--- title: "In the era of collaboration fatigue, what new tricks have HEYTEA and others come up with?" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/274104474.md" description: "In 2023, the appeal of co-branded tea drinks declined, and young consumers felt fatigued by collaborations. In 2024, co-branding became a normalized marketing tactic, but it was hard to find hits. By 2025, the marginal benefits of co-branding decreased, and consumers viewed \"collaboration saturation\" as an industry issue. Despite the cooling enthusiasm for collaborations among leading brands, some brands are still exploring new strategies" datetime: "2026-01-29T06:53:57.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/274104474.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/274104474.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/274104474.md) --- > Supported Languages: [简体中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/274104474.md) | [繁體中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/274104474.md) # In the era of collaboration fatigue, what new tricks have HEYTEA and others come up with? This original article comes from the WeChat public account: DT Business Observation, ID: DTcaijing, Author / Hu Hansan @huwenwen11, Editor / Zhang Chenyang @a18811650028, Design / Zheng Shuya. Collaborations in the tea beverage industry happen every year, with new topics emerging each time. In 2023, the consumer research conducted by "DT Business Observation" found that the appeal of collaborations is declining, gradually "losing touch with young people." In the annual review of tea beverage collaborations for 2024, we uncovered a new trend—collaborations are becoming a normalized marketing tactic, and hit products are becoming harder to come by. By 2025, the marginal benefits of collaborations will further diminish, and "label-style collaborations" will accelerate their obsolescence. However, collaborations that truly resonate with users' emotions are still breaking through. Players are no longer pursuing the frequency of collaborations; instead, they are upgrading towards a more streamlined approach or exploring new strategies beyond collaborations. We are curious, what kind of collaborations in 2025 will still resonate with people? Besides collaborations, what new strategies can brands adopt to enhance their momentum? "DT Business Observation" has the following findings based on data and industry insights. The collaboration craze has lasted for three years, and consumers are indeed feeling a bit "numb." **The report "2025-2026 Development Status and Consumer Trend Analysis of China's New Tea Beverage Industry" released by iiMedia Consulting shows that in 2025, among the problems Chinese consumers perceive in the new tea beverage industry, "collaboration saturation" ranks first.** Post-95s consumer A, once a fervent follower of tea beverage collaborations, now tells "DT Business Observation," "Previous brand collaborations told you what the coolest choices were at the moment. Now, the overwhelming number of collaborations has instead increased the decision-making cost; you have to investigate like a detective to see if it's just a tax on intelligence." Not only is there "calmness" on the consumer side, but the collaboration enthusiasm among leading brands in the industry is also cooling down. Statistics from "DT Business Observation" reveal that in 2024, among the top 10 tea beverage brands by store size, 7 brands increased their number of collaborations (compared to 2023), but in 2025, 8 brands reduced their collaborations, with the collaboration pioneer HEYTEA only having 2 instances. Among coffee brands, it seems that only Luckin Coffee continues to refresh its presence through collaborations. From the effectiveness perspective, "DT Business Observation" found that in 2025, brands that can remain active in consumers' views through collaborations will likely fall into two categories. **The first type is additive, with heavier tactics.** To achieve results from collaborations, even seasoned players are becoming increasingly vigorous in their tactics. A typical example is Luckin Coffee and Duolingo, where a deer and a bird held a "century wedding." To extend the collaboration's popularity, from the preheating phase of "wedding announcement," to the fermentation phase of "distributing wedding candies and hosting banquets," and later to "honeymoon trips and homecoming feasts," the collaboration cycle lasted over three months, effectively turning the collaboration into a continuous drama **The second approach is to do subtraction, focusing on quality over quantity.** In the past, HEYTEA was a pioneer in collaborations, but in 2025, it only collaborated twice throughout the year, a sharp drop from 14 times in 2024 to single digits. Although the number of collaborations is low, their popularity is high. Data from Shushuo Aggregation shows that in August 2025, HEYTEA's collaboration with Chiikawa quickly boosted the brand's social media popularity to a new height, and in December, the collaboration with the Star People made HEYTEA the focus of discussion once again. A deep analysis of HEYTEA's collaborations reveals that the momentum of cute IPs remains strong, **and the effectiveness of collaborations depends on whether the collaboration partner aligns with the brand spirit and can achieve emotional resonance, thereby accumulating the brand's emotional assets through collaboration.