How We Create Brand Identity, Increase Brand Awareness with Branded Content
Case Study: Create Brand ID, Develop Core Content, and Launch Digital Marketing Campaigns. Using our award-winning brand marketing expertise, we launched TEA: THE DRINK THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, which led to successful distribution and is now streaming on Amazon and Tubi. We built a growing online community for the documentary and provided strategic consulting to extend the brand beyond the movie, creating new revenue streams with new services.
Building a Global Tea Community
TEA: The Drink That Changed The World represents the most original, engaging content in the tea world. Although this simple beverage is the most popular after water, tea history is muddled, rarely told, and littered with misguided facts.
This TEA movie documents the untold story of tea’s ancient history and long-buried secrets. A tell-all tea tale, this 90-minute documentary traces Camellia Sinensis’s ancient roots in China and its epic journey to the West.
We set out to define the film’s brand strategy and explore new business opportunities beyond the movie. This comprehensive brand case study gives you a comprehensive look at our work in branding, video content creation, and digital marketing campaigns.
Along with the brand campaign, our strategic consulting uncovered exciting brand extension opportunities to generate new revenue streams and create a branded franchise beyond the film.
Three Key Challenges
- TEA Documetnary is an independent film
- A historical documentary has niche appeal
- Tea is a highly fragmented marketplace
Opportunities
We utilized a potent mix of branding, video content marketing, social media marketing, and digital marketing campaigns to:
- Build brand awareness
- Drive website traffic
- Grow online communities
Engaging the Tea Audience
Working with the filmmakers, we defined, refined, and charted their brand strategy based on authenticity, emotion, and simplicity. We sought to clarify what the film stands for, how it enriches the tea experience, and how it stands out as a movie.
During this process, our consulting team also uncovered multiple new business streams, from Books to Podcasts and Events, to drive revenue growth while deepening fans’ engagement with the brand.
As part of our brand and digital marketing services, we developed the brand guide, offering some guardrails on how to talk about the film and the event. BrainLush set out to create a brand book, a responsive website, evergreen blog content, and video content to market online and offline.
Accompanying this brand strategy, we identified new opportunities to extend the brand into new products and services to increase revenue streams. We created merchandise, including posters and other products. We unveiled the film across Facebook, Instagram, and Google to appeal to tea drinkers worldwide.
We promoted pillar content to build online communities and engagement, driving traffic to the Tea Documentary website with a branded Tea Blog. We are developing tea events and a series of tea books.
From film trailers to social videos and other branded videos, we crafted content that speaks to specific target audiences, including tea drinkers, documentary fans, history buffs, art and culture fans, and the health and wellness community.
Building a Scalable Brand Platform
Defining Brand Strategy
Craft Brand Narrative
Through our script-writing services, we crafted a compelling brand narrative using storytelling techniques to convey the TEA brand promise. We developed strategic messaging that reflects the brand’s core values.
Understand the Target Audience
We set out to understand the target segments based on their interests and personas, from types of tea to arts and culture and welless. For example:
- Black tea or green tea lovers
- Oolong tea drinkers
- History buffs
- Documentary fans
- Health and wellness seekers
Align Content For Brand Consistency
We strategically interwove core messaging throughout the videos, website content, and external communications to achieve brand consistency.
Resonate Emotionally
By authentically communicating relevant messaging, we ensured the brand videos resonated with the audience, forming an emotional connection and simultaneously making them want to know more.
Extending the Brand
Through our business consulting services, we analyzed and strategized brand extension opportunities to expand audiences and generate new revenue streams. We focused on three business strategies:
Category Extension
The documentary is poised to branch out as a fictional action/adventure movie. The global tea culture gives rise to a lifestyle television series showcasing global tea cultures: “TEA Travels.” This category extension will help build a stronger brand identity and reputation, not to mention increased revenues.
Product Form Extension
The TEA movie spans the tea realm, from history to arts and cultures. So, it is natural to offer new products and services to deepen fans’ experience with the movie. Such offerings include books, merchandise, and social events.
By extending the brand to other products/services, TEA reaches new audiences and deepens fans’ engagement with the brand. The filmmakers reap the benefit of having multiple revenue streams from existing content.
Channel Extension
As a theatrical release, the filmmakers can expand viewing options to include streaming services, digital downloads, and even physical media sales. Offering fans the opportunity to stream the movie at home makes business sense as part of a distribution strategy, as streaming has become mainstream in how we consume media.
Expanding the distribution options helps reach new audiences, increase the convenience and accessibility of the content, and generate new revenue streams.
Extending the Brand
Through our business consulting services, we analyzed and strategized brand extension opportunities to expand audiences and generate new revenue streams. We focused on three business strategies:
Category Extension
The documentary is poised to branch out as a fictional action/adventure movie. The global tea culture gives rise to a lifestyle television series showcasing global tea cultures: “Tea Travels.” This category extension will help build a stronger brand identity and reputation, not to mention increased revenues.
