Gold Peak Tea, a Coca-Cola brand, emphasized its gold-hued product through a photography-based social media campaign.
Gold Peak, a Coca-Cola brand, is a challenger brand in the ready-to-drink tea category behind category leaders like Arizona and Pure Leaf.
Gold Peak needed to break out of the sameness of brown teas and remind consumers of Gold Peak's uniqueness, differentiate itself from the major players in the category, and break through with its key message.
When competitors' teas are held up, they look opaque. But when a consumer look through a bottle or glass of Gold Peak, he or she can clearly see through into a golden other side. That is because Gold Peak Tea is made with a flash-brewed process with high-quality ingredients.
The brand used the slogan, "Tea is brown. But Gold Peak Tea is gold," for its campaign.
Gold Peak aimed to create the world's first camera lens filled with tea — "The Gold Peak Tea Lens" — by pouring a small amount of Gold Peak Tea into a physical lens designed to clip over the camera on any smartphone.
The integrated plan centered around a core group of photography super fans, leveraging their favorite photographers to demonstrate the concept and quickly scaled to mass media channels to amplify the association of Gold Peak with the "golden hour" time of day.
Gold Peak, with agency partner EssenceMediacom, distributed the lens into the hands of some of social media's favorite photographers, with a combined reach of over four million followers — including the users @Jveloz on TikTok and @worldpins on Instagram. This tactic became the focus of the paid media plan, with 5 percent of the budget generating 90 million impressions and a nearly 100 percent positive social sentiment across social platforms.
Gold Peak partnered with Condé Nast to bring The Gold Peak Tea Lens into the hands of New York City photographer Alice Gao. Gold Peak captured the journey of Gao unpacking the lens and filling it with Gold Peak Tea. The brand then shared her photos across the vast Condé Nast network of brands like CNN Traveler, Bon Appétit, and GQ to further amplify this campaign.
Gold Peak Tea utilized out-of-home media for the next stage of the campaign, drawing inspiration from Apple's iconic "Shot on iPhone" campaign. The brand leveraged high-impact digital out-of-home in 10 key markets to highlight the lens's creative and drive desire for Gold Peak Tea. The billboards showed a stunning golden hour photo taken using the lens, a Gold Peak logo, and the words: "Shot with Gold Peak."
Finally, Gold Peak launched a custom ad on TikTok showing how everyday people can turn any hour into golden hour by holding up a room-temperature Gold Peak Tea up to their phones.
All of this pointed tea drinkers towards a chance to win their own lens at GoldPeakTea.com, with the best content amplified on the microsite and across Gold Peak's social media arms.
The campaign significantly elevated Gold Peak Tea's market presence by innovatively merging tea consumption with photography culture. It introduced the world's first tea-filled camera lens, amplifying brand differentiation and consumer engagement. Impact included a 12.1-point lift in ad recall on TikTok, exceeding category benchmarks, and a 200 percent increase in video-completion rates driven by influencers. Consumers responded positively with a nearly 100 percent social sentiment, boosting purchase frequency and overall brand perception amid heightened marketplace competition.
