CHAGEE x Cai Gao: Key Takeaways
- CHAGEE has partnered with Changsha-born illustrator Cai Gao to launch a sparkling tea range rooted in nature, nostalgia and Chinese picture-book culture.
- The campaign extends beyond the drinks through illustrated packaging, collectables, a WeChat game and a themed Changsha pop-up.
- By working with a major cultural figure rather than entertainment IP, CHAGEE reinforces its premium, modern-Chinese-tea positioning.
Summer is upon us. Along with the return of heat and humidity comes a collaboration between CHAGEE(霸王茶姬) and Chinese children’s-book illustrator Cai Gao (蔡皋). It centres on a trio of new drinks for the brand’s sparkling range. Each is a summer fruit flavour: peach, green plum and yuzu. Those sparkling drinks take their inspiration – Peach Blossom Spring, Green Plum Jasmine and Forest Yuzu – from the illustrator’s style.
That style draws on traditional Chinese aesthetics. She’s handy with an ink brush and puts it to work depicting folk stories and scenes of rural life – work that’s won her the most prestigious international award in illustration, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and a position as the first Chinese person to claim it.
The collaboration also involves mini-programs, merch, and offline activation
No doubt that’s a high profile to tie to the brand. CHAGEE do the visual work across cups, merchandise and other packaging. Then – in a move we’ve seen used to great success by Molly Tea (茉莉茶) recently – CHAGEE extend the collaboration into a WeChat mini-program with a bubble-popping game as an avenue to win discounts on the drinks and merch.
CHAGEE has given the collaboration a physical home too. A themed pop-up store in Changsha features reading areas stocked with Cai’s books, drawing activities and immersive installations that recreate the bucolic worlds of her illustrations.
The Dao view: CHAGEE x Cai Gao is a heady mix of nostalgia and guochao
This collaboration is aimed right at Chinese people’s hearts, and in this case, there are two arrows to cupid’s bow. Nostalgia is one. The long-used – and potent – deployment taps into childhood memories with Cai Gao’s work. For many young people who’ve migrated to heaving cities for work, the rural connection may also hit home.
But guochao – pride in traditional Chinese aesthetic – is at work here too. It’s becoming a very marketable tool. Even overseas brands are getting involved. None of this is particularly new, except for the fact it’s a tea brand doing it. Collaboration in this market usually involves anime characters or cuddly toys. A taste of rural melancholy is a pleasant change.