Product Form Extension
The TEA movie spans tea history, arts, and cultures, from Tea making to tea tasting and teaware. So, it is natural to offer new products/services to deepen fans’ engagement with the movie. Such offerings include books, merchandise, and social events.
By extending the brand to other product forms, Tea reaches a broader audience. And the filmmakers reap the benefit of having multiple revenue streams from existing content.
Channel Extension
As a theatrical release, the filmmakers can expand viewing options to include streaming services, digital downloads, and even physical media sales. Offering fans the opportunity to stream the movie at home makes business sense as part of a distribution strategy, as streaming has become mainstream in how we consume media.
Expanding the distribution options helps reach new audiences, increase the convenience and accessibility of the content, and generate new revenue streams.
Building New Website & Digital Marketing Tools
Our digital marketing services developed a responsive website with evergreen content and a tea blog to build an online brand presence.
We integrated the website with video content, enabling it to rank faster with Google and other search engines. The website gained traction quickly, and the domain authority (DA) started to climb.
We built advanced video schema markup and implemented an ongoing content marketing strategy to optimize search engine visibilty and SEO ranking for targeted keywords.
We produced rich, multimedia branded content, such as the TEA Blog and a Podcast, and performed SEO optimization through our digital marketing services. Additionally, we used automation to grow the email list through newsletters and email drip campaigns.
Creating Brand Video Content
Official Trailer
This 2-minute film trailer is produced for the general audience. It reflects key story elements of the movie and the brand.
Origin Story
Called the Heart of Tea, this intriguing origin story teases how Black tea was invented and the origin of Oolong tea. Although these are popular teas, the origin stories are rarely told.
Social Video
Filmed in an authentic Chinese courtyard built in the Qing Dynasty, this social video showcases the simple elegance of tea tasting.
An elegant visual experience, this how-to video brings to life the artistic height of the Gong Fu Cha tradition invented in Southern China.
Brand Video
This video expresses the film’s unique core value, the Tea Spirit, wholeheartedly.
Through an intimate look at a father-and-son tea-making scene, we bring to life the traditional tea philosophy: “Good people make good tea.” This brand video engages viewers on an emotional level.
Brand Storytelling Video
To reach a wider audience and deepen authenticity, we used Chinese subtitles for onscreen graphics in this social video with a longer duration.
Video Utilization Strategy
Next, we put our branded content to work. We devised the following strategy to drive traffic to the website and build online communities.
The evergreen content fueled across the 9DragonsTea.com platform and all marketing channels.
Enriched Website Content
The video content enriched the website, making it more SEO-friendly. To optimize search engine ranking, we built advanced video schema markup to drive organic growth in traffic and keywords.
Social Media Marketing
Then, we promoted these brand videos on social media, attracting an audience. People followed, and conversations began around our pillar content.
Demand Generation Ad Campaigns
We used the brand videos to create targeted ad campaigns, further driving website traffic and increasing brand awareness.
Video Utilization Strategy
Next, we put our branded content to work. We devised the following strategy to drive traffic to the website and build online communities.
The evergreen content fueled the TEA Documentary platform across all marketing channels.
Enriched Website Content
The video content enriched the website, making it more SEO-friendly. To optimize search engine ranking, we built advanced video schema markup to drive organic growth in traffic and keywords.
Social Media Marketing
Then, we promoted these brand videos on social media, attracting an audience. People followed, and conversations began around our pillar content.
Demand Generation Ad Campaigns
We used the brand videos to create targeted ad campaigns, further driving website traffic and increasing brand awareness.
Digital Marketing Strategy
We devised the following social media marketing strategies to maximize performance and drive traffic:
Choose the Right Platform
Social media platforms are not created equal. Selecting the right platform is critical in reaching the right audience. Facebook and Instagram offer the right fit for the movie.
Optimize Videos For Social Media
We re-edited the videos when necessary to tailor to the platform’s requirements. We also experimented with screen sizes and orientation to optimize performance.
Understand the Audience
We tailored each ad campaign to a target audience based on interests, demographics, or affiliation.
Learn and Adapt
Then, the fun began. We sat back and analyzed the data as it trickled in, gleaning insights for improvement.
Improve with Insights
Tracking traffic, engagements, and leads, we made adjustments on the fly to elevate performance. Then, something exciting happened…
Results: Clicks, Views, and Leads!
While it is not an exact science to pinpoint the ROI of a brand campaign, there were some inspiring results.
Here are some key performance metrics.
282K
Video plays
10.7K
Engagements
6K
Followers starting at 0
15.7%
CTR
Testimonials
We are grateful for the opportunities to work with wonderful people, making meaningful connections through our work.
Here is what people say about our collaborative experiences.
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