Dive Brief:

• Tazo has teamed with Issa Rae to launch The Tazo Cafe Collective, which celebrates the role of independent cafes, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
• Interested cafes can apply to join at a microsite beginning Sept. 28 and participating cafes will receive financial and marketing support from Tazo.
• As part of the effort, Tazo will showcase cafes' recipes featuring the brand's iced tea and latte mixes on its social channels and throughout the collective's cafes.

Dive Insight:

For its latest marketing effort, Tazo has paired with Issa Rae, an award-winning actor and producer ("Insecure") who in 2019 added cafe co-owner to her resume when she helped L.A.'s Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen expand to Downtown Inglewood. Rae features in a 60-second video around the effort.

Hilltop is the founding member of The Tazo Cafe Collective, which looks to inspire people to support local, independent cafes in their communities. In the video, Rae highlights these cafes as the places where people get their creative juices flowing. The spot features Tazo products that are available not just at cafes, but in grocer and retail stores as well.

Cafes that join the collective will receive financial and marketing support from Tazo, and their seasonal recipes featuring Tazo products will be featured on the brand's social media channels. Tazo, which has been owned by large corporate marketers like Starbucks until 2017 and Unilever more recently, appears to be trying to hitch its wagon to independent cafes as a point of differentiation in a competitive space. 

Tazo has long utilized celebrities in its marketing efforts, from a 2018 camp experience with drag star Alyssa Edwards to several experiential efforts with hip-hop legend RZA. For her part, Issa Rae has collaborated with PepsiCo's Lifewtr and in June added a marketing shop, Fête, to her Hoorae Media business.