Fueling Wellness with Millennia TEA


Research Area: Small Business Support | Status:  Completed | Led By: Student-led

The Challenge

Millennia TEA PhotoMillennia TEA is the creator of a new category of tea: Fresh-leaf. The company’s mission is to fuel wellness with the freshest and most antioxidant-rich tea anywhere. Founded in 2016, the New Brunswick-based business has quickly grown through e-commerce and retail and can now be found in supermarkets across Canada. Millennia TEA came to NBCC looking for marketing support to help reach new customer segments to continue their growth trajectory.

The Solution

Students in NBCC’s Business Administration: Marketing program got to work helping flesh out traditional and new media strategies to support Millennia TEA’s marketing efforts.

To explore new marketing techniques, students helped Millennia TEA increase its reach among younger customer groups. To do this, they created a content marketing strategy centred around TikTok. The students helped grow the company’s account by creating 14 videos featuring product recipes, educational resources and trending content.

Students also launched a traditional marketing campaign to raise awareness of Millennia TEA in Woodbridge, Ontario, where the product recently became available in a local supermarket. Students created postcards, in-store posters and online geo-targeted Facebook ads targeting golfers in the area. The messaging encouraged them to visit a website to learn more about the tea and where they can buy it. The campaign generated results: sales soon rose measurably at the local store. The company can now repurpose this student-designed model for brand exposure as they enter new regional markets.

About the Collaboration

NBCC is Millennia TEA’s first stop to find applied research support. The hands-on experiences students receive through their programs prepare them to tackle challenges in the business world with ease. Beyond these projects, they have hired multiple NBCC students and graduates and look forward to working with the college for years to come.

NBCC received funding support from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), which enabled Millennia TEA to access research and innovation support from NBCC related to this project.

As an early-stage company, we feel super fortunate to get to work with the creative and driven minds in NBCC’s Business Administration: Marketing program. We are creating something brand new in a very saturated industry, so collaboration, fresh ideas and students’ perspectives bring a great deal of added value. We look forward to working with this program in the future!

Tracy Bell, CEO of Millennia TEA


Project Partners/Funders

Partner

Millennia Tea
 

About Applied Research and Innovation
NBCC’s Applied Research and Innovation office helps businesses and communities find solutions to their challenges. Through its expertise, equipment, and facilities, NBCC helps its partners to solve problems, take advantage of market opportunities, and develop new, innovative processes that will enhance how New Brunswickers live, work and do business.