Hushang Ayi Posts Ten Weibo Messages in a Row: "I Don't Want to Do This Anymore"

Hushang Ayi Officially Claims "Quitting" on Weibo?

With rapid growth and 5,000 stores nationwide, would the fresh fruit tea brand Hushang Ayi really just quit? What is going on? Are they giving up?

Recently the news that "Hushang Ayi is quitting" flooded social platforms. Here is what happened: starting from November 6th, Hushang Ayi posted 10 "do not want to work anymore" posters on its official Weibo account. The posters really did look like giving up, with resignation-style copy and various coloured text combinations, from newcomers to executives, from operations to design, and across customer service, planning and other departments, all saying they did not want to work anymore. A collective strike, surely.

This mix of giving-up memes and venting copy struck a chord with young people in the tea beverage and working communities. Many netizens said it hit close to home: "This really is my working life. I want to say I quit too, but I do not have the courage."

Some netizens, though, were not fooled and speculated in the comments that Hushang Ayi was not really giving up but promoting a new product. "Could the new product be sugarcane? Could it be called 'Do Not Want to Work Anymore'?"

Then, on November 11th, "Ayi" finally responded: it is not about not working, it is about not being dry, because there are pears to nourish me. Only then did many netizens realize they were launching a new product series, the "Fresh Stewed Pear Series." At the end of the post, Hushang Ayi also tagged all workers and shouted: "Transform the workplace, Ayi will nourish you. Let us shout to the company together: we are not working anymore."

Creative Marketing Success

Credit where it is due: the effect of this kind of creative marketing is excellent. It creates a topic, builds consumer expectations early, uses netizens' appetite for watching a drama to draw a crowd, and leans on suspense to spark curiosity, all of which makes people want to see what happens next.

The Rise of Trend-Based Marketing

Speaking of creative marketing, most ideas today come from the memes circulating among young people. Every so often a new meme appears, and another trend has already swept the tea beverage circle, this time the sudden rise of cardboard dogs. Young people are placing "fierce dogs" made of cardboard at their dormitory doors as watchdogs, and many posts carry captions like "Got a dog now, do not want to talk to people without dogs anymore." As of now, the playback volume of cardboard dog topics on Douyin has already passed 200 million.

Before they even understand a meme, tea beverage brands have joined in one after another: Guming, Shuyi and Mixue Bingcheng are all doing it. Luckin Coffee is the most competitive of all, actually making a cardboard deer, which earned 17,000 likes on Xiaohongshu. Luckin said, "Who still raises dogs nowadays? With the little deer, I do not want to play with colleagues who do not have little deer anymore."

Brand Engagement with Youth Culture

Whether it is Hushang Ayi, Luckin Coffee, Mixue Bingcheng, Guming or Shuyi, these first-tier beverage brands can pick up on any meme. They essentially never miss a popular trend and stay highly active among young people. In the attention economy, keeping an eye on young people and joining in whenever there is a fresh new way to play matters. Only by playing together can there be more marketing creativity.

Young people's ideas have been updating daily over the past two years, leaving the tea beverage industry exclaiming that it cannot keep up. But it does not matter if you do not understand; just join in. That effectively shortens the distance between a brand and its core consumers, makes them feel noticed, lets them see the brand's cute side, and earns the brand more exposure.

Image source: Internet

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

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