea Matcha surge in orders across the globe: 52.23 million views on Weibo, ranking number 40 on the Hot Search list
- #三倍厚抹 Triple Supreme Matcha Latte: 15.12 million views on Weibo, ranking number 5 on the Culture and Entertainment list
HeyTea has been notable among pundits for being a lot quieter with its marketing this year. No high-profile collaborations and not participating in the “race to the bottom” subsidised price war among takeaway platforms, HeyTea is really doubling down on its “anti-involution” (反内卷, anti-fruitless competition) messaging from their previous open letters. However, HeyTea is not going to miss the organic buzz like the current wave, creating a natural and user-co-created viral phenomenon.