** For example, HEYTEA's collaboration with Chiikawa featured three adorable characters entering the milk tea business, with the theme set as "A Little Sweetness." This light and cheerful sense of healing highly aligns with the relaxed and easy brand experience that HEYTEA aims to convey, tapping into the current societal desire for stress relief. In fact, consumers' "discerning" nature is not limited to collaboration partners. Their demands for "creativity and sincerity" in collaborations are also upgrading, along with rising expectations for new tea beverage brands and products. In 2025, the most core complaint from consumers regarding the new tea beverage industry is dissatisfaction with "high homogeneity"—**first, the aforementioned homogeneity in marketing methods (widespread collaborations, 61.1%), and second, the sense of similarity in products (similar brand formulas, 46.5%).** Because of this, differentiation in marketing and products has become key for tea brands to maintain core competitiveness. By analyzing the peak changes in HEYTEA's social media volume in 2025, "DT Business Observation" also found that collaborations are not the only way to enhance brand momentum; innovative approaches like DIY stickers can also attract significant attention. So, what should be done specifically? From the consumption trends and brand cases in 2025, we identified three new differentiated trends in the tea beverage industry, as well as new strategies to enhance brand momentum beyond collaborations. **Trend 1: Make differentiated products the exclusive signature, enhancing brand recognition** Products have always been the first touchpoint for users to remember a brand. When "similar formulas" become the top complaint for consumers regarding tea beverage products, differentiated new products become a new breakthrough direction. Among them, "regional flavors" have emerged as a definitive consumption trend. Yunnan-Guizhou sour soup and Inner Mongolia milk skin have become new culinary favorites, quickly sweeping through major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, transforming into topic-driven blockbuster products In the tea beverage industry, by 2025, brands will seek to differentiate themselves by exploring local specialty ingredients and innovating product categories. In 2025, HEYTEA developed no less than 10 types of regional specialty ingredients and launched new products, promoting the "local brand." The Qilan guava and wax apple is a new product developed using regional specialties like wax apples and guavas through a special blending method; the Snowy Yak Milk Chaqianmo is based on Tibetan yak milk, bringing a plateau flavor. Not only HEYTEA, but also Bawang Chaji has launched the "Return to Yunnan" series, CoCo is targeting the "Xinjiang Organic Fruits" segment, and new products like the Guiyang Qingyan Rose Matcha Fresh Milk Tea have emerged from tea mountains, while Nayuki has explored unique local ingredients from Inner Mongolia and Sichuan... Additionally, HEYTEA has mixed local ingredients and materials to inspire new flavor layers, breaking through the single "category" taste pattern, and developed entirely new categories like tea blends and Tibetan tea. For example, in 2025, HEYTEA launched the tea blend series, using ingredients like guava, sweet soy sauce, porcini mushrooms, whiskey, apples, apricots, wax apples, and tiramisu to create the new "tea blend" category, becoming another hit category after the super plant tea. From the WeChat index, in the past year, following HEYTEA's launch of the "Sauce Fragrant White Tea with Shredded Silver" and "Qilan Apple Apricot" products in September and late October 2025, the buzz around "tea blends" has risen simultaneously, reaching two small peaks for the year. **Trend 2: Returning to Offline for Space Upgrades, Stores Become Communication Windows for Brands** By 2025, young people began to return to offline experiences, feeling the tangible aspects of nearby life, and viewing shopping in stores and malls as a form of mental recharge. **According to Nielsen's report "Top Ten Trends in China's Retail Consumer Market 2026: Fully Entering the 'Me' Era," 68% of respondents indicated that they "value the atmosphere" when it comes to physical stores, the highest proportion.** As consumers begin to value offline experiences, more and more brands are putting effort into their stores. In the consumer industry, fragrance brands tend to adopt a curatorial approach to open stores, creating an atmospheric experience. For example, Wenxian stores incorporate non-heritage techniques like carving and mortise and tenon joints to present a Chinese aesthetic, showcasing brand tone. **Tea beverage brands excel at upgrading store images to create unique spatial experiences, turning stores into vessels for telling brand stories and deepening connections.