HEYTEA Yunnan child cup designers: Key takeaways
- HEYTEA has turned artwork by 20 children in Jianshui, Yunnan, into cup stickers and miniature picture books
- Six booklet versions invite customers to answer children’s questions, extending participation beyond the purchase
- The campaign connects HEYTEA’s rural community programme with its grape-sourcing region, giving local children a role in its visual identity
Twenty children from Jianshui, Yunnan (建水县, 云南), are the latest group to collaborate on HEYTEA (喜茶) packaging. Their contributions include a weightlifting lemon, a parachuting melon, and a journey to visit an apple friend.
The playful designs received a nationwide launch under the name Pictures of the Future. They were taken from collages made during a three-day workshop and turned into three cup-shaped stickers. The campaign also includes a miniature Little Designers Picture Book containing 15 of the children’s works.
The booklet gives HEYTEA a shot at consumer engagement. It comes in six versions, each ending with a different question from a child. Customers can submit answers, which HEYTEA says will be shared with the group during a later art class.
There are also elements of community outreach – and a deeper brand story – at play. The workshop took place at a village community centre offering activities and support to local children. It forms part of a three-year programme run by HEYTEA and the China Foundation for Rural Development.
There are also elements of community outreach – and a deeper brand story – at play
The initiative operates ten centres across nine rural townships. The foundation’s wider programme serves rural children, particularly those affected by gaps in parental care or difficult family circumstances. Jianshui is also one of HEYTEA’s grape-sourcing regions.
Jianshui and its farming communities have appeared in HEYTEA’s marketing before. A previous campaign incorporated drawings by local grape worker A Fen and her five-year-old daughter into merchandise for the brand’s signature grape drink. HEYTEA is also part of a wider industry pattern: provenance is appearing more frequently in tea marketing.
The Dao view: Giving sourcing communities authorship
HEYTEA has made its social-responsibility work visible by bringing sourcing communities into its visual identity. Here, children from a sourcing region contribute to the packaging customers encounter at the point of purchase.
HEYTEA is not alone in looking upstream for its brand stories
HEYTEA is not alone in looking upstream for its brand stories. Molly Tea recently centred female tea pickers in an Anxi campaign, while Auntea Jenny placed three fruit-growing mothers on city screens. As ingredients become a key battleground in China’s crowded tea market, brands are increasingly using the people behind them to communicate provenance, quality and social responsibility.
