Being new to the market, Yayaya American Yaupon needed to make a splash to set itself apart in a market that is saturated with high energy elixirs. We set out to highlight what makes Yayaya different. Native to North America? Check. Sustainably harvested and regeneratively grown? Check and check. Yayaya also contains theobromine – the “feel good” stuff found in chocolate. Double check! That doesn’t sound like any energy boosting tea we’d heard of and for us, that made it perfect.

There has been very little innovation in the tea space and consumers are bored. The saturated tea shelves all blur together. There are way too many shades of tan tea boxes. While consumers are becoming more and more interested in functional beverages, the tea space is leaving them with nothing to get excited about. It’s no wonder the plant-based energy category was experiencing growth.

We wanted to stir things up in the tea space, so we worked to develop an exciting name with an energetic vibe to tie into the mood-boosting benefits of theobromine. The name became the center-point of the design. Repetition is a way to visually communicate a message and we felt that YAYAYA had an energy that helped it jump right off the shelf. In a split second consumers understand function, without feeling the need to compare claims.