If you’re trying to stand out in a crowded market, studying how top brands market to an audience that aligns with yours is a great way to understand what works and can help you conceptualize unexpected, high-impact ideas for your own brand.
Blank Street, the US-founded coffee and matcha company, has mastered a marketing strategy that reaches a trend-driven, Gen Z audience, with a slice of “cool corporate” millennial in the mix too.
If this audience demographic aligns with yours, you can take inspiration from what Blank Street is getting right.
Founded in 2020, Blank Street is still in its infancy, but the impact it has had in this short time is through the roof. There are over 70 Blank Street stores across the US and UK, with new locations opening regularly to meet the demand.
Coffee was the brand's initial hero product, but over time, when you think of Blank Street, it’s matcha that comes to mind, emphasized by the matcha green branding.
Thanks to its Instagrammable beverages, a Blank Street matcha has become the must-have “cool girl” accessory, and with that in mind, Blank Street has expanded its offering beyond drinks and now has a fully fledged merch store with items including candles, playing cards, matcha colored nail polish, and on-brand clothing.
The brand uses Instagram and TikTok to showcase product launches, in-person activations, and to repost their customers' best Blank Street snaps. Wearing an outfit that matches your matcha? That’s the Blank Street aesthetic.
To engage the Blank Street community, the brand has become known for its smart in-person activations that spark excitement amongst its most loyal customers and provoke intrigue amongst those who aren’t yet acquainted with the brand.
Blank Street’s most recent activation was its Picnic Pop Up in London. Stationed at the Charlotte Street store between 3rd and 9th April, the first 100 customers on each day could “Press for Picnic” to receive a complimentary picnic kit to enjoy in the sun, including iced beverages and cookies. A handful of lucky customers also received a bunch of flowers and a picnic blanket.
The activation saw queues down the street for days, confirming the excitement surrounding the activation and how well it was tailored to the target audience.
As well as rewarding customers, the activation was the perfect UGC opportunity. When you search Blank Street Picnic on TikTok, you’re greeted with hundreds of videos from customers and creators sharing their experiences at the pop-up.
This meant that the brand achieved social media coverage beyond its own investment by turning customers into promoters.
Blank Street’s audience is Gen Z and younger millennials with a wellness vibe, a Pinterest-perfect aesthetic, and an “I’ve got three meetings and a hot yoga class” energy. Think cool girls in yoga pants, and slicked-back buns, switching between Slack and TikTok as they sip their matcha. Blank Street’s products and approach to marketing speak to this demographic.
The seasonal flavors align with the trends its audience is obsessed with. The Dubai chocolate matcha – exclusive to US stores – is proof, inspired by the Middle Eastern dessert knafeh that’s all over the FYP, and often hard to get hold of. Blank Street has given the TikTok-famous flavor a caffeinated twist, enabling its audience to be a part of the hype.
For spring matcha season, the brand leaned hard into Y2K nostalgia: flip phones, Polly Pocket palettes, and lots of pink. The launch video on TikTok for the Strawberry Shortcake flavored matcha saw comments like “your marketing team needs a raise”, proving that the brand did the perfect job at appealing to its target audience.
Blank Street has found the balance between celebrity-fronted campaigns and working with local influencers to integrate the brand into specific neighborhoods to deepen its community appeal.
This week, Blank Street invited creators to visit and post content about the launch of its largest location in the Boston metropolitan area in Brookline. Creators local to the Brookline area speak to their engaged, local audience about the opening that is specific to that town. This is a clever move, as the launch isn’t relevant to a global audience. Instead, this hyper-targeted approach ensures their message is reaching the desired audience.
Local fans and UGC creators also complement Blank Streets' celebrity partnerships. Last year, pop icon Sabrina Carpenter stopped by Blank Street Coffee in London for an exclusive collaboration event where she served fans their coffee. This collaboration made perfect sense following the popularity of Sabrina’s song “Espresso”.
For winter 2024, Blank Street embarked on an influencer product collaboration with Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe, aka Mel’s Wardrobe. Mel has a cult following of over half a million across her social channels, and as rapper Stormzy’s stylist, she is well respected for her cool fashion, lifestyle, and recommendations.
Mel spoke organically about her love for Blank Streets iced matcha on her social channels before the partnership, and when her drink with the brand launched, they leaned into the hashtag #MMMDI (Mel Made Me Do It) to push the collaboration far and wide. The hashtag was printed on the side of the cups the drink was served, creating the ideal opportunity for consumers to share the drink on socials.
During the time of the exclusive collaboration, Mel hosted meet-and-greets at Blank Street stores, Stormzy stepped away from his strict athletic diet to support his best friend, and stores were selling out of the drink. This collaboration proves the success of influencer partnerships beyond digital.
This collaboration brought a “cooler” edge to the Blank Street brands by creating a buzz amongst audiences interested in bold fashion and music, expanding the brand’s reach beyond the “matcha pilates princess”.
If you want to learn more about shaping a marketing strategy that truly speaks to your target audience, reach out to us at hello@digitalvoices.com.