** HEYTEA's recent 2025 annual report shows that in 2025, HEYTEA renovated over 130 stores in bulk and returned to the DP plan after many years, creating differentiated stores with "thousands of store faces" to build a relaxing tea beverage space for consumers In Hangzhou, HEYTEA has created a "Paper Tea Room" installation in its stores, designed with paper elements to showcase the "poetic sense of literati" in Hangzhou. In Shanghai, HEYTEA stores have transformed into an "archaeological site of tea culture from the year 3025," with avant-garde aesthetics sparking interest among Xiaohongshu users. (Image source: Xiaohongshu) When the unique experience of brand stores exceeds consumer expectations, people are willing to view the brand "differently." **Trend Three: "Human Touch" Content Resonates Emotionally** Among the top ten buzzwords selected by "Bite the Words" for 2025, "human touch" is prominently featured. On social media, the volume of content related to "human touch" has surged, jumping from 210,000 in 2024 to 1.36 million in 2025, more than a sixfold increase. **As consumers begin to pursue "human touch," yearning for connections and interactions with "real people," brands' marketing content and communication methods also start to shift towards a more human touch.** In 2025, even high-end luxury brands began to lower their guard, opting for narratives infused with human warmth to engage with consumers. For example, LOEWE collaborated with Hello Bike, inviting young people to check in at Shanghai's urban landmarks. Luxury brands are no longer creating an aura but are communicating in a more down-to-earth manner. In the tea beverage industry, there are also brands that have gained consumer favor through authentic and unique images and content. **However, unlike the "equal dialogue" of luxury brands, HEYTEA resonates with a relaxed state of mind.** In this process, HEYTEA invites "inspiration friends" from different fields for co-creation. For instance, chef Li Zian "relaxed into the job," creating a special drink with a cooking mindset; a 5-year-old girl living upstream of a grape-producing area became the youngest "designer" of succulent grapes, creating a series of brand peripherals; HEYTEA also invited Tibetan herder Gongba to handwrite "yak milk," letting everyone know where yak milk comes from. Each genuine interaction adds warmth to the brand. HEYTEA's "Happy Stickers" activity is a nationwide co-creation where consumers can DIY in a mini-program, drawing their exclusive cup stickers. As everyone showcases their drawing skills, the brand truly enters the consumer's circle, co-creating and playing with them, generating interaction. Additionally, when HEYTEA's barricade misspelled a word and sparked corrections from netizens, HEYTEA did not engage in public relations but instead joined in on the joke. This signifies that the brand has begun to shed the "perfect commercial filter," allowing consumer suggestions to be seen and responded to. To some extent, this sense of "daring to interact, being able to listen to advice, and not creating perfection" resonates more positively than polished images and deliberately crafted personas. Social media data also supports this. Data aggregation shows that in 2025, people's attention to HEYTEA not only focused on products like Qilan apple apricot but also on specific brand actions such as store landscaping, collaborations, happy stickers, and stickers Not only has visibility increased, but people's impressions of HEYTEA are generally closely related to "delicious, interesting, and cute." From the perspective of the entire consumer industry, beyond the "scale and efficiency" that brands generally pursue, the accumulation of brand momentum has also become more important. It relates to the uniqueness and recognition of the brand, as well as the public's recognition and confidence in the brand. And "consumer favorability" is an important manifestation of brand momentum. In the past year, HEYTEA has continuously improved its reputation across the internet through differentiated actions and product innovations—one obvious indicator is that HEYTEA's net emotional sentiment across the internet has increased from 57.89% in 2024 to 61.02%. To some extent, HEYTEA has also provided the industry with a brand model that breaks out of traffic competition and homogenization. When a brand truly resonates with consumers, maintaining a good rhythm, innovation, and exploration, it will carve out new paths and possibilities for itself ### Related Stocks - [HEYTEA (HEYTEA.NA)](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HEYTEA.NA.md) - [BAMA TEA (06980.HK)](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/06980.HK.md) ## Related News & Research - [Director Lin-Manuel Miranda will make musical ‘Octet’ into movie](https://longbridge.com/en/news/281577441.md) - [5100 Xizang Glacier Swings Back to Profit on Strong Water and Beer Sales](https://longbridge.com/en/news/281248016.md) - [Clean Max Fully Prepays ₹499-Crore Listed Debentures Ahead of Schedule](https://longbridge.com/en/news/281580900.md) - [A New York vintner raids U.S. wine cellars to skirt Trump's tariffs](https://longbridge.com/en/news/281342921.md) - [DBS Sticks to Its Buy Rating for MINISO Group Holding Ltd. (9896)](https://longbridge.com/en/news/281274168.md)