How better to test the ethical standards of a city than to set up an unmanned pop-up shop with bottles of tea at the ready and a secured cash box?
Set them up in 12 cities, then hook up the secret cameras (with Ustream – YouTube footage available as well!) and watch the fun. Add a flashy website (honestcities.com), and you’ve got a fairly comprehensive, “social” tea marketing campaign!
Check out this article on the stunt, where the event is pitched as a study in honesty rather than a multi-layered guerrilla marketing campaign (well done, HT) and the honestcities site as well, which features a survey link & tie into facebook
The ultimate goal seems to be the popular quest for more Facebook “likes”. So far, I see 67,564 fans and 310 views on YouTube. Will have to check in a week or so to see how they fair. Also will be interesting to see what they do with their fan base after the coupons are gone.
It’s a fun campaign, and well thought out. I’ll admit I like it. I like probably it more than I should. Will really like it if fans aren’t left high and dry when the party’s over.
Hey! Why didn’t the honesty tour make it to Baltimore???
Tea in Tech 
August 30, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Well, I learned at the World Tea XPO that our buddies at Coke bought Honest Tea so they have lots of cash to put toward promotions. Also, cold bottled tea is the fasting growing segment in the tea market in the States. With the Tevana IPO and other biggies in the market I hope the small peeps who are currently leading the industry for high quality tea aren’t squeezed out.
August 30, 2011 at 5:14 pm
All good points, Leila. I keep hoping for the great tea movement in the states, but am not a fan of where the trend is pushing – more corporate as it goes along. I see tea drinking as a simple and somewhat intimate thing, which is contrary to so much of this racket. Thanks for posting your thoughts!