For 70 years Dunkin’ has dominated Iced Coffee. Unfortunately, they couldn’t say the same when it came to Cold Brew sales. Cold Brew is critical to the future of the coffee category. What started as a “hipster” trend is now dominating the mainstream coffee space. Daily cold brew consumption has increased over 1000% since 2015 and its growth can be largely attributed to a whole new generation of coffee-drinkers, Generation Z. In fact, cold brew is the #1 most consumed coffee beverage amongst 18-21 year olds. So when we realized that Gen Z was flocking to our biggest competitor to get their fix, we had to do something to help build our credibility. With the younger generations having more of a presence on brands, we needed to build credibility, and talk to a younger audience in a way that feels authentic and real to them. 

Gen Z is well-known for their love of nontraditional channels like TikTok and Instagram and their skepticism towards advertising. That’s why we chose to connect with them through an endorsement by one of their favorite peers on their platforms of choice by prioritizing authenticity in every aspect of our campaign. By keeping our content as native to Charli’s platform as possible, using vlog-style videos and in keeping with her unique personality, we were able to talk to Gen Z in a way that felt authentic and resonated with them. 

Not only did this collaboration help us reach a brand new younger audience, but because Charli’s following on TikTok has become so accustomed to seeing her favorite Dunkin’ drink in all of her videos, we were able to create a campaign based on a real love for our product that felt organic to her platform and above all, genuine.